Gunpowder Alchemy (12 page)

“Fire!” Yang ordered.

The boom of a cannon shot shook the deck. I staggered to my knees, hands pressed to my ears as I searched for cover. Rather than answer with cannons, the falcon released more of its incendiary orbs, splitting the efforts of the crew between controlling the flames and manning the cannons.

I ducked behind the main mast, realizing a moment later that my strategy wasn't sound. The falcon began attacking the sails with its firebombs. The engine remained silent beneath us. Engineer Liu hadn't gotten his “beast” fully functioning yet.

The next time Yang's ship fired its cannons, there was an answering volley from the approaching boat that shook the deck. The air filled with the tang of sulfur and the sound of splintering wood.

What if they destroyed each other? What if each ship dragged its crew down into the black waters?

Through the rush and roar of the battle, I heard my name.

“Soling!” The cry came again, louder this time.

The imperial ship now loomed large before us. I thought I saw a figure wave at me from the opposite deck.

“Get on,” Chang-wei shouted.

The falcon glider swooped low across the deck right before me, clearing a path through the swarm of crewmen. As the men leapt away, the glider arched up into the air, sailing high before diving back down toward the deck.

“Get on,” he said again. Chang-wei was asking me to do the impossible.

I glanced back at Yang, then traced the path of the falcon's flight over the water. Yang and Chang-wei were both keeping secrets from me, but when I considered the emaciated prisoners with their mouths stained black, I started running as fast as I could.

I heard my name once again right before I intercepted the glider. It was Yang this time. I should have kept my focus upon the glider and my one chance at escape, but something in his tone made me pause.

There was no threat there. No anger. It was merely an entreaty and . . . something more.

I turned to see the mystery box held out in Yang's palm. The steel surface gleamed in the sunlight. With a heft of his wrist, the cube was sailing through the air at me.

My arms closed around it out of reflex. I pulled the box protectively to my chest and felt the hard steel edge against my breastbone.

A moment later the falcon flew in front of me. I reached out and hooked my arm onto the rattan frame, pulling my feet into the carriage beneath the wings. In the next breath, I was flying.

The air rushed out of me and I clung to the frame as tight as I could. The skeleton formed a cage around me, and the flutter of the silken wing and tail feathers drowned out all sound. I could feel the rush of air over my face, and my heart thundered inside my chest. Louder than the cannons below.

I was in the air, inside a contraption that I knew was nothing more than a collection of silk and sticks. Yet weren't bones and feathers just as humble of materials? I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut in fear, but I also wanted to throw them open as wide as I could and stare at the two battling ships below, the tiny crewmen aboard them. The endless water all around. I was flying.

Gradually, the glider was being reeled in. As the imperial ship became larger and larger below me, I noticed that the cannon fire had stopped on both sides.

Chang-wei was there waiting for me as the falcon lowered to the deck. He held the control apparatus in his hands. It looked like a skein of cords wrapped around a sunburst of wooden knobs.

Several of the crewmen came forward and reached up with long poles to hook onto the frame to pull it the final distance. Chang-wei handed the controls aside as I lowered my feet to the deck.

“Are you all right?” he asked, reaching out to steady me as I untangled myself from the glider. My knees buckled when I tried to stand on my own and Chang-wei held on to me to keep me from falling.

“I thought we'd lost you.” Chang-wei's hands lingered on my waist as he spoke.

When our gazes met, his expression was full of concern. Then something flickered in his eyes, and he quickly let go of me as if remembering we weren't alone.

“It is good to see you're safe.”

His tone had become formal, and he took a step back for good measure.

“Shall we commence fire?” one of the navy men asked.

There was no chance to reply. I looked across the water to Yang's war junk and watched as some sort of netting was released from just beneath the ridge of the bow. White powder rained into the sea, which immediately began to churn and froth around the ship.

Yang tipped two fingers toward us in a brief salute before the entire ship and the surrounding waters became enshrouded in a thick, smoky mist. With a roar, the engine started up and the scent of gunpowder filled the air.

Old Liu had done his part, and the junk sped off, the whir of the engine fading away behind the curtain of fog.

“We can track them down again,” suggested a man who appeared to be the dragon boat captain.

I glanced down at the mystery box, still hugged against my chest. Chang-wei watched silently as I found the trigger and set the gears spinning. The panels of the box folded open to reveal a square of folded paper inside, covered on both sides with neatly written notes and formulas. I couldn't decipher the script, but Chang-wei seemed to comprehend.

“There's no need to pursue them,” he replied, turning the sheet of paper over. “We found what we were looking for.”

The captain's quarters on the imperial dragon boat were luxurious compared to the cabin on Yang's vessel. Chang-wei brought me there so the two of us could speak privately, and I took a seat in one of the rosewood chairs. I still had my puzzle box in my hands with Yang's gunpowder formula tucked safely inside. Chang-wei had returned them to me after a brief inspection. Despite how eager the crown prince and his cohort were to seize the secrets, Chang-wei hadn't seized possession of the papers.

A servant brought tea. Awkwardly, I set the box in my lap as I took the cup. Chang-wei seated himself beside me, resting his hand over his knees. He still wore the state robes designating him as an imperial official just as the rest of the crew were in military uniform.

“Are you well?” he asked as if this were merely a social visit in my family's parlor.

“I wasn't harmed.”

“Inspector Aguda promised me his men could track you through any part of the city. When they reported they'd lost you, I was—” His voice rose fiercely, and he made an effort to bring it under control. “I was furious.”

It was hard to imagine Chang-wei losing his temper. He carried himself with so much control. Every action and word was well thought out. Perhaps that was why he was able to retain a position with the imperial government while Yang, with his brash attitude, had no choice but to flee.

Chang-wei drank his tea now while I did the same. He appeared deep in thought.

“So that is what Yang looks like now,” he said after a while.

“Yang claims he's rejected any allegiance to the empire—but he did give me his formulas,” I added hastily when I saw Chang-wei raise his eyebrows.

I hadn't meant to mark Yang as a traitor. It was difficult to tell where Chang-wei's loyalties lay, but I couldn't forget that he wore an imperial insignia.

“Yang Hanzhu gifted his work to you, not to the Emperor,” he replied. “This was what we had set out to achieve, but I confess I had hoped for more.”

“More?”

“We could have used Yang's knowledge and skill. He's a brilliant scientist, but it's clear to me that he has no desire to reconcile with the imperial court.”

Brilliant scientist
. I shuddered to think of what experiments Yang had engaged in. The subjects kept in cages, dosed with opium until their minds were lost.

“Yang did mention you briefly,” I ventured.

“I'm certain he did not have favorable things to say.” He set his tea aside, agitated.

“He told me not to trust you.”

I watched Chang-wei carefully as we spoke. After my final discovery on Yang's ship, I had to look at everyone with new eyes.

He appeared wounded. “Soling, everything I've told you has been the truth. Even when Inspector Aguda wanted to keep information from you, I gave you the truth. You do believe that, don't you?”

He regarded me so intently that I felt my face heating. It was hard to decipher my feelings about Chang-wei. I had never known him beyond a name, yet we still shared so much of our past lives.

“I didn't realize there was ill will between you and Yang,” I said, deflecting.

His tone became curt. “We've never gotten along.”

“Why not?”

“Yang doesn't make himself easy to work with. He can be stubborn, disagreeable. His ideas are for his own glory, where we at the Ministry of Science should be working for the glory of our empire.”

“You were right then, that Yang would only give up his secrets for personal reasons.”

I still didn't understand what made him decide to relinquish the formula, but Yang was unpredictable. It gave me hope that he wasn't completely lost, but we'd never know now. He'd escaped once more to the seas.

Chang-wei looked to the box. “If I may have a closer look?”

He held out his hand, but I held on to the box and its contents. “After this, the crown prince will have no further use for me?”

“I don't suppose he would. You've done everything he's asked.”

“I can go then, without any further requirements.”

Given that I was on an imperial ship and at the mercy of the Emperor's men, a formula scribbled on a scrap of paper was a meager bargaining tool, but it was all I had.

“If that is what you wish. You've more than done your duty.”

“And you'll keep my brother from the factories? My family will be taken care of?”

I knew I was asking for too much. The crown prince had commanded me to take on this task. It was my duty. I had no right to demand a reward for accomplishing it.

“I told you I would help you if I could,” he replied stiffly.

This time I did hand the steel container over. Chang-wei wasted no time in opening it to retrieve the contents. He unfolded the paper and held it up to the light. I could see from the ragged edge of it that Yang had torn it directly from his journal.

“Is that what you needed?” I asked when the silence became uncomfortable.

“We won't know until we test it,” Chang-wei concluded. He folded the paper back up and carefully tucked it into his sleeve. “But this is promising. I have to get this to the Ministry laboratories in Peking.”

And after that, the formula would travel to the towering factories churning with black smoke, where conscripted laborers would slave away producing the raw materials for the Emperor's war.

It really wasn't my concern. It was the sovereign's duty to wage war against the invaders. It was my duty to make sure my family was cared for.

“Mister Chen,” I began.

“There's no need to be so formal—”

“It appears you have command of this ship.”

“At the present time. The crown prince has granted me temporary authority.”

I fixed my gaze firmly onto him, emboldened by the daring of my recent escape. I would no longer be kicked back and forth between two players like a feathered
jianzi
.

“Let me use this opportunity to congratulate you on your respected position as well as the promotion that this formula will likely earn you. Now, if you could tell me, Mister Chen, how fast can you get me home?”

***

I expected Chang-wei to make up some excuse or argue, as Yang had, that I needed to be protected. Instead he retrieved a scroll from the cabinet and unrolled it over the captain's desk.

“This is Canton,” he pointed out. “This is approximately where we are.”

I was surprised at how far the storm had swept us from the mainland.

“We'll sail to Shanghai,” Chang-wei explained. “From there, I can transport the formula to the capital in two days' time. We can also arrange to have you escorted back to your village.”

He didn't apologize for the fact that getting the formula back to Peking was his primary objective. Given that he'd promised finally to send me home, I didn't challenge him on it, even though there were many ports on the map that appeared closer to Linhua. I also didn't ask him whether we would part ways in Shanghai.

“Is this plan acceptable to you?” he asked me quietly.

Were we wondering the same thing? Is this how we were meant to end? We'd finally come face-to-face again to just say farewell once more.

Chang-wei and I were still essentially strangers, and it was impossible for me to read his mood.

“It's acceptable,” I replied and that was all we said of it.

The voyage aboard the imperial dragon boat was admittedly more comfortable than my passage on Yang's ship. The vessel was more spacious, and I was given a private cabin that I kept to most of the time save for a daily outing above deck for fresh air.

A few days later, I was on deck watching the pattern of sunlight on the water when a shade moved over me. I knew it was Chang-wei even before he spoke.

“The sun can be harsh out on the open water,” he said, handing me a parasol.

I looked up as my fingers closed around the handle. The handle was fashioned from a thin reed of bamboo, and the canopy had a peculiar pattern. It took me only a moment to place it.

“Your falcon glider!”

“He was no longer of any service in his original form.”

“So you re-created him.”

I was delighted to see how the rattan frame had been worked into the spines of the parasol, the panels recut and shaped to fit. The feathered pattern was still visible upon the silk, and I could see the outline of both eyes. Those had been repainted to look like the sun and the moon.

“But what if you had need of him again?” I protested.

“Then I'll make a new one, as the situation dictates.”

His resourcefulness made me smile, but I kept my gaze focused out on the water.

“You know we no longer have servants to shield the sun at every step,” I told him.

In Peking, my family had traveled in sedan chairs, hefted onto the shoulders of carriers. A fine lady such as my mother, the wife of a high-ranking official, would shudder to find her pale skin baked dark like a common peasant. But I was no stranger to the sun on my back. My feet were toughened with callouses, my hands similarly rough.

“I can't imagine what has happened to your family without feeling great sorrow,” he admitted.

I sensed he was preparing for something more. Chang-wei always became painfully formal when something bothered him.

“You must be wondering how it was that I came to be where I am,” he continued. “When so many others were stripped of their titles or branded as traitors after Wusong fell.”

“Like Yang Hanzhu and Old Liu Yentai?” I asked, finally turning to him.

A frown creased his brow. “Old Liu?”

“Engineer Liu is traveling aboard Yang's ship as part of his crew. He mentioned your name.”

“Liu was my superior,” Chang-wei remarked with a hint of fondness. “A traditionalist from the older generation.”

“He seems to think engineering is a combination of tinkering and feng shui.”

Chang-wei chuckled. “There has always been a degree of mysticism and superstition within the Ministry of Science.”

“And you're a nontraditionalist?”

I'd meant to tease him, but he grew quiet. I twisted the parasol in my hands, trying to find some way to recover the conversation. It was Chang-wei who spoke first.

“I don't want you to think I've benefited from turning my back on your father's memory. Or by exploiting the intimate knowledge I had of the members of the Ministry.”

“There is no need to apologize—”

I wanted to tell him that the past was the past. That I was no one to judge him, but Chang-wei went on.

“I don't enjoy as much influence with the crown prince as it might seem, Soling. He trusts me, but only to a limited extent. I do what I can to keep your father's old acquaintances protected. Inspector Aguda wanted to come along on this voyage to hunt down Yang, but I was able to persuade the crown prince to only send me.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because Yang told you not to trust me and I feel the need to defend myself,” he said, scowling.

With a deep breath, Chang-wei settled his hands onto the ledge. He appeared so torn that my heart opened a crack for him. Though he had claimed to have been honest with me, I knew there was still too much I didn't know about him.

“Yang is a very dangerous man,” he began. “Because of what he knows. If he were to sell his secrets to the
Yangguizi
, our efforts to build a resistance would be crippled.”

“But Yang wouldn't,” I assured. “He hates the foreigners.”

I didn't mention that he'd confessed to hating the Emperor just as much.

“Yang docks at foreign ports. He sails among their ships, trades with them. The Ministry of Defense has considered having him arrested for that alone. I petitioned the crown prince to reconsider that and so many other charges, but it's a difficult position for me to argue.”

He paused, his hands tightening on the wood. “Yang and I saw each other once after your father was gone,” he admitted finally.

I frowned. What could that matter?

“I knew Yang Hanzhu could be found among the foreigners,” Chang-wei confessed. “Because I spent some time among them as well. For that reason alone, our countrymen will never fully trust me.”

When he straightened, the look he gave me was as serious as I'd ever seen him. “Shanghai has the largest international settlement in the empire. It's said that there are two cities: one that belongs to us and one that belongs to the
Yangguizi
. Whatever you may see or hear there . . . please remember I have the best interests of our kingdom in mind.”

I nodded, not quite knowing what I was agreeing to. He left me then, and when I turned back to the waves, I could just make out the dark outline of the shore in the distance. As grateful as I was to be returning to dry land, our conversation left me wondering whether I had made the right choice fleeing back into the Emperor's grasp.