Part 36 (2/2)
And I thought, Huh. Well done you. Moving up in the world, I daresay. No more falling in love with the daughters when you can be heels over head with the mothers.
Even as I tried to deal with this revelation, Veruh was looking down at the Imperior, her face inscrutable. ”He once had potential, you know,” she said. She looked up at Mitsu. ”If you,” and then she glanced around the room at the a.s.sembled sisters, ”if any of you had known him in his younger days, when I knew him. So much potential. But his urge to retain power became a sick need within him.” ”Are you to eulogize him, my love, or help him?” I asked.
She turned her attention to me. ”And you. I understand that you endeavored to betray Mitsu. To betray all of us. Is there any reason that I should not have the sisters kill you where you stand?”
I looked around as they glowered at me. Then I drew myself up, fixing a steady gaze upon her. ”I did what I thought was best for her. I wanted better for Mitsu than this...” and I pointed around, ”this shadow existence.”
”And what would you know of it?”
”Because I've lived a shadow existence most of my life,” I said. ”I just carry mine within rather than without. And I wouldn't wish that upon anyone... much less Mitsu. You spoke of the potential the Imperior had. What of the potential of his daughter? Is this,” and once more I pointed around the room, ”is this a measure of her full potential?”
”Interesting,” said Veruh w.a.n.g Ho. ”I thought you would say that I should not kill you because you love me, and I love you, and our souls are intertwined--”
”Why would I waste your time with that which you already know. I could not...” I paused, tried to find the best way to phrase it. ”Veruh... I have utilized in my life every trick, every contrivance, every deception I know for the purpose of staying alive. I could not take what I feel for you... and what I hope you feel for me... and turn it into just another tool in my tool chest.”
Her gaze held mine steady for an eternity, and then she smiled. ”Well said.” She nodded toward the Imperior. ”Take him in the back,” she said to the sisters. ”I will attend to him. And then... we shall see what we shall see.”
The Anais Ninjas did as they were instructed, although some of them still fired annoyed glances in my direction. But I didn't care. At that moment, my soul was singing within my breast.
She had accepted what I had done. She was not angry. If anything, my actions had brought me closer to her than ever before. The notion filled me with so much joy that I thought my heart would literally explode from my chest with joy. Then I got a mental image of just what exactly that would look like, and that dampened my enthusiasm. But even so, my pa.s.sion for her was boundless, my certainty that we could be united forever growing with each pa.s.sing moment.
Except it all hinged upon what she was going to do now with the Imperior. She needed to do more than just save his life. She had to mend the broken fences between them. She had to...
s.h.i.+te.
She was going to have to get back together with him.
How could they mend fences, after all, if she was continuing to lead a crime family? How could they possibly be allies if they remained estranged as man and wife? For my true love to be able to do what had to be done, I would have to lose her to the man who had tried to have his soldiers kill me. Well, I supposed I didn't resent him all that much over the killing part. Too many people had tried to have me killed or tried to kill me themselves for me to single out one individual for the transgression.
But how could we have any sort of future together if she were to reunite with the Imperior? So... what was I to do now? Hope the Imperior died? If he did, Mordant would forever stay a transformed dragon, and very likely Veruh would remain as head of the Skang Kei family. With the death of the Imperior and no one apparently in line to inherit the throne--since Mitsu, as a ”mere woman,”
would not be allowed to rule--there would probably be a struggle for power that would leave many dead. Chaos would conceivably descend upon the whole of Chinpan.
But if the Imperior lived, and matters were sorted out between them, then I would lose my love.
It will all work out for the best. No matter what, it will all work out for the best, my inner voice a.s.sured me, even as frustration washed over me.
The next hours stretched on interminably. The silence did not help. All the Anais Ninjas simply stared at me, as if waiting to be told what to do. I thought I spotted the one I'd known earlier. She was looking me up and down, and I noticed that her hand seemed to be sliding into the top of her trousers, descending downward toward her privates.
I didn't need to see that. And I certainly didn't want to imagine what she was thinking about as she did it.
Even Mitsu said nothing. She simply sat there in what appeared to be a deeply meditative state.
Mordant had curled up next to her, and she was idly running her fingers along his scales. He would look up at her every so often with a gaze of pure adoration. Here I had treated him like a pet, or a talking oddity, and he was a human trapped in this form. Unaccountably I felt guilty. It wasn't as if I could have known. Still... I felt as if I should have figured it out somehow, with the same type of intuition that had enabled me to divine Veruh w.a.n.g Ho's true ident.i.ty.
Then others began to arrive.
Men, mostly. Men who seemed cut from rough cloth. Men who appeared to be, at the very least, criminal types. They arrived one by one until they numbered roughly a dozen.
Each of them, I saw, had a tattoo on the back of his hand: a snake, its tongue las.h.i.+ng out, curled around a pair of what appeared to be grasping scissors.
The Forked Tong. They had to be.
When they were a.s.sembled en ma.s.se, one of them stepped forward and said to Mitsu, ”Where is he?
Where is the Imperior? We know he is here.”
”The n.o.ble Ho is attending to him. Trying to save his life.”
”The n.o.ble Ho should let him die.” There were nods of agreement from the men.
Slowly Mitsu rose to her feet. Mordant, perched upon her shoulder, flared out his wings and conveyed a threatening air.
”You see before you the a.s.sembled might of the Anais Ninjas,” she said. ”Furthermore, the might of the Skang Kei family is in the next building, being held in reserve lest you attempt any... ugliness.” ”What are you saying?” demanded the spokesman.
”I am saying that if you desire to maintain our alliance, then you will do nothing until--”
At that moment, there came a noise from the doorway through which Veruh w.a.n.g Ho and the Imperior had pa.s.sed. A scuffle, a soft footfall. The attention of everyone in the room was drawn to it.
Slowly the Imperior moved forward into the light of the lamps. He looked around the room, his face dark as a thundercloud, his gaze malevolent.
”So. The n.o.ble Ho healed you.”
”Yes, daughter. I did not ask it, nor did I desire it. But it was done.” He appeared to be glaring at everyone all at once. His life had been saved, and it did not appear to have improved his disposition one bit. ”I am going to depart now. Unless one of you desires to get in the way of the anointed of the G.o.ds.”
”You,” said the leader of the Forked Tong, and he started forward.
The Imperior looked up at him and there was something in his eyes that froze the man where he stood. Nothing happened for a moment, and then the criminal backed away.
”Father, wait!” Mitsu said urgently, desperately. It hurt me to hear her speak in that manner, but she had tossed aside considerations of personal dignity. ”Wait... please. The n.o.ble Ho cured you. Saved your life. I ask a boon, in the name of honor. Restore him,” and she indicated Mordant, who was looking at the Imperior hopefully. ”Only you can do it. Please. In honor's name, you owe us...”
”What do you know of honor?” the Imperior grunted. He looked around. ”What do any of you know? Honor is all! Honor is above everything! It is even above petty considerations of personal gain!”
”And who determines all that?” I asked. ”Who sets the standard for honor? How does anyone know ...?”.
”It is determined here,” said the Imperior, and he touched his chest. ”That is all you need to know.”
”But that's not all you need to know,” I said, standing in his path.
”Mitsu is right. You owe her--”
”I owe her nothing. If not for her, I would never have been in danger. And I certainly owe that nothing.”
He pointed toward the doorway. Veruh w.a.n.g Ho was standing there, hands on either side, looking tired. Whatever she'd done to minister to his needs and cure him of his wounds, it had taken a good deal out of her. My feelings were so torn. Clearly she was not going to reunite with her husband, but still... the alternative was not going to be pleasant. But at least she would be mine, and we could be together.
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