Part 32 (1/2)

Of one thing Bliss was certain: thiswhatever this waswas part of Zilin's plan. He knew of his death, had wanted her with him at that moment. Hadn't he trained her for it? Hadn't he brought her to da-hei times before? In preparation. She was sure of that now. In preparation.

For what?

”is, as you can see, of exceptional quality.” Heard her father, close now, speaking in hushed tones. ”Great red fire, a superb example.”

”Australian, isn't it?” Danny, number three son.

It was very late, four in the morning, almost.

”I want you to find out where this was bought.”

Bliss at the cabin door, fingertips pressed against the wood, picking up the vibrations of conversation. Still half immersed in da-hei, aware that her place was inside the cabin rather than in the corridor.

”Father?”

Three Oaths looking up, Danny's round face, so similar to that of his father's, swinging around.

”Bou-sehk. Are you all right?” A constant query these days, the look of concern on his face an agony inside her. But how to explain to him what was taking place inside her when she herself was unsure?

”Yes,” she said. ”I'm fine. I was dreaming of a great jewel, a fire opal filled with crimson flame.” Glancing down and seeing in the center of the table the object of her dream, the opal, the very one. And before either of the men could say or do a thing, she reached between them and scooped up the stone.

”Bou-sehk”

”Father, a thousand pardons for interrupting you but it seems that I have seen this opal before.” With an effort, she lifted her gaze from its heavy fire. ”I overheard you asking Danny to find out where this was bought. Is it important?”

For a moment, Three Oaths considered lying to her for her own good. He was worried about her but felt unable to come to a decision as to how to help her. Now, seeing the look in her eyes he knew so well, he did the only thing he could: told her the truth.

”Jake gave it to me before he left for j.a.pan. He was followed by anoperative who delayed him from reaching the junk when he had planned to, the night Zilin was murdered.”

”Did Zilin know of his arrival?”

”I think so, yes.”

Bliss staring into the face of the opal, turning it over and over at the slender tips of her fingers. The fire broke apart and coalesced. In its aqueous glimmering she thought she could see the countenance of the Jian.

”Bou-sehk a ?”

”Father, I would like to”

”It is out of the question,” he snapped, afraid for her. ”It is for Danny to do. He”

”Would you keep me here like a prisoner?”

”What nonsense!” Three Oaths protested. ”You are free to go when and where you wish.”

”As long as my sister, Ling, accompanies me,” Bliss said. And when he made no reply. ”Like a patient, then.”

”I do not” He broke off, turned to his number three son. ”Danny, please leave us.”

The young man nodded and when the door had closed on his back, Three Oaths said, ”Bou-sehk, bou-sehk, what would you have me do? Send you into known danger when I am uncertain of your physical state?”

”The only danger,” she said angrily, ”is that I will die of inaction and worry over Jake. This is what you have consigned me to.”

Three Oaths shook his head. ”I do not think that you yourself are aware of what is wrong with you.”

”Nothing is wrong with me.” Roar of da-hei”5 inchoate power. ”But you are right, I am not the same as I was before a my G.o.dfather died,” She sat down on the chair that Danny had vacated, ran a hand through her hair. ”s.h.i.+ Zilin was my last link with my past. His mentor, the first Jian, was my great-grandfather. It was to s.h.i.+ Zilin that my mother came in her time of greatest need. Without him I might never have been born. Certainly I never would have come to Hong Kong, never had you as my father.

”Yes, I am different and I don't deny it. There is a Void where before there was energy, a connection. I accept his death, Father. Buddha willed it. Joss. But I cannot be unaffected. I am not the same and I cannot pretend that I am.”

”No one is asking you to be,” he said softly.

”Well, then.”

Three Oaths contemplated this young woman whom he had raised and wondered at the boundlessness of his love for her. ”I will not sacrifice you to the service of the yuhn-hyun.”

”It has already been done,” she said. ”You made that decision long ago, Father. You have trained me. Now please allow me to do what I was molded for.”

I regret ”Too late for regrets, Father.”

And Three Oaths knew the wisdom of her words. Thus he capitulated and gave her all the information Jake had pa.s.sed on to him regarding the fire opal.

When he was done, Bliss smiled and, leaning over, kissed him on the cheek. At the same time, she closed her fingers over the stone.

Jake heard voices. The dead were shouting in his ear. Their bones rattled, setting his teeth on edge; their naked jaws clashed together with an alligator's snap; their bony fingers pointed, clicking like insects' mandibles.

Their message seemed important, which was why, he supposed, they continued to shout. Jake said nothing; their tirade persisted unabated.

He wondered what it was that could be so d.a.m.ned vital. The cacophony was beginning to annoy him. If he was dead, nothing was that urgent. If he was not dead a Blackness mutated into charcoal, a whiff of grit blown into his face. He began to choke on the smoke as the gray began to swirl, coalescing light.

Blood and skin, flecks of flesh made bright by the quick gush of crimson the result of the Bison's invasion of Mikio's house. The percussion a Opened his eyes.

a throwing Mikio's body into him, ribbons of skin in gaudy, gauzy patterns with the kimono, the great three-lobed wheel kamon, the Komoto crest, bursting apart. The percussion a Opened his eyes and saw that he was lying in a room made all of polished cedar.

a mangling Mikio's body, tangled up in his, the heat already forming, a sheet of screaming fire, and in the end, just before consciousness was extinguished, the horrendous sight of what was left ofMikio's face, only blood and b.l.o.o.d.y bone, pink and s.h.i.+ny, a grinning death mask.

Saw a line of shoji, partly openthe green of trees beyond?and on the other side of the room a closed fusuma, a wooden door with an opaque center panel of brocaded silk. As he watched, it slid silently open on its track. Heard a bird begin trillingfrom the trees outside? he could be sure of nothing, senses still filled to overflowing with the percussion, the weight of Mikio hard against him, a human body coming apart beneath the strain of forces too great to bear.

Mikio, my friend!

A corridor of shadows opening up in front of him and Jake squinted as a figure entered the room. On silent, tabi'd feet it approached and bent over him.

Jake looked up, willing the ghosts of cordite and smoke away, the white noise of the percussion from his burning ears, up into the face that he knew so well.

”Mikio-san!”

The first thing Andrew Sawyer thought of when it began was: I've got to find the Zhuan.

Then, knowing that was impossible since he had no idea where the Zhuan was, he grabbed the phone in his cubicle and dialed Three Oaths' number. Far below him, the floor of the Hang Seng, Hong Kong's stock market, was a maze of activity. Like a pit of writhing snakes, the motion was nonstop and frenetic.

Sawyer reached inside his suit jacket, peeled his expensive silk s.h.i.+rt from his clammy skin. It was stained, soaked through with sweat. d.a.m.n, it, he thought anxiously as the phone rang at the other end of the line, where the h.e.l.l are you?