Chung Kuo - The Marriage Of The Living Dark Part 19

"We don't mean to harm you, Li Yuan," she said. "You'll understand in time."

"Then why ...?"

She placed a finger to his lips. "No questions." Then, with a gentleness neither of the guards had shown, she bound his hands once more, careful not to pull the ropes too tight "Later," she said as she picked up the tray and stood. "After Nineveh." And then she was gone. Li Yuan stared after her a moment. Then, noting how the younger guard was scowling at him, he looked down, wondering.

That night they moved him. Four men - one of them masked, as if to hide his ident.i.ty - came just before nightfall and, placing Li Yuan in a cart, bound his feet and tightened the bindings on his hands. Then, as the night before, there was a journey across the cooling desert, under a moonless sky that, to Li Yuan, lying on his back in the jolting cart, seemed dusted with a million bright stars.

He thought at first they were taking him to Nineveh -wherever that was - but from the few things he overheard, he quickly understood that things had changed. He was to go to Isis, after all.

There "He" would come and speak with him.

Li Yuan was tired and the motion of the cart lulled him; even so, he could not sleep. There were too many questions left unanswered. Who were these people and what did they want with him? Were they rebels, or fanatics, or what? Certainly they had a seriousness to them - a sense of purpose - that he'd not witnessed among the Americans of the fortress cities. And certainly he had some part to play in their plans, or else why take him? Why keep him and transport him from place to place, unless ...? Unless what?

Always and ever he ran up against a point at which he knew nothing. And that was by far the worst of it To be utterly in the hands of someone else. To have no say in where you went, or what you did, or what, ultimately, happened to you. Li Yuan closed his eyes, feeling the bare wooden boards behind his head, and wondered how much further he could fall before the earth swallowed him up? Down into Ti Yu, the earth prison, where the Great Warder of h.e.l.l himself presided.

The thought of it almost - almost - made him smile. Did he believe any of that any more? Hadn't he seen enough of the world to know that h.e.l.l was not beneath the ground but up here on the surface? Or so Man could make it, just as Man could make a heaven for himself right here beneath the open sky.Man lived between the dark earth and the dark sky, in an illusion of light, and all his life was shadowplay. And in an instant - in less time than a bird takes to ruffle its feathers - it was over, and the darkness was all. So it was with illusions. Whereas reality ...

Reality was this - this feeling of absolute powerlessness before forces over which he had no control. And even emperors - even Tang - must bow to those forces ultimately. To the eternal processes of nature, and to the truth of entropy.

What did you do with your life, Li Yuan?

The voice seemed like his father's, but he knew his father would never have asked him such a question. His father had had little time for introversion. I guess I lost a world.

The cart b.u.mped on, over hard rock, climbing momentarily, then dipping down into a long valley.

The voice seemed surprised. Was it yours to lose, then?

He had to think about that.

It was given to me, by my father.

So it was his?

No. Not exactly. There were seven great Lords, you see, and between them ...

But the voice interrupted him, impatient with that answer.

Who gave it to your father's father's father?

Li Yuan frowned. No one gave it, exactly, he ...

Stole iff

Li Yuan's eyes flicked open. For a moment he had thought someone was there beside him on the cart, speaking to him. But the presence, like the voice, had been imaginary.

He dug his heels into the board and struggled up, wedging his back against the tailboard of the cart, then shook his head.

Voices. He was hearing voices now.

Tiredness, he told himself, conscious that the light had changed - that it was almost morning now. The voices are only a product of your tiredness, Li Yuan. Yet for a moment, just before the end, it had seemed as if someone was really questioning him - pushing him to justify all that he was, and all that he had once been.Thieves. Was that all that emperors were, when it came down to it? And was the Emperor merely the most successful of all thieves? Li Yuan shivered, then flexed his fingers, feeling the ropes pull tight, chafing his wrists again.

And so the thief was caught, finally, and brought to justice.

The cart b.u.mped on, jolting him, making him slip to the side and bang his head. Exhausted now, he lay there, staring up, up into the infinite night, and slowly the night came down into him.

And Li Yuan closed his eyes ... and slept Egan stood facing the full-length screen, his hands on his hips, barely able to contain himself.

"How the f.u.c.k could you have let them take him, Major? Have you no defences whatsoever?"

Major Lanier lowered his head. "It was not our fault, Master. Captain Zelic ..." "Was acting to make up for your deficiencies!" Egan quivered with anger. "If you had taken proper precautionary measures in the first place, he would not have had to have interceded!"

Lanier glowered at that, but Egan wasn't having any of it

"You'll scour the desert until you find him. And when you do - and it had better be alive and in one piece - you'll bring him directly here, to Boston." "Master."

"Now is there any other bad news you have to relate to me, or are you finished for today?"

Lanier licked at his lips, then shook his head.

"Then get to it, man, at once!"

Egan cut the connection and turned. Li Kuei Jen was standing nearby, staring at him, his face filled with concern.

"Who could it be? Who would take my father?"

Egan came across and held his wife's arms. "Don't worry, Jenny. We'll find him. And when we do, we'll punish those who've taken him.""Unless they kill my father first" "Don't talk like that Don't give up. We'll find him and we'll bring him back here, and then all will be well."

Li Kuei Jen looked up, meeting his husband's eyes. That was the thing about Mark Egan. In essence, he was a child, with a child's responses to the world. Oh, not a callous or whimsical child, yet still a child. His enthusiasms were as a child's enthusiasms and he hoped and dreamed - and was disappointed - as a child was.

"Come now," Egan said, smiling at him, "our friends await us." The banquet was in full swing. Anyone of importance in Boston's elite was there, to celebrate their victory.

Egan paused in the huge doorway at the top of the stairs, waiting while total silence fell at the tables in the great hall below. Then he proceeded down, Li Kuei Jen on his arm. As everyone in the hall stood, Han Ch'in, who had thus far deputised for Egan, hurried across from the top table to greet them at the foot of the steps.

Han Ch'in bowed low. "Welcome home to Boston, Master," he said, loud enough for all in the hall to hear. "May I be the first to congratulate you on a historic victory."

It was over the top, yet it was dearly working. All about the hall faces were beaming now, as if a victory really had been won. Eyes glowed with excitement. All there wanted to be a.s.sociated with this great success. "Peace has been won," Egan said, smiling as he looked about him. "Now we must work to subdue the barbarians of the south."

A great cheer went up at that, but Egan raised his hands, begging for their silence once again. As he did, one of the stewards came across with a tray of drinks. Egan took two, handing them to Kuei Jen and Han Ch'in, then took one himself. He raised it "But first let us celebrate this great triumph. Let us drink a toast to our armies in the west And to victory!"

The roar was deafening, as a thousand gla.s.ses were raised. 'To victory!"Egan drained his gla.s.s then turned and, whispering into Kuei Jen's ear, said: "I think you're right, Jenny. I think we might ride the tiger yet!"

Isis was a place between rocks. A natural circle of rocks that hid a bowl of dark water some half a li across. And beyond that, a village was cut into the rock itself, ledge after ledge of it, climbing the rock face. It was morning, and the slopes above the village were in sunlight, but where Li Yuan sat in the cart it was still in shadow. He shivered, cold for the first time since he'd been taken, and looked across.

The men who had brought him were talking with other men; arguing, it seemed. Then, suddenly, it was resolved, and one he had not met before came across and, standing at the tail of the cart, stared at him as if to say, 'So this is what a T'ang looks like, is it?'

Li Yuan stared back at him. "Who are you?" he demanded. But the man did not feel obliged to answer him. He turned away, walking back to those who had brought Li Yuan and making a dismissive gesture. There was momentary laughter.

People were watching now, from the ledges and from windows. If he could, he would have stood, defying them, but it was hard to be defiant when one's hands and feet were tied and one could not even move without falling over.

He dosed his eyes, deciding he would wait, as the sages waited, with a patience born of inner strength. Yet after a moment he found he had to look again. Someone was standing nearby, whistling a tune. Li Yuan laughed softly, then tried to turn his head to see who it was, for he knew that tune.

It was "The Moon on High:'

Soft footsteps approached. The whistling stopped. "Are you ready for me now, Li Yuan?"He knew that voice. Knew it, but could not pin down whose it was. The same voice that had been in his head on the journey here.

"Unbind me," he said quietly. "There's nowhere I can go, after all." A moment's silence, then, "Not yet. The place must be prepared. Then we shall meet... and talk."

"Who...?"

But the owner of the voice was no longer there.

The feast was going well. Very well. Indeed, from the air of celebration, no one would have guessed that at that very moment, on the far side of the continent, half of their once-proud army was in chains, being marched across the great desert that lay west of the Black Hills, towards Eugene, a thousand kilometres distant Four million men, of whom barely a third would reach their destination. Egan, whose mind could think of nothing else, looked up, a pained expression in his eyes. Kuei Jen had nudged him.

"I beg pardon, I was ..."

He saw who it was. The blunt, misshapen head could belong to no one else, nor that strange, disfigured torso.

"Colonel Chalker," he said. "You have news?"

Chalker raised his head, his cobalt blue eyes - the coldest eyes of anything, man or lizard, Egan had ever seen - meeting Egan's own. "Horton's ours," he said quietly. "I took him an hour back I have him in the cells downstairs."

Egan stood, then sat again, his hands still gripping the arms of his chair. He wanted to go immediately; to tear from Horton what part he'd had in Li Yuan's abduction, but there was still the banquet to think of. For once the public face mattered more than anything else.

"Well done," he said, keeping his own voice low. "Keep him safe for me, Colonel.

And once things are finished here, Til come."

Chalker"s eyes widened slightly. "Shall I begin without you, Master?" Egan considered, then shook his head. "This once, no, Alan. I want to hear every word he utters, every last inflection in his voice." He paused, then. "We need to know who are our enemies, and who our friends."

Chalker came smartly to attention, then turned and went

Kuei Jen, at Egan's side, was quiet a moment, then leaned towards his husband.

"You called him Alan. Why? I've never known you use his name before." Egan smiled. Nothing escaped Kuei Jen. He leaned towards him, whispering into his ear. "If s something you said, Jenny. We need every friend we can get right now, and who better to have on our side than Chalker. G.o.ds, I'd hate to think of him in Horton's pay! But I knew he wanted to set about torturing our friend Horton at once, and as I'd have to disappoint him there, I thought I'd give him something."

"A name."

"Yes. Even the coldest fish likes to think he has friends." Kuei Jen nodded, then put his hand over Egan's. "You are wise, Mark. Now, make the announcement. And don't f.u.c.k it up. Bad news first, good news second. Knock them down, then stand them up again. Take away something big ..." "... and give back something small. I get the idea, Kuei Jen. Now quiet while your Lord and Master speaks."

Egan rose to his feet At once there was the clashing of a gong. Silence fell once more over the long rows of tables in the hall. All eyes were on the king. "Friends... citizens of the great state of America. Today we celebrate. Today we share in the joy of a great success. But the job is only haif done. We have other enemies, other great battles to fight And that is why I have decided to declare martial law ..."

There was a shocked gasp, then uproar, but Egan simply raised his voice - a microphone at his lapel switching in, channelling his voice to the speakers all about the hall, so that his voice suddenly boomed above the rest of the noise."However, I make a solemn promise. That this situation will exist only so long as it needs to exist, and not a day longer." "And how long is that?" called a voice from Egan's right. "A year. Maybe less. Until we have subdued the southern barbarians and made a lasting peace."

"And DeVore?"

Egan looked to Harding, who had spoken.

"Nothing has changed," Egan said. "We shall continue to contain DeVore."

"But the expense..."

Kuei Jen could see the flush at his husband's neck and knew he was inwardly furious that Harding should choose this public moment to question him about policy. But Egan kept his temper. He answered Harding calmly, keeping all irritation from his voice.

"We must bear the expense. Or see that b.a.s.t.a.r.d sitting on the throne of America.

Is that what you want, Chancellor?"

"No. But might we not come to some arrangement with the man?"

Egan smiled sourly. "One does not deal with DeVore. One fights or one rolls over like a whipped dog."

There was moment's silence, then Egan turned again, looking out over the main body of the hall, raising his arms.

"Friends, do not be afraid. I take these measures only for your good. To protect you. For you, as much as I, are the State. And you, I'm sure, once you've had time to reflect, will see how sensible this measure is in the light of what lies ahead."

Egan paused. "Great sacrifices must be made in the struggle to come. We will be stretched... stretched almost to breaking point, yet we shall prevail, if we stay strong. And that is why I ask for your support in this measure. For if you are behind me then we must prevail."