The Dragon and the Pearl Part 20

'Empress, to your health.' She held the cup with outstretched arms and bowed her head low.

The Empress winced in discomfort. Her hand rubbed absently over the rounded swell of her stomach. The unborn child she carried was said to cause her turmoil quite often in the late hours of the night. The fortune tellers crooned that this meant she carried a restless baby boy who would be eager to challenge the world.

The Empress rubbed a hand over her throat and squeezed her eyes shut to fight off a wave of sickness. 'She doesn't have the sense of the lowliest of attendants,' she said in disgust.

'You must drink before the Empress,' the eunuch snapped.

A chill raced down her spine. The Empress glared at her impatiently. Yao nudged her in warning. The knife was out of sight, but she knew it was there, waiting for her.

The Empress's eunuch was highly regarded in the palace. If she tried to expose Yao, she would be the one they hanged. With stiff arms, she closed her eyes and lifted the cup to her mouth. The bitter brew slipped past her lips and she forced it down her throat.

The Empress held out her hand. 'Be gone from here.'

She stared at the Empress's belly as she handed the cup over. As soon as the Empress bent to drink, she couldn't hold back.

'Empress,' she choked out in alarm.

Even though the jealous Empress had been the worst of her antagonists, she had to try to warn her, as one woman to another.

But Yao grabbed her before she could speak. 'The Empress is tired. Leave her.' He made sure she could feel the tip of the knife through his sleeve before he shoved her towards the door.

Suyin ran. The poison swam black though her veins. She knelt in the damp moss of the garden and forced a finger down her throat until she coughed and retched into the dirt. Her heart raced with fear. Had the poison already crept too far into her? She had only taken a small swallow of it.

She had to go to someone about what she knew. As she dragged herself to her feet, she realised with a growing emptiness that there was no one. Yao had singled out the one girl who had no friends, no allies. He held enough influence in the palace to ensure her silence.

With a sick heart, she crawled back to her pallet and curled into a tight ball. Within the hour, sharp, needlepoint stabs racked her stomach. She was dying, dying alone and lost in the hidden compartments of the palace. Her ghost would never be able to find its way home.

Wicked nightmares descended on her. Yao chased after her with his knife. If the poison didn't kill her, he would. But death didn't take her, as she deserved. She emerged from her sickness to find the women's court in chaos.

The Empress's body had been found that morning on the floor of the Temple of Spirits. She had dragged herself there in the night, as if seeking protection in her last moments. The eunuch Yao was discovered hanging from the rafters of his bedchamber with a rope pulled tight around his neck.

Li Tao sat across from her. His hands were curved over his knees as he stared, unmoving. The dragon ring gleamed upon his second finger. He had been charged to destroy the emperor's enemies and show no mercy. That was how he had gained favour.

His gaze was calculating now, starved of pa.s.sion. Without any of the warmth she had come to know. She had earned a measure of trust on the journey to the capital, but it was spent now. She had lost him. Somehow, that made it easier to speak.

'Gao gave the order to the chief eunuch. He wanted the Empress dead and I did nothing to stop it.'

'Suyin-'

A deep line creased his brow. Her vision was too blurred with tears to tell if it was concern or anger. Or horror. She recoiled when Li Tao reached for her. Her pulse raced and her stomach twisted into vicious knots, sickened by all that she had seen. The memories refused to be denied. At times, the images would fade, but the debt always remained. Stones upon a scale. She had to be done with this.

'I was Gao's puppet,' she confessed. 'I had no one to go to in the palace. At times he wanted me dead, and then he would seem to protect me. I could never predict what would happen next.'

Li Tao closed his arms around her, pulling her to her feet. He insisted on dragging her against him. Impossible man.

'So many people were implicated in the Empress's death, but never me.' She forced herself to face him. 'Never the Emperor's precious consort.'

The warmth of his body wrapped around her, but she didn't deserve the comfort. He attempted to stroke her hair while she struggled in his hold like a trapped fox. Still he held on, his arms a steel cage around her until she tired.

His voice was low and close. 'I'm not going to hurt you.'

She squeezed her eyes shut and sank against him. 'When you first came to the river, I thought you knew. I thought you had come to fulfil your vow to the August Emperor. You were charged with hunting down all the conspirators.'

He stiffened against her. His chest rose and fell against her cheek and she held her breath as the knowledge filled him. There had been such disorder in the palace over those days. The only one who had seen her enter the Empress's quarters in the middle of the night had been the chief eunuch. Suyin never knew whether he'd taken his own life or Gao had him killed. She was certain Gao would have her killed as well, but he'd let her live to use her.

'You were forced,' Li Tao said finally. 'And Emperor Li is dead. That era is gone.'

'But you were always so loyal.'

'I'm anything but loyal.'

There was such a fearful beauty in his harsh features. His gaze held fire and unspoken determination. He was a puzzle she would never resolve. She had exposed her most guarded secret, but he gave nothing in return.

'Why are you still fighting so hard to maintain balance?' she asked.

'Because it is the only way the empire will survive.'

'You truly believe that?'

'Yes.'

His hands strayed down her back and she flushed beneath his touch, her body moulding to him. She considered urging him to leave this losing battle. The empire was vast and they could hide away and live out their lives as they pleased, as she'd once tried to do. But he would never agree. Li Tao believed in duty, if not honour.

She traced the edge of his tunic. The first time she'd dared to touch him after her confession. 'You and Emperor Shen are more alike than you know. Everything with you is black and white. You can't defeat Gao like that.'

He released her, but remained close. 'Gao wants a meeting between us. I already know he wants me to join with him against Shen. There would be no need for secrecy otherwise.'

'That was never Gao's way.' She exhaled, trying to dispel her memories of palace conspiracies and all the old fear in one breath. 'Gao would rather employ his network of spies and connections within the capital than risk open rebellion.'

His mouth twitched in what was almost a smile. 'Perhaps you can be useful against Gao after all.'

She knew more about Gao. Those plots seemed insignificant compared to the Empress's murder, but woven together they formed a pattern of treachery.

'I can go with you-'

'I don't want Gao anywhere near you,' he interrupted. 'There is nothing for me to discuss with him. I'll meet Shen and Gao's forces directly. Gao can voice his accusations out in the open.'

'We can still send a message to the Emperor.'

'It's too late.'

Once Li Tao had decided, he became immovable. Suyin wanted to believe he could face both of the approaching armies and prevail, but there were dark shadows beneath his eyes. Li Tao had been forced to the edge of a cliff. The conflict was wearing him down.

If they could have reached Emperor Shen sooner, he could have denied Gao's accusations. She would have used every skill in her, every bit of diplomacy she'd learned, to defend him. But Shen wouldn't come down to Chengdu himself. He would send some subordinate who would be easily manipulated by Gao.

'Everything will happen quickly now. I'll return to Chengdu tomorrow. The border fortifications are in place. Gao will know when I don't go to him that the negotiations are over.' He spoke plainly. No emotion to obscure what was inevitable. Then he paused. 'I shouldn't have even come here.'

'Why did you?' She pressed her palm against his chest and watched it rise and fall.

'You know.'

She didn't know anything. All she had was hope and only a thin thread remained. She listened to the beat of Li Tao's heart against her, not quite in rhythm with hers. She wished she did know something valuable, something that could actually hurt Gao and put the power in her hands for once. But she searched through her past and found nothing.

Gao could bring about an empress's death and go unpunished. The warlord had enough power and influence to bend the court to his will. She was nothing but an emperor's ruse, created to allow a dying man to rule a little longer. Only Li Tao had the strength to challenge Gao openly. For that, Gao would destroy him.

She lifted her fingertips to his face, running them gingerly along his sharp cheekbones, the thin scar. He didn't look away as she pulled him towards her. She brushed her lips over his. At first he didn't respond, but finally his hands curved around her and he closed his eyes, letting her lead.

He was always so direct and demanding. In contrast, she savoured the contours of his mouth, their breath joining delicately. They didn't have time any more, but they could create the illusion. They could explore one another and stretch out the hours of the night as far as they would allow.

And while he kissed her, she willed herself not to waste any time questioning him, issuing demands that neither of them could fulfil. She knew that Li Tao had already made his decision. What she didn't know, was what that decision was.

Li Tao returned to the study in the still hours that night. He navigated the corridors without need for light. His eyes were still trained to gauge the shadows and dim edges of s.p.a.ce after all these years.

At the desk, he lit an oil candle and set it down beside the ink stone. The pool of light fell over the papers as he worked with quiet efficiency, grinding the ink, opening the empty pamphlet to begin his missive. The characters flowed out in tight columns from the tip of his brush, as unembellished as the orders they contained.

He never knew why Lao Sou had taken the time to teach him these things when all he was meant for was one kill on a faraway battlefield. Not all members of the An Ying clan were so carefully tutored.

He considered Suyin's proposal. He could denounce Gao, but it would be his word against the senior warlord. The truth mattered little when Gao had the support of the n.o.ble families and lesser generals.

The whisper-soft fall of slippered feet interrupted his thoughts. Suyin's silver voice curled around him. 'You never rest.'

'There's much to do.'

She came into the halo of light and he feasted with his eyes. It had been too many days without the sight of her. Unbound hair against cream-smooth skin. A slip of blue silk moulded to her curves like water. He was already hard. His body didn't know or care that he couldn't keep her with him.

'I've never slept much,' he recalled. 'In Luoyang, I could wander the ward all night and not be tired. I would sleep in the hour or so before dawn and then the ring of the market gong would wake me.'

'Luoyang.' She said the name with all the sensuality and decadence the eastern capital deserved. 'To think that we might have crossed paths a long time ago.'

'I would have only seen you as a silhouette in a window.'

There had been gongs to signal everything in the city. Gates open at dawn, gates closed at sundown. The sprawl of the city devoured the weak. It had destroyed his mother, a disgraced woman abandoned in the crowded wards. But Suyin had survived.

She stood beside the desk. 'I waited every night while you were away. When I closed my eyes, I hoped only that you would be there when I opened them.'

'You don't have to wait for me any longer.'

Suyin smiled, not detecting the true intent of his words. These insignificant s.n.a.t.c.hes of conversation always seemed to make her happy. She leaned against the edge of the table, revealing a glimpse of ivory skin where the robe parted. He wanted to reach out and pull her on to his lap, let his hands roam beneath the silk that barely covered her.

He rested his fingers gently over her wrist. 'Do something for me.'

For a second, her breath caught. 'Anything.'

There were so many things he wanted from her. Everything between heaven and earth, in this life and the next.

'I am sending Auntie and the others away. You must go with them.'

Her wistful smile faded. 'No.'

'It's not safe here.'

'I thought I was safe when I left the palace, but my enemies found me.'

He pressed against the s.p.a.ce between his eyes. The ache there had become a constant throb. 'There is nothing more important to me than knowing you're far away from danger.'

This had to be done. He needed the freedom to think and plan and act. He couldn't worry about the people under his protection. He couldn't keep thinking of Suyin and what she meant to him. To face the approaching enemy, he needed to stand alone. With nothing to lose.

'Auntie will not go unless you do,' he said.

'b.a.s.t.a.r.d.'

He knew he had her. 'You're clever and resourceful. You'll always know what to do.'

He started going through the logistics: the route they would take, the cache of gold and silver he would send with them.

'I can be of use to you in Chengdu,' she argued.

'I believe it.' He looked up and watched the firelight dance over her face. 'But that's not what you are to me.'

Her fingers tightened over the edge of the desk. Her eyes glistened, but she held back the tears with a fierceness that shook him. He had never desired her more.

'First you demanded one night, then a month,' she accused. 'Stay when you tell me to stay, go when you say to go.'

'I always had the better part of the deal.'

He was going to win this battle. He'd planned his attack with careful precision, but Suyin switched tactics.

'You think I don't know what you're doing.' The softest of threats lurked beneath her silken tone. She ran her finger along the part of the robe, offering him a scant hint of skin, the tantalizing rise of her breast just beyond sight.

'You're trying to tell yourself what we had was nothing. That you were only seeking diversion.'

'I wouldn't lie to myself like that. Or to you.'

What they had was everything, but even perfect moments were meant to pa.s.s. His heart threatened to punch a hole through his chest. He sat back, his hands rounding over the arms of the chair while she stood over him. He could reach for Suyin and tear that sc.r.a.p of silk from her. He could bury his face into the valley of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and take his fill, but it would destroy them both if he held on to her.

'There was only one thing I was ever certain of with you,' she went on sadly. Her hand slipped beneath the edge of the robe, where he wanted desperately to go. 'You want this body. If I were truly wicked, I could make you keep me with you. I could seduce and beg and you'd say yes.'

Desire roughened his voice. 'It was always more. I didn't want it to be, but you were always more than that.'

His shaft grew thick as he watched the silhouette of her fingers circling, making him ache with each slow pa.s.s over her nipple. He wanted to close his mouth around her like that, run his tongue against the hard little peak and suckle her b.r.e.a.s.t.s through the maddening barrier of cloth until she demanded his hands on her, inside her.

She removed her hand. Her scent swirled around him, the faint hint of jasmine and the feminine musk of her skin.

'I don't want to go.'

'You must.'

She was breathing hard, cheeks flushed, her eyes dark and illuminated with pa.s.sion. And beneath it all, she was angry. 'You told yourself one night would be enough. Then it was one month. What are you telling yourself now?'