The Dragon Men

that feather bed, or if that errant feather hadn’t drawn Cixi’s attention to the Cool Hall on the Misty Lake. She shook her head. It was impossible to track down the first event that led to anything. One might as well argue that all this was coming about because Cixi herself had been born, though that had happened only because her father had met her mother and they had copulated at a particular time in a particular place. How differently history might go if one tiny event changed along the way.

Back at the Pavilion of a Thousand Silver Stars, Cixi entered her own chambers, her mind churning. Soft rugs hushed her footsteps, and the spy holes on the walls were well crafted, barely noticeable between the wall hangings. Since this was not the emperor’s residence, electric lights were allowed, and the maids set about flipping switches on intricate jade lamps. Cixi sighed as shadows fled the room and the place brightened. She felt more at ease in the light. The water clock on the wall told her dawn was only three hours away, and now that she was slowing down, exhaustion settled over her. Had it only been this afternoon that her eunuchs had thrown her dogs down the well? They were no doubt dead now. She hoped their little corpses rotted quickly and that a barbarian might sicken and die from tainted water so her dear pets’ deaths wouldn’t be completely in vain.

A woman was waiting for her, another Dragon Man dressed all in black with her hair worn in a man’s long queue. They were all called Dragon Men and referred to using he and him in conversation whether they were male or female to ensure that everyone treated even the women with deference, allowing them to build the all-important inventions and weapons that kept the empire on an even footing with the West. Her face was plain, her cheekbones broad and flat, but her eyes burned with intelligence. This Dragon Man was Lung Fan, and she-he-was personally assigned to Cixi just as Lung Chao was assigned to the emperor.

“My lady wished to see me?” said Lung Fan without bowing.

“I did.” Cixi handed her the spider. “I want you to test this.”

Lung Fan turned it over, examining it with long fingers. “An eating spider? What for?”

“For-”

“No, wait.” Lung Fan sniffed the spider’s legs and the little chopsticks it used to hold morsels of food. Then she took a metal instrument from her pocket. It was shaped like a serpent, a very wise creature. By law, all automatons and machines in China were shaped like animals or mythical creatures. Man-shaped automatons were strictly forbidden, lest the automatons begin to think themselves human beings. Lights along the serpent’s body flickered in strange patterns, and it hissed in short bursts.

“There is good news,” Lung Fan said.

Cixi furrowed her brow, puzzled. “Good news? But I haven’t told you what I was looking-”

“The battle in Peking has taken a turn for the better. Based on what I have learned from the eunuchs, the concentration of paraffin in the atmosphere, and the contents of a coded message the emperor has not yet read, our troops stand slightly more than a ninety percent chance of winning.”

Cixi realized her mouth was hanging open, a most unbecoming gesture. She shut it. “You are sure?”

Lung Fan sniffed the air again. “No. It’s ninety-two percent.”

A soft ripple went through the eunuchs and maids, though none spoke. A great deal of tension evaporated. Cixi herself felt a little giddy. “So all we need do is wait for a while, and we can go home.”

“Duck tongues,” said Lung Fan. “Bear paws, beef marrow.”

“I-what?”

Lung Fan held up the little automaton. “Those are the foods that were most recently eaten with this spider. I can do a much longer examination and tell you more, if you like.”

“Is that all?” Cixi asked, disappointed. “Because I was wondering-”

“Yes, they were all drugged,” Lung Fan added as an afterthought. “A powerful sedative also designed to stop a cough. I believe there is also willow bark distillate, which will reduce a fever.”

“Drugged.” Cixi didn’t know whether to be relieved or alarmed that her theory had been correct. It was so much news so fast, she was having a hard time taking it all in. Perhaps this was the reason Dragon Men went insane.

“With medicine,” Lung Fan said.

“Is the emperor ill?” Liyang asked doubtfully. “I heard nothing of it.”

“The sedative would make him sleepy and would explain why he was resting very comfortably, even without his opium,” Cixi said. “But why something for fever and cough when he had problems with neither?”

“Perhaps the sedative was all Su Shun wanted,” Liyang hazarded, “and the other effects are coincidental.”

“You believe Su Shun was behind it?”

“I have no proof, of course,” Liyang said. “But he was there, and he brought in the concubine, and I assume she served the food to the emperor, perhaps even tasted it herself beforehand to show it was not poisoned. And it was not. Quite.” Liyang paused thoughtfully. “Perhaps Su Shun knows the emperor is ill and is trying to hide it?”

“The food served by this spider was definitely not poisoned,” Lung Fan said. She dropped into a lotus position on the floor and fiddled with the spider. One of the maids made a disgusted noise, but Dragon Men were allowed to sit in the presence of the Imperial Court.

“The food was not poisoned,” Cixi repeated slowly. And then a dreadful thought stole over her, a terrible, world-wrecking thought. She also sank to the floor, and a maid pushed a padded stool under her. One of the seams burst as Cixi sat on it, and little feathers puffed out. The maid rushed about, gathering them up. “The food was not poisoned. Liyang, go now and find that concubine. Bring her to me immediately. If you cannot find her, find out everything you can about her. This is urgent. See to it yourself.”

“My lady.” Liyang bowed and vanished out the door with his apprentices and assistants.

“So, what are you thinking, concubine woman?” Lung Fan asked. “You look as if you swallowed a frog.”

“I do not wish to say.”

Lung Fan grinned, and the expression looked ghoulish in the bright lights. “I actually know what you’re thinking. And I think you’re right. Can I be reassigned to someone else?”

Cixi didn’t answer. For a long time, she waited in tense silence. The only sound was the dripping of the water clock and the clicking of the spider against the serpent in Lung Fan’s lap and the footsteps of the maids who were gathering feathers. Eventually, Liyang rushed back into the room with his apprentices panting behind him.

“Where is the girl?” Cixi asked without waiting for formalities.

“She is dead, my lady. Drowned in a lotus pool. Already the story is going about that she killed herself because she displeased you, or that you yourself are directly responsible.”

Cixi waved this aside. One fewer low-ranking concubine was of no importance. “And where did she come from?”

“That is the startling thing, my lady. No one seems to know. All the records are in disarray, thanks to the evacuation, of course, but no one I talked to seems to remember her, or when she joined the Imperial Court.”

“I thought as much,” Cixi muttered. “Su Shun arranged for her to slip into the evacuation caravan. Where is the body?”

“I anticipated your wishes, my lady, and my assistants are bringing her here. She is on the back lawn.”

A feather drifted across Cixi’s nose as she rose to her feet. “Come, Lung Fan. Bring your device.”

The dead girl was still soaked through. Her hair had come undone and lay tangled about her neck and shoulders. She huddled on her side in her ruined green robe on the grass. Cixi guessed she was no more than sixteen, the same age Cixi had been when she became a concubine. Lung Fan squatted next to her and punctured her skin with the serpent’s teeth. The lights along the serpent’s back glittered, then settled into a steady scarlet glow.

“Well?” Cixi asked. “Was I thinking right?”

“Were we thinking right?” Lung Fan corrected. “And yes. The girl was in the early stages of the blessing of dragons.”

Cixi stepped back, as did all the maids and eunuchs. The girl carried the blessing of dragons, and Su Shun had arranged for the girl to share Xianfeng’s bed. Thanks to Su Shun, the emperor now had the plague.