“I know. No need.” Cixi sipped from her teacup. It was now a month after the evacuation to the palace at Jehol. Life was comfortable in the Pavilion of a Thousand Silver Stars, and no one would have known that just to the south, sections of Peking lay in shambles and thousands were dead. The British were slaughtered or had fled, and Su Shun, speaking for the emperor, had ordered all borders sealed again. Still, people were working hard in Peking, and, in a few months, life would be normal once more. The streets would be clean, the buildings rebuilt, the parks green and quiet. Except that the emperor was dying. Except that Su Shun intended to steal the throne the moment he was dead. Except that Su Shun intended to go to war as soon as he had the throne.
“The only thing that keeps Su Shun from attacking England right now,” Cixi mused, “is this cure I’ve heard about. What is that woman’s name?”
“Alice, Lady Michaels,” Liyang supplied. He fingered the jar at his belt. “Minor nobility in England, and of no consequence. That is, until she and her courtier, Ennock Gavin, began spreading this cure. Then she became consequential indeed. The irony is, Xianfeng worried that the blessing of dragons might fall on him one day, and he ordered Su Shun to put out a reward for her capture so he-the emperor-could bring her here for himself.”
“I hadn’t heard,” Cixi lied, not wanting to give away the fact that her own spies kept her better informed than Liyang did.
“Oh yes. He offered four hundred pounds of silver. That should have flushed anyone into the open. Michaels and Ennock were spotted three years ago in a leper colony near Tehran, but no one’s heard from them since. Su Shun has left the reward in place, but with one small change.”
This
“He wants Lady Michaels brought to him alive so he can kill her himself.”
“Ah.” Cixi thought about that. “He wants personally to see her dead. Su Shun does not trust someone else for something this important.”
“But why? This I do not understand.”
“He needs to stop her from spreading the cure. The only reason Su Shun hasn’t started a march across Mongolia to Europe in the emperor’s name is that he is worried our troops will be infected with that filthy cure and bring it home. He wants to make absolutely sure this Alice woman is dead before he invades.”
Liyang bowed. “My lady is brilliant. Of course she is correct. Unfortunately for Su Shun, even four hundred pounds of silver have not brought her to him. She is most likely dead. Still, Su Shun isn’t sure, because he has not begun the invasion.”
A fly buzzed about the room, and one of the maids chased it away with her fan. Cixi said only, “Hm.”
“All reports say the cure stalled in Europe,” Liyang said. “It has not touched India or the United States of America. We are not sure about Africa.”
“We certainly don’t need it in China,” Cixi said firmly. “No more Dragon Men? The empire would collapse.”
“Collapse,” said Liyang. “Yes.”
Cixi gazed out a latticed window at a tranquil pool covered with white lotus flowers. Neither of them was talking about the other problem, the main problem, the problem that once Su Shun took the throne, he would ensure no one who could challenge his rule would be left alive. The death of Zaichun, her little boy, was inevitable. Su Shun would trump up charges of treason and have the boy’s mouth and nose stopped up with wet silk. Cixi would be forced to watch while he struggled and kicked and slowly suffocated.
A golden fish leaped out of the lotus pool and vanished with a tiny splash, no doubt fleeing a predator. Once Zaichun was dead, Su Shun would almost certainly order Cixi’s execution as well, followed by the deaths of Liyang and all the eunuchs who served under him, including his boy apprentices. No one with strong allegiances to the rightful emperor could be allowed to live. Cixi had tried to see the emperor on several occasions despite the order that only immune eunuchs were allowed in, but the soldiers on duty outside Xianfeng’s chambers now knew not to let her in, and her polite and kind requests were always met with equally polite and kind refusals. Cixi had tried every trick she knew, and none of them worked. Time was working against them.
“There is one way to save China and the Celestial Throne,” Cixi said quietly.
“My lady?” said Liyang.
“Everyone knows Su Shun’s rule would destroy China,” she said, vocalizing thoughts that had been going through her head for a long time. “Everyone also knows my-the emperor’s-son is the proper heir.”
“My Lord Zaichun is a bright and intelligent boy,” said Liyang with proper deference. “The most intelligent boy the world has ever seen. But even the most intelligent boy cannot truly rule an empire.”
“No. Someone would have to be regent. Make decisions in his name. Someone who knows the empire. Someone who knows what is best for China. Someone who can make good decisions. Someone who isn’t hot- blooded like so many men.”
“Not I, my lady,” said Liyang quickly.
“No. You are a eunuch, but you still think like a man. Your advice would, of course, be instrumental in all decisions, Liyang.” Cixi smoothed the front of her silk tunic and its elaborate embroidery. “No, the time for men to rule China has come to an end, I think.”
“Ah,” said Liyang. “I see, my lady. Yes. I agree. But how will this happen?”
Lung Fang, seated in her corner, ran a finger over the salamander in her ear. “I have calculated that the emperor has twelve minutes left to live.”
“Eleven minutes and fifty-five seconds, actually,” said Lung Fang.
Time had run out. Cixi stood for a moment, thinking furiously. Years of training in court etiquette warred with looming necessity. In the end, necessity won. She rushed out of her chambers, out of the Stars Pavilion, and down the front stairs. Zaichun was playing with a set of small mechanical animals on the front lawn under the watchful eye of a dozen eunuchs and his wet nurse. Without pausing, she snatched him up, eliciting gasps from her maids and eunuchs.
“My lady, I’ll carry him!”
“My lady, it is not seemly-”
“My lady, do you want your palanquin?”
She ignored them all and all but ran across the lawns toward the Cool Hall on the Misty Lake. By the time the palanquins was summoned and readied, everything would be over. Zaichun clung to her, wide-eyed and without speaking. He was heavy, but she didn’t set him down. She was panting and her arms were aching to fall off by the time she reached the Hall, but she kept going, trailing a line of frantic maids and eunuchs. She stormed up the step and through the front doors. Servants and courtiers leaped to get out of her way as she stormed down hallways and across courtyards, ignoring the pleas of her servants, knowing if she slowed for even a moment, she would lose her nerve.
She was turning a corner to come down the final corridor to the emperor’s chamber when she slipped. Her feet came out from under her, and she landed hard on the polished floor. Zaichun landed on her, knocking the breath from her lungs. A squawk went up from the flock of maids and eunuchs, who quickly took the crying boy away and helped her to her feet. Thanks to her voluminous clothing, it took considerable time to get to her feet. As she rose, she saw a white feather detach itself from her slipper and float away. She must have slipped on it.
But no time to consider further. She snatched the bawling prince away from the maid and ran down the hallway, every muscle in her body aching now. “Enough, child,” she murmured into his ear. “We are going to see your father, and you do not want him to see you weeping as he departs this world.”
Zaichun got himself under control as Cixi reached the muscled eunuchs at the door. They tensed, having been through Cixi’s attempts at entry before, but before they could speak, Cixi held Zaichun out before her.
“Make way for Prince Aisin-Gioro Zaichun, the Celestial Gift of China!” she boomed. “Make way for the emperor’s son!”
As they had the first time Cixi had come through, the guards looked uncertain and puzzled. Cixi had been forbidden to enter the imperial bedchamber, but the prince and presumptive heir outranked everyone except the emperor himself. The guards were unwilling to lay a hand on him-or on the woman carrying him.
Cixi didn’t hesitate. Holding the boy before her like a living battering ram, she bullied past the waffling guards and kicked the doors open. The eunuchs gathered around Xianfeng’s bed jumped in bewilderment at Cixi’s unannounced entrance. She didn’t bow, she didn’t kneel, she didn’t kowtow. Forgetting these things meant her death, but she was dead anyway and had nothing to lose.
