alliances and betrayed the trust of many friends on behalf of Shou Lung.
Ju-Hai realized that the eyes of the entire Mandarinate were fixed on him, anxiously awaiting his acknowledgement or denial of the assassination attempt. Still, the minister was not ready to make his decision. He had to consider one more point.
The minister turned to Batu. 'General, if we don't make peace with the barbarians, who will win the war?'
Several people seemed confused by the change of subject, but Batu answered immediately. 'I can't say,' he said, fixing a vacant stare on the minister. Continuing in an empty voice, he added, 'The Tuigan are trapped in Shou Kuan; but they outnumber us and stand a good chance of winning when they sally. Even if they don't attack, we may not be able to starve them out, for I've heard they'll eat their horses and even each other. What's worse is that while the enemy sleeps beneath the roofs of Shou Kuan, our men are exposed to chill weather and autumn rains. The risk of epidemic is high.'
The answer was not the one Ju-Hai had hoped to hear. It meant that much more was at stake than his life or Batu's.
The Minister of State bowed to the emperor, but did not dare to look him in the eye. 'I beg your forgiveness, Divine One,' he said. 'The letters are genuine. When I learned of Yamun Khahan's success in uniting the horse tribes, I offered my help to his treacherous stepmother. At my request, Kwan sent an assassin to aid her.'
A stunned silence fell over the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but only for a moment. Ting Mei Wan sprang to her feet as if to flee, but the emperor was not taken by surprise. 'Minister Ting!' he boomed, pointing a long-nailed finger at her. 'At the moment, you face only one death. If you flee, I will see to it that you die a thousand times!'
Ting looked from the emperor to the guards behind Batu. They still had not moved, and Ju-Hai thought his former protege stood a chance of escaping if she acted quickly enough. Then her gaze fell on Batu. The general's face was warped into a hateful scowl and his bitter eyes were locked on Ting's. Without looking away, the Minister of State Security collapsed back into her chair.
'A wise decision,' Ju-Hai said. 'There is no place you could run that General Batu would not find you.'
The Divine One motioned to the guards behind Batu, 'Lock her in the First Spire of Ultimate Despair. Ministers Kwan and Ju-Hai are confined to the palace grounds until further notice. Do not let them out of your sight.'
'You wouldn't think of sending us to the barbarians!' Kwan protested.
Rising to leave the hall, the emperor said, 'That will be decided after Ting's execution.'
Kwan started to follow the Son of Heaven. 'Divine One, let us explain!'
Ju-Hai rose. 'There's nothing to explain, you fool.' He knew that the emperor could reach only one conclusion: two lives were a small price to pay for ending a costly war that had little prospect of victory.
The Minister of State turned to the guards assigned to him. 'I'd like to spend the day in my garden.'
The sword fell and there was a hollow pop. Ting's head, covered by a silk hood, dropped into the waiting basket. The kneeling corpse remained perched on the executioner's block, its hands bound behind its back.
In the pale morning light, everything seemed gray except Ting's cheosong. It was her favorite scarlet dress, the one with the golden dragon that entwined her body. Now, clinging to a headless corpse, it was the dragon that looked full and alive.
Batu had expected to feel something when Ting died: vindication, relief, perhaps elation. Instead, his emotions remained as colorless as the morning. He could not seem to accept that the traitorous mandarin had killed his entire family.
Accompanied by Pe, the general had passed the night at the house where his wife and children had died, but he had not grieved. He had seen Wu's bloodstains in the sleeping hall. He had sat in the courtyard and tried to weep.
Throughout the night, he kept hearing their voices call to him. Once he had dozed off and awakened to the imagined touch of his children's hands upon his back.
The thought had occurred to him that his family's spirits might be trapped at the site of the murders. Though far from a superstitious man, the general had tried talking to them. When he had received no response, Batu had sent for a shukenja. The priest had found no wayward spirits, but had suggested that if Wu and the children were trapped in the house, their murderer's death would free them to begin the journey to the Land of Extreme Felicity.
So, at first light, the general and his adjutant had gone to the Square of Paramount Justice, where they had joined a small group gathered to witness Ting's execution. Although Pe had found ceremonial uniforms for both of them, Batu still wore his barbarian hauberk. The others who had been invited to witness the execution-the emperor, Ju-Hai, Kwan, and Koja-had raised their eyebrows at his attire, but Batu did not care. He could not bear to wear the uniform of the emperor who had turned a blind eye to the murder of his family. Feeling as he did, the general wondered how he could continue serving in the army of Shou Lung-or, for that matter, how he could continue living at all.
For the rest of his life, his mind and his heart would be at war. Though he knew rationally that Wu and the children were dead, he would never believe it in his heart. Batu's only hope of fully accepting their fates, viewing their lifeless bodies, had been taken away. His family had been cremated, their ashes scattered to the winds like those of common thieves. For that insult, especially, Batu had wanted Ting to suffer.
However, the traitorous mandarin had died with more dignity than she deserved. As the guards had led her into the Square of Paramount Justice, her knees had buckled, and she had looked pale and frightened. When the executioner had slipped the hood over her head, she had shamefully avoided the eyes of those gathered to witness her death.
Still, she had not begged for mercy, nor even cried out in despair, and Batu felt that his family had deserved at least that much retribution. If the general had administered the execution, she would have died shrieking in pain and pleading for mercy.
Unfortunately, the Divine One considered torture uncivilized, at least in his presence. He had only allowed Batu to watch an impersonal executioner exact the vengeance which belonged to the general.
'You must be very happy, General,' Kwan Chan said, interrupting Batu's reverie. The old man stood between two guards. His hands were bound behind his back, as if there were a chance he would break free and totter away. As a badge of dishonor, Kwan wore a dingy samfu of undyed hemp instead of a mandarin's brocaded waitao.
When Batu did not answer the old man's comment, Pe took up the gauntlet. 'Why should the general be happy, prisoner?' the youth demanded. He clearly enjoyed addressing his hated ex-superior with the derogatory term.
Kwan gave the adjutant a patronizing smile. 'He has defeated his enemies.'
'The khahan has not been defeated!' Koja snapped from a few feet away.
Though Batu knew the minister was not referring to the barbarians, the general had no wish to elevate either Kwan or Ting to the status of enemy. He always held at least a grudging respect for his opponents, and he felt nothing of the kind for either of the two mandarins. He added his own comment to Koja's assertion, 'The Tuigan still hold Shou Kuan. I have not defeated any enemies.'
'True,' the emperor replied, speaking for the first time that morning. 'But neither have the Tuigan defeated you. This war is over. I accept the barbarian terms.'
Koja nodded politely, but before the barbarian's envoy could speak, Kwan interrupted. 'No! I beg you to reconsider. Minister Ju-Hai and I had only your best interests at heart, Divine One. We do not deserve such a disgrace.'
'There is no dishonor in dying on the empire's behalf,' Ju-Hai said. Like Kwan, he was wearing a hemp samfu as a badge of shame, but his hands remained unbound as a symbol of the emperor's continued faith in his integrity. 'What is disgraceful is to beg for your life.'
Kwan snorted. 'I am hardly begging for my life, you fool. I have lived a hundred years, and I shall live a hundred more.' The emperor dismissed the old man's boast with a wave of his hand. 'That will be for the barbarians to decide, Kwan Chan Sen. I will not change my decision. We will make peace with the Tuigan.'
One day ago, Batu would have respected the emperor's decision, for Shou Lung had little to gain and everything to lose by continuing the war. With his family gone, however, the general no longer cared about the
