grabbed her arms and pushed her forward, laying her head flat upon the table. The witch uttered a silent prayer, begging the forgiveness of Lander, her dead lover, for failing as a Harper, then took her last breath and prepared to die.
The blow did not fall. After a time, Ruha opened her eyes-she did not remember closing them-and craned her neck against the restraining hands of her guards
She saw Hsieh and the others standing over her beside the table. The mandarin had taken Yu Po's wrist to restrain him from giving the sword to Wei Dao.
'The Emperor's justice cannot be denied, but we are in land of savages,' said Hsieh. 'We must allow Lady Ruha to speak, so her friend Vaerana Hawklyn may not protest that our execution is unjust.'
'Esteemed Mandarin, why do we care if Vaerana Hawklyn protests?' Wei Dao's voice continued to be overloud. 'She is barbarian!'
'Vaerana Hawklyn is barbarian with army. If she makes hostage of Shou Mandarin, does she hesitate to sack Ginger Palace?' Hsieh paused to let the others con- sider his point, then continued, 'But if we follow form of barbarians and let prisoner speak, perhaps we appease Vaerana's superiors. Perhaps we avoid battle.'
The mandarin released his adjutant's wrist. Yu Po low- ered his sword, but did not return the blade to its scab- bard. He and the other Shou no longer seemed quite so confused by Hsieh's perverse defense of the witch's life.
Ruha dared to hope their reaction meant the minister had finally prevailed in the strange battle of protocol between him and Wei Dao.
The princess frowned, but seemed unable to effectively oppose the suggestion. 'Ask, but her answer is lie.'
Hsieh smiled grimly. 'Yes, if you say it is.' He leaned over Ruha. 'Lady Ruha, does Princess tell truth?'
'No.' The witch's answer reverberated through the tabletop and returned to her ear sounding loud and deep.
'Lady Feng has been abducted.'
Ruha's assertion elicited no cries of outrage or gasps of surprise. The Shou remained as silent as stones, and by their silence the witch knew that none of them, even Hsieh, gave any credence to her claims.
Wei Dao reached for Yu Po's sword.
'I can prove what I say!' Ruha exclaimed.
It was Hsieh who scorned the witch's claim. 'How can you prove what is not possible?'
The mandarin's tone was severe and impatient, as though he had expected her to say something else. Cold fingers of panic began to creep through the witch's belly.
Yu Po was awaiting permission to yield his sword, and Ruha could not imagine what Hsieh wished to hear. Wei Dao had already declared anything the witch said to be a lie, and the Shou seemed unwilling, perhaps even unable, to believe otherwise. The truth, even if it could be proved, did not matter-and Ruha suddenly realized what the minister wanted her to say.
'Princess Wei Dao is protecting her mother-in-law,' the witch said. 'Lady Feng has taken a lover.'
Hsieh gasped much too loudly, prompting Yu Po to step back and sheath his sword.
'Lady Ruha, you are certain?' Hsieh did not even bother to feign his shock well. 'Princess Dao is. •. mis- taken?'
'Is that not a good reason for her to have me silenced?'
'Indeed, but it does not work. I suspect this myself.'
Hsieh whirled on Wei Dao and fixed her with a stony glare. 'Do I not warn you about lying to me?'
'I am Shou Princess.' Though her chin was trembling,
Wei Dao held it high. 'I do not lie, Esteemed Mandarin.'
'No?' Hsieh glanced at the guards pinning Ruha to the table, who promptly released the witch and stepped back.
'Lady Ruha, please to show proof of Lady Feng's imprudence.'
Ruha straightened her aba and started to remind the mandarin that what she had offered to prove was not Lady Feng's infidelity, but her abduction-then she thought twice about confusing the issue and held her tongue. To the Shou, the witch was beginning to realize, truth was a relative thing. As long as she had Hsieh's support, any evidence she offered would no doubt be taken as proof of whatever the mandarin wished.
Ruha started to lead the way out of the room, then remembered her manners and bowed to Wei Dao, gesturing toward the door. 'If the princess will show us to Lady Feng's apartment?'
Wei Dao frowned in confusion, then turned to lead the way out of the room.
Halfway to the door, she suddenly stopped. Her fore- head was slick with sweat and her face was sick with fear. 'This is not right. I cannot show others into Lady Feng's apartment.'
'Then I shall.' Behind her veil, Ruha allowed herself a small smile. 'I know the way, as I'm sure you remember.'
As the witch moved to step past, she saw Wei Dao's hand drop toward her sash.
In the next instant, two of Hsieh's guards lay on the floor holding their bloody throats, and Wei Dao was leaping through the air, slashing at Ruha's throat with her jambiya. The witch twisted her body to the side and reached out to meet the assault at the wrist, but the princess's reflexes were as quick as lightning. She circled the blade beneath Ruha's blocking arm and reversed it, driving the tip toward her victim's heart as though she had been fighting with jambiyas all her life. The witch saved herself only by falling to the floor and madly flailing her feet in a desperate attempt to trip her attacker.
There was no need. Moving with a deliberate grace that appeared almost languid, Hsieh slipped behind the princess. He clamped one hand over the wrist of Wei Dao's weapon hand, then shot his other forearm around her throat and brought it up under herjawline so hard her feet came off the ground.
Wei Dao's eyes bulged and her tongue appeared between her lips. She flung her head back in an attempt to smash her captor's nose, but Hsieh simply tipped his face out of the way. The princess made a brief, rasping attempt to breathe, but the veins in her neck were being pinched shut by the mandarin's arm, causing her head to run out of blood long before her lungs ran out of air. Her face turned a shocking shade of purple-gray, and the Jam — biya slipped from her hand. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets; then she stopped struggling and began to spasm.
Hsieh dropped her at a guard's feet. 'Greatly unexpected. I am most curious to see what we find in Lady Feng's chamber.'
Ruha could not take her eyes off Wei Dao's unconscious form. During all her training with the Harpers, she had never seen a woman move with such deadly speed and grace. Had she not seen the ease with which Hsieh dis- abled her, the witch would not have believed anyone-especially a one-eyed man of Hsieh's age-could move more swiftly.
'Minister Hsieh, I thank you for my life,' Ruha said. 'You are a man of many hidden talents.'
The mandarin smiled. 'In Shou Lung, we long ago learn wisdom of being better warriors than those who guard us.' He turned to Yu Po and gestured at Wei Dao.
'Bind princess well and take her to apartment. Inspect her chambers to see that she is… safe.'
Yu Po bowed, then began issuing orders in Shou. As Hsieh's guards scurried into action, the mandarin selected a half-dozen men to accompany him, then led the way up an immense staircase to the second story, where he astonished the palace sentries by allowing Ruha to use her wind magic to open the door to the Third Virtuous Concubine's apartment. The minister scowled at the macabre frescoes that decorated Lady Feng's antechamber, then followed the witch through the dress- ing closet into the bedchamber.
Ruha went straight to the corner and pulled Lady Feng's writing desk from the wall. When she did not hear any scratching or whining on the other side of the secret door, she began to fear that Wei Dao had done something with Chalk Ears. The witch took a deep breath and, won- dering how Hsieh would react if it turned out she could prove neither Lady Feng's indiscretion nor her abduction, pushed open the hidden panel.
The secret chamber looked as though a whirlwind had erupted inside. The worktable in the center of the room had been swept clean of its cauldrons and balances, which now sat upon the floor amid a knee-deep jumble of books and broken glass. Heaps of severed bat wings, blackened fingernails, and silk-wrapped spider eggs were scattered everywhere, often coated by stripes ofrainbow- hued dusts and powders. One of the cabinets had even been pulled over and now lay broken into two splintered pieces.
