Five Odd Honors Read Online Free PDF Page B

into our exile. Already one of our number was dead. Moreover, the one who had died was our war leader. Yet that war leader had not died in noble battle or leading the way in some perilous action. He had died foolishly, for no greater reason than to spite a woman—a woman, who if only he had considered the matter, was not worthy of such devotion.”
    “Must you rub it in?” Loyal Wind said with what mildness he could manage. “I assure you, I have had many long years to contemplate the selfishness of my action.”
    “I do not seek to renew your bitterness, Loyal Wind,” Nine Ducks said softly, yet without the least yielding. “I seek to show you how matters seemed to Thundering Heaven.”
    “Quite bleak.”
    “And all the bleaker because, although Thundering Heaven was young and of the age that, had his life taken a more usual course, his parents would have been urging him to wed a first wife, he had been seeking a perfect bride to bear the next Tiger. He had dismissed your casual getting of an heir and the methods adopted by some of the other older men as appropriate to your years. If you did not father your heir quickly, you might not live long enough to train him.”
    “Ouch. Do you know this or are you guessing?”
    “I lived for nearly forty years after the Exile,” Nine Ducks said, “and although Thundering Heaven and I were never heart’s companions, still we had a long association with each other. He did not tell me, but I think my guesses are accurate.”
    “So I disappointed him twice—as a suicide and as a romantic. Anything else?”
    “Yes. I believe that at the time of your death Thundering Heaven had begun to court a young lady of good breeding, if not of wealth. Had we stayed in that place, he might have won her, but your actions made it necessary for us to move on. Newly soured on romance, Thundering Heaven made no effort to convince his lady fair to accompany us. He left her, but I believe her image in his heart kept him from any serious romantic entanglement for many years to come.”
    “Thundering Heaven did marry, though,” Loyal Wind protested. “Pearl is not some chance-gotten child.”
    “Oh, Thundering Heaven did marry,” Nine Ducks agreed. “Twice. His first marriage was after we were all settled in the United States, after some of us had begun to give up our hopes of returning to the Lands. Tea Rose was Chinese, but born in the United States. I think Thundering Heaven loved her very much, but the marriage was without children.
    “I have never been certain what happened to Tea Rose after Thundering Heaven divorced her. After that divorce, Thundering Heaven surprised us all by marrying a woman who was not Chinese. She was a Hungarian Jew named Edna . . . I forget her last name. His choice was very strange, but the marriage produced several children.”
    “Why were you surprised when he married this Hungarian woman? By that time, others of the Exiles had married those of other races.”
    “I suppose it was because Thundering Heaven had been among those who had not ventured much outside of the Chinese enclaves. He made a rather poor living for himself teaching various martial arts, learned both Cantonese and Mandarin well enough to pass as a native speaker, but never learned more English than he needed to get by.”
    “I can see why you were surprised,” Loyal Wind said. “And Thundering Heaven finally fathered his heir on this woman?”
    “Yes. Thundering Heaven was disappointed when his first child proved to be a girl. Initially, he was not concerned when auguries showed Pearl was to be his heir. He was confident that when he fathered a son, the Tiger would place his paw firmly on that son’s back.”
    “But it didn’t happen.”
    “No. To make matters worse, Pearl was truly an extraordinary child. Edna saw this and made sure that as soon as the little girl could walk she was tutored in song and dance. Pearl loved both the lessons and the attention. That joy lit her