Taming Poison Dragons Read Online Free PDF Page B

snap.
    Then the dam holding back her tongue gives way.
    ‘Old Mother Orchid in the village has heard through her niece that Youngest Son is a Captain serving General An-Shu. And she heard it through her second cousin who saw him parading in Chunming. They say he is a big man now and. . .’
    ‘What’s that to me?’ I interrupt.
    ‘He orders hundreds of soldiers about in Chunming and wears a fine uniform. And he has the General’s ear. I heard he has been granted a house larger than our own, with a garden and a staff of servants, as well as. . .’
    ‘Enough, woman! Again, I say, what is that to me? You know he is no longer my son. We have a document from the Prefect to prove it. Enough on this matter.’
    Of course, she is right to worry. A roll of paper can be crumpled in a moment, an edict overturned by a whim.
    Her fear is simple. At present Eldest Son will inherit my estate in full. A special dispensation granted by the Prefect of Chunming has set aside the law stating property must be divided equally among all male children. Yet the Prefect of Chunming is currently hanging by his heels from the city walls, his eyes food for crows. He was a good man, in his way, and of respectable family.
    ‘Honoured Father is always right,’ she says. ‘Still anyone can fret in times like these. I have to think of my sons, your grandchildren. What of them, heh?’
    Her natural manner has returned. It comes as a kind of relief.
    ‘I am not an astrologer. Anything could happen.’
    ‘But we all remember Youngest Son from when he was a boy,’ she continues. ‘He has a temper like a bad dog.
    What if he gets it in that stubborn head of his, that he has been wronged? It’s enough to make me tremble!’
    She seems more outraged than terrified.
    ‘And no one in the village wants such a hot-headed man as Lord. No one likes a beating. And the maidservants are frightened. Who can blame them? It’s a disgrace!’
    She is alluding to the reason I disinherited him. I might reply that people change. It is my dearest wish he has changed. Yet serving General An-Shu is unlikely to soften a man. I could tell her not a single day has passed without me missing him, that when I sent him away, half my heart departed.
    ‘You should leave for the monastery now,’ I say, wearily. ‘And have faith in me. Did not the Emperor Wang Meng order his own son to commit suicide for mistreating a servant?’
    ‘Eh?’ she cries. ‘Suicide? What’s that got to do with us?’
    *
    ‘Concern yourself with women’s business,’ I chide. ‘Be at the gates in ten minutes.’
    She shuffles to her feet reluctantly, but remembers to bow on her way out.
    Half an hour later I stand by the gatehouse with Eldest Son. She is escorted by a dozen retainers, including her serving women. If the brigands meet her party, what will they do? Rob her, for sure, perhaps rape the women. It is a risk forced upon us. The children cry to leave their home. All in all, a pitiful scene. I pretend not to notice the tears in Eldest Son’s eyes.
    ‘We have done what we can,’ I say. ‘The monks will send word she has arrived safely.’
    He is desolate. It is not good for the peasants to see him like this. There is danger in growing too reliant upon one’s wife.
    ‘Have the watchmen reported any sign of troops?’
    ‘Nothing, Father.’
    ‘Then they will not arrive today. Perhaps we should expect them tomorrow. Order new watchers so the others may rest.’
    I return to my chamber and what’s left of the wine jar.
    Swallows flit around the eaves of Three-Step-House just as when I was a happy boy. I could be that boy again in a moment, if his heart had not flown away, season after season.
    I wake at sunrise with my own words echoing from a dream: Bring relief to those so sorely pinched . I said them once, when I was young and earnest. At once I sense a bad day brewing. I have always been sensitive to energies patterning around me. Today, I am sure the soldiers will