The Marriage of the Living Dark

CHAPTER-8

to nineveh

They had travelled all night, through the cool darkness of the desert Now it was morning, and Li Yuan sat on a rock in the shade at the foot of the great rocky hollow, his hands bound, looking up at the two men who were guarding him. He could see them just above him, standing on the uppermost ledge of the rocky depression, their slender figures silhouetted against the morning sky. They had their backs to him, but there was little chance of him escaping. Even if he overpowered these two, there were more dose at hand. Besides, where would he run to? There was nothing but desert out here.

They were young men, clean-shaven, the youngest barely out of his teens, and they wore no uniforms, not even a sash or badge, only a strange tattoo, like a blunted spade or an upturned parasol, on their upper arms. There was no mistaking their earnestness, however. Run, they’d told him, and you’re dead. And so he sat there, listening.

“He’s late,” the younger of them said impatiently. “He said he’d be here by now.”

“He’s probably busy,” the other answered. “A lof s been happening.”

“Yes, but...”

“No buts, brother. We wait And when He comes, we do his bidding.” The younger man fell quiet. The other turned, glancing down at Li Yuan, whistling to himself all the while.Whoever they were, they were a strange lot They talked often of “He”, and always with a strange, awed reverence, as if they spoke of a Tang or an emperor of old. Yet he, Li Yuan, was the last of the emperors. And beside this other, he, it seemed, was as nothing. A cult They had to be a cult of some kind. And they had kidnapped him. To ransom him, perhaps.

He almost laughed. Ransom, eh? Well, once he would have commanded a true emperor’s ransom - his weight in diamonds, maybe - but now ... Now I’m not worth a piss in a rusty tank.

He looked down, smiling. It was strange how the expressions of these barbarians had rooted so firmly in his mind when so little else of theirs had taken hold. There was a blunt realism to many of their sayings that he found attractive, almost Han.

But when they found out his true worth? What then? Would they let him go? Not a hope in hell, he thought, part of him already reconciled to his fate. When they find I’m worth less than a bull’s pizzle, then they’ll slit my throat quicker than ... he searched for the name Zelic had used ... ah, yes, Jack Robinson.

Briefly he had a vision of himself, there before the great white tablet in the walled garden of his father’s palace in Tongjiang, in Sichuan Province, sprigs of white blossom in his jet-black hair as he stood beneath the Tree of Heaven, the wind blowing from the mountains to the north. There where his father lay already, encased in pure white jade, his beautifully carved tomb beside that of his elder brother, Han Ch’in, who had been murdered on his wedding day.

Li Yuan shivered and looked down at where his hands grasped each other tightly. They were wild lands now, in the control of some Warlord or another, while he sat here on a rock on the far side of the world, a prisoner of fortune. And suddenly he knew. Knew, with a certainty that took his breath, that he would never see that ancient walled garden again, nor lie with his ancestors in the eternal silence of the family tomb.

No. And no son of his would sweep his tomb and burn incense to his departed souls, for the great chain was truly broken, and he was like a ghost in this land without ghosts.

Li Yuan looked up again, swallowing bitterly. How quickly his mood had changed, like a weather vane, blown this way and that by the wind. So the mad felt, probably.

Not that he thought himself mad. Not yet

Above him there was sudden movement The two young men stepped back, into the shadow of the rock A moment later Li Yuan heard the distinctive whine of a cruiser.

A reconnaissance craft, perhaps, out looking for him. That was, if they even cared where he had got to. In all likelihood these rebels - if rebels they were - had done his son-in-law a great favour in ridding him of such a burden. The sound grew louder briefly, then diminished. As it fell quiet again the two men stepped out onto the ledge once more.

The elder turned, gesturing towards Li Yuan. “Whatever happens, we’ll move him tonight.”

“To Isis?”

“No. This one’s being taken to Nineveh.”

“Nineveh?’

Li Yuan saw how the young man turned, looking back at him, his eyes seeing him anew.