Beneath Ceaseless Skies #224 Read online

  I crouched and scratched Worry’s head. Honorable One, why do Goat and Monkey quarrel over the tribute tea? I asked with my mind-voice.

  The Meng Peak Sweet Dew comes from seven ancient trees planted by the Daoist Master Wu Lizhen himself, at the birthplace of tea, barked the spirit of Dog. For a thousand years, six-times-sixty of the best leaves have gone to the emperor, who pours the tea in ceremonial offerings. Few know that the emperor also drinks the immortal tea himself, granting power to the animal of his birth year.

  No food taster, then? If someone wanted to poison the emperor....

  This immortal tea conquers all poisons and grants blessed health, said Dog. Ah, how I miss those lovely flavors, tasted secondhand in years past from emperors born of my sign. That earthy bite, that lingering sweetness! Last I had it was three emperors ago.

  Let me guess. Our new emperor was born in the Year of the Goat or the Monkey?

  Goat, he replied. Monkey must have sent a burglar to grab the tribute, and wants someone under his sign to drink the tea so he can reap its power. But that won’t happen so long as the curses from both of them stay on that tea, and no fortune will come to the dowager.

  I mulled this over. Under the contrary curses, the widow Yi hadn’t the will to turn the tea in, or to drink it. If one shengxiao spirit couldn’t have it, neither could the other. The widow was doomed, unless....

  What if I invite Goat and Monkey to drink settlement tea, to resolve their dispute as common folk might? There were times when the involvement of the law was unneeded or unwise, when a respected member of the community would be asked to settle a disagreement at the local teahouse. After the mediator’s judgment, the side at fault paid for the cost of the tea.

  You wish to hear their case? Dangerous to throw yourself in the midst of their scrap, said Dog. You’d need to prove yourself worthy to judge them.

  I owe it to Deng and Yi to try.

  Dog grunted. I cannot stay or guide you when you summon them. You must not show favor to one spirit over the other, not in word, deed, or grin, or the other may even the score by herding disaster your way. Walk the top of the wall between them, lest they cry foul.

  Thank you, O Worldly Advisor.

  How to invite Monkey and Goat to settlement tea, then? I needed images of both. If I had steady breath, I’d simply fashion blown-sugar versions of the shengxiao animals, but that was impossible now because of my constant cough. There was no way I could invoke my magic on my own. I would have to use someone else’s art. But whose handiwork would be accomplished enough to please the spirits of Goat and Monkey?

  I approached Fanmaker Bai’s stall on the northwest corner, outside the local branch of the Imperial Pharmacy. He was famous throughout Chengdu not only for his skills at fan-making and calligraphy but also as a riddlemaster who had competed in Matchmaker Tan’s contest. He finished inking a poem onto a circular fan as I arrived. “Might I interest you in one, sir, graced with a painting or a riddle?”

  “Yes, and I’ll pay double for haste and exactness in particulars,” I said.

  The fanmaker smiled. “I welcome a challenge. Tell me more.”

  I thought about Dog’s advice. “Your best round fan, with images of a goat on one side, and a monkey on the other.”

  “Ah, you wish to spin the fan by the handle and see both at once,” Bai guessed.

  “Right. The figures should be the same size, and face each other when spun.”

  He plucked an exquisite silk fan with a bamboo handle from his wares. “If you want fast, they won’t be my best work.”

  “Your art evokes the spirit of your subject with the barest of strokes,” I said of his samples on show. It was the same with my candy animals: more impression than precision. “That’s all I seek.”

  “Then that you’ll have.” Bai held his brush upright and began. Swift ink touched pristine silk and made a shaggy, curve-horned goat upon it, akin to a sketch of shadows. After a wait for it to dry, he flipped the fan and added a lank-limbed and long-tailed monkey a-crouch on the opposite side in the same style.

  “You’re a true master with the brush,” I praised.

  Bai presented the fan to me. “As you must be with sugar-shaping.”

  I was taken aback. “I’m surprised you know my calling.”

  “Your hands tell your history,” he replied. “You keep them almost immaculate. Not laborer rough, and the calluses on your fingertips are from old burns. All marks of the chui tang ren.”

  I smiled. “They say you’re cleverer than the magistrate, and now I believe them. I sometimes paint words onto my sugar animals. Perhaps I could learn better calligraphy from you some day?”

  “I’d welcome it.”

  But if this cough left me unable to make sugar animals ever again, I wondered as I departed, would any new skill I learned to improve my art simply fall to waste?

  * * *

  Back at the Plum Season, I left Worry outside and rejoined Yi and Deng in the gallery upstairs.

  “Thank you for accompanying Missus Pan out,” said the widow. “She’s a sly one. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s behind the tales waxing wild about my troubles. Do you think she saw the tea box?”

  “We’d be wise to assume she did,” I said.

  Deng finished the last of his tea. “Madam Yi and I have reached an agreement. We’ll try this partnership, for good or for ill. But whatever shall we do about this accursed tea?”

  “I will try to lift the curse with what my father taught me, but I must have privacy. Leave the tribute with me, bring more hot water, then go outside. Do not come in, unless I seek your help. And under no circumstances allow Missus Pan or anyone else in. If something goes awry, I wish neither of you to be harmed.”

  Deng and Yi exchanged glances. It must have seemed unreal to them, but they had both felt the touch of the shengxiao curses. And so they complied.

  Once alone, I replaced the floorboard, chose the large table in the northeast corner, and set the tribute of Sweet Dew upon it. There was just enough light from outside to see by. I held the fan before me.

  I had never summoned shengxiao spirits to drink settlement tea before, so I didn’t know what to expect. Should I call Goat first, or Monkey? My instinct would be to start with the one wronged, but then I caught myself. The advice Dog gave meant I shouldn’t show favor to one over the other. By assuming that Goat was the victim, I’d lose Monkey’s respect before the judgment even began. I must address both at once.

  With the fan handle between my palms, I twirled it back and forth to make the illusion that the silhouettes of Monkey and Goat both shared the same face.

  Honored spirits of the shengxiao, whose curses mark this tribute of tea! I called with my mind’s voice to the images before me. I, the lowly Ao Tienwei, invite you to have tea on the corner. Your curses have cost lives and may ruin more. That need not be. I offer to hear your grievances and suggest a peaceful resolution to your quarrel.

  To my surprise, a swirl of mystic wind twisted the fan out of my hands, setting it a-spin in mid-air. Both figures animated as it turned. The goat sprang off the silk as a beast of ink and shadow onto the floor, growing large. Likewise, the ink-monkey caught the frame of the fan, cast himself into a handstand, then with a giant swing flung himself skyward to catch a wooden beam above.

  “Brave of you to summon me, tailless Ao of the thrilling sweets,” said Monkey aloud. “Braver yet to invite Her Hoofed Aloofness to treat with me.”

  “Is this to be a game of insults, My Babbling Foe?” Goat also replied with a true voice. She rose onto her rear legs, her inky wool weaving into a long-sleeved robe with goat-hair trims. A lady’s hands emerged from the sleeves. In all but her goat’s visage she appeared like a woman.

  I bowed my head deep. “I am humbled to be in the presence of such exalted spirits. I didn’t expect you to come in manifestation.”

  “An invitation holds power,” said Monkey.

  “An invitation opens a door,” added Goat.
“I know you through the candy goats and sheep you make, but not why you butt in. Who are you, Magician Ao, and why should I trust your judgment?”

  “I’m a wandering Tangren sorcerer like my father, always trading fair favor for magic, as you shengxiao spirits demand.”

  “True,” Monkey chittered. “We’ve met before, the candyman and I. He kept his word on a contract.”

  “But are you still beholden to Monkey?” Goat questioned.

  “In this matter between the two of you, I am bound to neither,” I said. “As for my fitness to judge this dispute, I admit this will be my first try. In my journeys I’ve seen many a settlement tea, but only admired those arbiters who acted with integrity. If I do not, curse me. Will you accept my final judgment in this settlement?”

  Monkey now dangled from the beam with one arm. “You’re a meddler, Ao, but so are many under my sign. Very well. Someone who’s lived among the outlaws of the Jianghu might side with me.”

  “Whereas I would rather trust one who obeys the law,” grumbled Goat.

  “I walk both the shadows and in the light,” I confessed. “As a wanderer I’ve lived the outlaw ways, but I also secretly serve a magistrate, to help protect the city from the Ten Crows.”

  Goat chewed her cud. “I will take you at your word, young ram. A civil tea, then, with you as moderator to settle our clash.”

  “But a grievance at tea is heard before a crowd,” said Monkey. He plucked a handful of ink-strand hairs from his head, held it before his mouth, and blew. The hair scattered and turned into dozens of shadowy monkeys crowding the beams above us. Some had a demonic cast to them, raising the hackles on my neck.

  Goat sighed. “Then I shall bring my flock.” She teased black wool from her chin and let it drift to the floor. When the tuft touched the wood, it pulled apart and apart again, each lump becoming its own sheep or goat silhouette until they crowded the gallery. A few had skulls where their heads should be.

  At the sight of Goat’s flock, Monkey’s troupe grew menacing. They leapt from birdcage to birdcage, screeching as they grabbed and flung chopsticks at the sheep and goats. In response, two goat demons rammed into wooden columns, shaking the teahouse. The jolt made one of his snub-nosed troublemakers lose its grip on a beam. The monkey-ghost fell through the atrium and broke apart into smoke when it smashed against the floor.

  “I will not be swayed by numbers or violence,” I warned. Often the parties in the dispute brought followers to the teahouse to show how strong their support was. Some mediators simply ruled in favor of the one with the larger crew, but I never thought that fair. However, it was their right to a judgment before witnesses, and in this case spirits were the public eye.

  “Then let us see your cleverness, Ao,” said Monkey, rattling a birdcage with his tail. “Which of us would you like to hear first?”

  It was a trap to see if I’d choose him or Goat, and show my bias. However, I might be able to sidestep that. “Honored ones, as I had issued the invitation, allow me to begin with my understanding of your dispute. I’m told that this shipment of tribute tea was stolen on its way to the capital. Both of you lay claim on it, and thus you each cursed the tribute but with contradictory mandates. Is this true?”

  “Yes,” said Goat before Monkey could. “For over a thousand years, the immortal tea has gone to the ruling emperor. This new emperor was born a Fire Goat, and by divine right we should have first sip of that tea, first claim to that power.”

  Monkey laughed. “O Bearded Fury, rage on! Whosoever has the thing, owns the thing. If I’m sly enough to steal the tribute from you, then you never deserved it at all.”

  Goat scoffed. “But with its magic, I guard the emperor. Deny me this and the empire will suffer bad fortune. Less than two years has he reigned—”

  “That one does not truly rule while the retired emperor tugs his strings.” Monkey flicked his tail. “Besides, you had your hoof on this boon six emperors ago. It was seventeen emperors ago, two hundred-odd years, for me.”

  “Then why didn’t you bother Rat or Dragon or Rabbit or Pig? They’ve had more emperors and years of rule than me.”

  “My Gruff Lady, I had a thief and an opportunity. Pity that you cursed the Sweet Dew and forced my paw. My counter-curse almost had my man brew a cup of that tea for me but for that guilt you laid upon him.”

  “Your curse has made men go mad desiring the tea’s power,” said Goat. “For shame.”

  “You would give that power to an emperor as always, fattening his wealth and waist,” said Monkey. “I swear to only use that fortune to bless children born this year, for even a sliver of it at the right time may save an infant’s life.”

  I raised my hands for quiet. “Thank you, both. Your reasons have merit and claim to the tea, but while the curses clash, they rob you both of the privilege to enjoy the Sweet Dew. All they’ve done is cause grief. From what I’ve heard, the first sip of the immortal tea is key?”

  “Such is our way,” answered Goat. “The first mortal who drinks of it gifts that year’s power to his shengxiao patron.”

  “Let me compose my judgment, good spirits.”

  I’d forgotten completely about the hot water I’d asked for, and it was now lukewarm. Goat and Monkey had come more for a settlement than to drink tea. I poured myself a cup and stared at the spinning fan.

  How should I rule in this case? Goat invoked law and divine right: the tribute was the emperor’s to offer to gods and ancestors. If fortune smiled upon him, it smiled upon the kingdom. To find against Goat might bring calamity upon us all. I had heard that the emperor sought peace with the Jin court in the north. The blessing brought by the tribute might achieve that.

  Yet if I sided against Monkey, would I condemn countless innocents to an early grave? Monkey’s argument was that theft was justified when it might save a life. That was sometimes the way of the poor. When I was little, my father sometimes had to steal food to keep us alive. Was this any different? Infants faced so many dangers in the first year of life: disease, accidents, abandonment. If Monkey’s luck could bring them a fighting chance....

  It was a dreadful choice. Perhaps Monkey and Goat were both in the right. But they couldn’t share the power between them, when only the first to drink the immortal tea would lay claim for them.

  Or was there another way?

  The fan still spinning in mid-air reminded me of Fanmaker Bai, and in turn Matchmaker Tan’s riddle contest. An idea began to take shape. There was one way a matchmaker might help.

  “My Divine Guests, I have weighed your words and will give my judgment.”

  At my pronouncement, the gallery seemed to still to hear me. The phantom factions turned their spirit eyes upon me, and I felt an otherworldly chill seize me.

  To calm my nerves, I sipped my water. “You both have good intentions to save lives but in different yet commendable ways. I am heartened that the power from the tribute won’t be wasted. But who has been wronged? Does divine right mean more than ‘he who dares, wins’? To you immortals, these ancient rights are equal and surpass mortal laws. Thus, I deem you both to have just claims.”

  Monkey dropped down onto the table. “That’s your ruling? It solves nothing.”

  “I’m not finished,” I said. “You are also both to blame for your feud of curses, bringing death and madness to mortals. Thus I also rule that neither of you deserve the whole of the tribute power.”

  Goat thumped the floor with a hoof under her flowing robes. “But the first sip can only go to one. Do you deny us both?”

  I gestured for her to calm down. “You merit equal shares of the power to do as you have vowed. The Four Pillars of Destiny rule each man or woman by birth year, birth month, birth day, and birth hour. It has been your custom that the tribute magic goes to the birth-year animal, but as arbiter in this settlement, I decree that whosoever sips first the tea from this shipment, grants half the power to his year animal, and the other half to the secret spirit who rules over his birth-hour
. You must also lift your curses. That is my final judgment.”

  After my last word, thunder rumbled outside.

  Neither Goat nor Monkey seemed entirely pleased. Monkey scratched his head. “Half of something’s better than nothing, I suppose, but you’re gambling on finding the proper person to drink the tea. Many things could go wrong between then and now.”

  “Brother Monkey, might I suggest a consequence if he does not deliver?” said Goat. “We have pledged to use the tribute magic toward our causes: empire and children born of our signs. Until Ao resolves our dispute, let us take what luck we need for those tasks from all those in Chengdu born of our signs.”

  Monkey jumped around excitedly. “Agreed, agreed!”

  I shivered as I felt the touch of this combined curse. If I couldn’t locate the right person to drink that tea and soon, I’d be bringing misfortune to many in Chengdu through no fault of their own.

  “And one more curse upon him,” Monkey decided. “Until our dispute is resolved, no shengxiao spirit except you and I may hear or help Ao. And if the wrong man drinks, let this ban last lifelong.”

  “Seems fair,” said Goat.

  Their ban was a potent threat against a Tangren sorcerer like me, robbing me of aid from my shengxiao patrons. What magic would be left to me?

  “I will find the right one, and fast,” I said.

  “How?” asked Goat.

  “I’ll write to Matchmaker Tan. To predict the fortunes of a couple-to-be, she notes down their Four Pillars. She if anyone could find the person we need, and quickly.” I hesitantly took hold of the spinning fan. It was blank now, perfect for my message. “Cleverest Son of the Forest, and Hardiest Daughter of the Mountains, may I have some ink?”

  The two glared at one another. Goat spat ink into an empty teacup, while Monkey pissed his donation into the same.

  I took a chopstick, dipped it into the ink, and wrote on the fan:

  Honorable Madam Tan,

  We met once, after your riddle contest. Forgive my odd plea, but many lives depend on finding someone whose year animal is Monkey and whose secret animal is Goat. Or in the other order. I vow to visit soon and repay this favor. Thank you.