China by Edward Rutherfurd (historical books to read TXT) 📕

to do? Time was going on. Were the British going to arrive? In the worst case, I supposed, I might leave the pavilion and come back after the British had gone. After all, if I couldn’t find the pendant, it wasn’t very likely they would. But I didn’t want to fail in my mission. The princess might not care for me so much. Love is conditional in palaces.

There was only one thing I could think of: Break the cabinet open. But how? With an axe? What kind of damage was that going to do to the cabinet, which was a work of art itself? How would I explain it? I suppose I could say the barbarians did it.

I started to hunt around the adjoining rooms to see if there was any implement I could use. I couldn’t find a thing. And I was just about to go over to the palace kitchens to see what I could find there when outside I heard the sound of voices. Loud voices. Barbarian voices. I looked out from a doorway and saw red uniforms, a hundred yards away.

The British had come.

I rushed back to the cabinet. In one last attempt I reached in, slid the panel I’d tried first, pushed…And this time, lo and behold, I found the lever. I pulled it down.

And nothing happened. I couldn’t believe it. With a howl of rage and frustration, forgetting I’d wounded it, I slammed the flat of my hand against the side of the cabinet as hard as I could. I felt a huge shock of pain in my hand. I cursed the rosewood cabinet.

And from somewhere inside it, I heard a faint click.

I reached in. The secret compartment was open. A moment later, the jadeite pendant was in my hand, and I was gazing at it. I couldn’t help myself. The jadeite was so beautifully carved, with birds and bats, for luck. Yet it retained the watery purity of this most lovely of all the jades. Such stones are not to be found within the entire Celestial Kingdom. They are brought by merchants from Burma. Soft as a reflecting pool, yet tougher than a diamond. You can carve it, and it will never break. The gift of an emperor to his love. And I was about to carry this wonder, resting against my own unworthy body.

For there was only one thing to do: I hung the pendant around my neck. It was quite invisible under my clothes. The question was, could I get out of there without being captured or killed by the British? Cautiously, I went to the door.

—

The British barbarians were already fanning out around that end of the lake. A second column of troops had just arrived from the entrance. In front of my eyes they peeled off to the left and right, going to the islands by the look of it. Then I noticed something else. They were laughing, as if they were at a festival.

Of course, I realized: Their officers had brought them there as a reward. A big treat. A day in paradise, looting the emperor’s vast treasure house to their hearts’ content. All they could carry. No wonder they were happy.

I started to walk away from the pavilion. They saw me, but nobody made a move towards me. I suppose if I’d carried a gun or brandished a knife someone might have taken me down. Or if I’d been pushing a handcart full of gold, they’d have had that off me. But all they saw was a lone palace eunuch, unarmed and carrying nothing, trying to get out of their way. I kept going, towards the main entrance.

I was only twenty paces from Mr. Ma’s enclosure when things went wrong.

I may have difficulty telling one barbarian from another, but this one was an exception. His uniform wasn’t quite the same as the other men’s, and he had a sword. He was standing alone, watching the troops as they fanned out.

He was average height for a barbarian, I think, but strongly built. He had a short light brown mustache. He face was regular, broad of brow, intelligent. And he had the bluest eyes that I have ever seen. They gave me a keen look, but not unfriendly, as if he’d let me pass.

He didn’t. He drew his sword and made a gesture that I should stop. He surveyed me thoughtfully. Then, with the tip of his sword, he raised my robe, to see if I was hiding anything between my legs. He didn’t find anything, but he wasn’t satisfied.

Just then, I heard a voice calling him. “Goh-Dun!” He took no notice, but kept his eyes on me. “Goh-Dun!” the voice called out again. I supposed this must be the officer’s name. Then the voice said something in his barbarian tongue that sounded like: “Wat yur gat dare?”

Goh-Dun half turned. I did the same. It was another officer, dressed the same way and walking towards us. Goh-Dun waited for him to arrive and said something to him. The officer nodded and patted me down: legs, arms, my crotch. He turned back to Goh-Dun and shook his head.

But Goh-Dun still wasn’t satisfied. His bold blue eyes gazed at me, like an engineer inspecting a bridge. He said something, and the other officer opened the top of my tunic. Goh-Dun let the blade of his sword rest lightly against my neck. Then he started tracing the blade along my collarbone. I kept very still, but I tried to lower my collarbone imperceptibly so that the sword blade would slide easily over the ribbon. It nearly worked, but not quite. I saw him give a tiny frown, then a half-smile. He drew the blade back a few inches, inserted the point under the ribbon, and pulled it up.

A moment later, the jadeite pendant was hanging down my front for all to see.

“Aha,” said Goh-Dun.

The two officers inspected it. They were talking and nodding. It was obvious that they thought the pendant