Kai Lung’s Golden Hours by Ernest Bramah (an ebook reader .TXT) 📕

Melodious Vision. Her voice was more musical than a stand of hanging jewels touched by a rod of jade, and each word fell like a separate pearl. “He who ignores the Usages must expect to find the Usages ignored. Since the day when K’ung-tsz framed the Ceremonies much water has passed beneath the Seven Terraced Bridge, and that which has overflowed can never be picked up again. It is no longer enough that you should come and thereby I must go; that you should speak and I be silent; that you should beckon and I meekly obey. Inspired by the uprisen sisterhood of the outer barbarian lands, we of the inner chambers of the Illimitable Kingdom demand the right to express ourselves freely on every occasion and on every subject, whether the matter involved is one that we understand or not.”

“Your clear-cut words will carry far,” said Chang Tao deferentially, and, indeed, Melodious Vision’s voice had imperceptibly assumed a penetrating quality that justified the remark. “Yet is it fitting that beings so superior in every way should be swayed by the example of those who are necessarily uncivilized and rude?”

“Even a mole may instruct a philosopher in the art of digging,” replied the maiden, with graceful tolerance. “Thus among those uncouth tribes it is the custom, when a valiant youth would enlarge his face in the eyes of a maiden, that he should encounter forth and slay dragons, to the imperishable glory of her name. By this beneficent habit not only are the feeble and inept automatically disposed of, but the difficulty of choosing one from among a company of suitors, all apparently possessing the same superficial attributes, is materially lightened.”

“The system may be advantageous in those dark regions,” admitted Chang Tao reluctantly, “but it must prove unsatisfactory in our more favoured land.”

“In what detail?” demanded the maiden, pausing in her attitude of assured superiority.

“By the essential drawback that whereas in those neglected outer parts there really are no dragons, here there really are. Thus⁠—”

“Doubtless there are barbarian maidens for those who prefer to encounter barbarian dragons, then,” exclaimed Melodious Vision, with a very elaborately sustained air of no-concern.

“Doubtless,” assented Chang Tao mildly. “Yet having set forth in the direction of a specific Vision it is this person’s intention to pursue it to an ultimate end.”

“The quiet duck puts his foot on the unobservant worm,” murmured Shen Yi, with delicate encouragement, adding: “This one casts a more definite shadow than those before.

“Yet,” continued the maiden, “to all, my unbending word is this: he who would return for approval must experience difficulties, overcome dangers and conquer dragons. Those who do not adventure on the quest will pass outward from this person’s mind.”

“And those who do will certainly Pass Upward from their own bodies,” ran the essence of the youth’s inner thoughts. Yet the network of her unevadable power and presence was upon him; he acquiescently replied:

“It is accepted. On such an errand difficulties and dangers will not require any especial search. Yet how many dragons slain will suffice to win approval?”

“Crocodile-eyed one!” exclaimed Melodious Vision, surprised into wrathfulness. “How many⁠—” Here she withdrew in abrupt vehemence.

“Your progress has been rapid and profound,” remarked Shen Yi, as, with flattering attention, he accompanied Chang Tao some part of the way towards the door. “Never before has that one been known to leave a remark unsaid; I do not altogether despair of seeing her married yet. As regards the encounter with the dragon⁠—well, in the case of the one whispering in your ear there was the revered mother of the one whom he sought. After all, a dragon is soon done with⁠—one way or the other.”

In such a manner Chang Tao set forth to encounter dragons, assured that difficulties and dangers would accompany him on either side. In this latter detail he was inspired, but as the great light faded and the sky-lantern rose in interminable succession, while the unconquerable li ever stretched before his expectant feet, the essential part of the undertaking began to assume a dubious facet. In the valleys and fertile places he learned that creatures of this part now chiefly inhabited the higher fastnesses, such regions being more congenial to their wild and intractable natures. When, however, after many laborious marches he reached the upper peaks of pathless mountains the scanty crag-dwellers did not vary in their assertion that the dragons had for some time past forsaken those heights for the more settled profusion of the plains. Formerly, in both places they had been plentiful, and all those whom Chang Tao questioned spoke openly of many encounters between their immediate forefathers and such Beings.

It was in the downcast frame of mind to which the delays in accomplishing his mission gave rise that Chang Tao found himself walking side by side with one who bore the appearance of an affluent merchant. The northernward way was remote and solitary, but seeing that the stranger carried no outward arms Chang Tao greeted him suitably and presently spoke of the difficulty of meeting dragons, or of discovering their retreats from dwellers in that region.

“In such delicate matters those who know don’t talk, and those who talk don’t know,” replied the other sympathetically. “Yet for what purpose should one who would pass as a pacific student seek to encounter dragons?”

“For a sufficient private reason it is necessary that I should kill a certain number,” replied Chang Tao freely. “Thus their absence involves me in much ill-spared delay.”

At this avowal the stranger’s looks became more sombre, and he breathed inwards several times between his formidable teeth before he made reply.

“This is doubtless your angle, but there is another; nor is it well to ignore the saying, ‘Should you miss the tiger be assured that he will not miss you,’ ” he remarked at length. “Have you sufficiently considered the eventuality of a dragon killing you?”

“It is no less aptly said: ‘To be born is in the course of nature, but to die is according to