A Hand on the Blade
A breeze stirred the leaves with a soft rustle, and the hem of the blue spiral-patterned cloth spread over the table fluttered in the wind.
The Grand Princess asked in a low voice.
"Where is Ayan?"
"I'm afraid I worried you, Grandmother. I came to no harm myself."
Bai Jingyan replied.
When the Grand Princess nodded, Lu Ninghua lifted the embroidered bamboo curtain and stepped out from the side chamber. In her hands she carried a black lacquered plate inlaid with gold, on which sat delicately shaped sweet brie pastries and a pot of osmanthus honey long kept warm.
After paying her respects to those present, Lu Ninghua said with a smile,
"When word came that the Second and Fourth Young Misses were returning victorious, the Grand Princess had the osmanthus honey prepared especially. She said she would drink it in place of wine to toast you both."
There was no Bai family ancestral hall here, and Bai Jingyan had not led the Bai clan's army out to the battlefield herself.
And yet, for the Grand Princess, the scene of the Bai clan returning in triumph—bustling and noisy as they reported their safety to their ancestors—had never been so vivid as it was today.
Bai Jingyan stepped forward, nodded to Lu Ninghua, then raised her cup and drank the osmanthus honey before kneeling once more before the Grand Princess.
"Bai Jingyan, eldest daughter of the Bai clan, has returned safe and sound."
Bai Jinchi's eyes reddened. She remembered the day the Seventh Sister had knelt before their eldest sister and reported herself unharmed. How wonderful it would have been, she thought, if all the men of the Bai family could have come back whole and said these same words to their ancestors and elders.
Bai Jinchi too drank the sweet osmanthus honey after her sister, then knelt before the Grand Princess.
"Bai Jinchi, fourth daughter of the Bai clan, has returned safe and sound to Dadu!"
The Grand Princess nodded, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Yes. So long as you are safe, that is enough."
Nanny Zhang brought in the tea Lu Ninghua had brewed, then ordered the servants to lay plump cushions on the stone benches.
Because Bai Jinxiu was with child, Nanny Zhang had prepared osmanthus tea just for her. Its fragrance was delicate and lingering.
"Jinse, take your fourth sister and go pick some more osmanthus. Your eldest sister is here today, so Nanny Zhang will cook the evening meal herself. It will be osmanthus yam—your eldest sister's favorite."
The Grand Princess had deliberately sent Bai Jinchi and Bai Jinse outside. Bai Jinchi caught on at once and took Bai Jinse's hand.
"Yes, ma'am! I've been craving Nanny Zhang's osmanthus yam too!"
Once the two girls had gone, the Grand Princess told Lu Ninghua to sit. After a long silence, her brow furrowed as she spoke.
"The Emperor commits more and more outrageous follies by the day!"
At those words, Lu Ninghua rose, offered a bow, and looked toward Bai Jingyan.
"I have been checking His Majesty's pulse at regular intervals. His mind is clear, but the pulse is somewhat strange. It seems he has been taking cinnabar—a mercury-based substance said to calm the mind."
"You mean His Majesty is taking elixirs?"
Bai Jinxiu turned to Lu Ninghua in alarm.
"Yes! Elixirs have become fashionable of late among the noble families of Wei. It is said the pills brighten the complexion, lend an air of vigor, and restore one's vitality. Rumor even claims they extend one's years. Cinnabar is still a medicine—taken in proper doses it can treat anxiety, insomnia, even seizures—but taking it heavily, or over a long period, is absolutely forbidden."
Elixirs promising long life had first appeared when the Jin Dynasty was at the height of its prosperity. Emperor Wende, the Grand Princess's grandfather, had died after consuming such longevity elixirs. Because of that, the first act of the Grand Princess's father upon ascending the throne had been to declare all elixirs forbidden within the imperial house. No scion of the imperial family might touch such substances save for genuine medical need.
Bai Jingyan lowered her head and thought it through. Then... was the Emperor favoring King Yang because King Yang had been supplying him with elixirs?
Lu Ninghua glanced once at the Grand Princess and continued.
"If His Majesty keeps taking the elixirs and does not also give up the aphrodisiacs from Xiliang, I doubt he will last another two years."
"If he began favoring King Yang around the time he started taking elixirs... could King Yang be the one supplying them?"
Bai Jinxiu connected the two threads at once and seized the heart of the matter.
Wei Zhong spoke at just the right moment.
"Before departing for Yanwo to manage the disaster refugees, King Yang dismissed most of the servants in his estate. He kept only those who handled the household affairs and those who attended him closely day to day, and sent all the rest away! King Yang Estate is now guarded by the shadow guards His Majesty dispatched there—it is a fortress in all but name. Getting word out from within is no easy matter."
The cup Bai Jingyan was lifting stopped in midair. The Emperor had sent shadow guards to protect King Yang's estate?
Was King Yang truly supplying the elixirs, and was that why the Emperor prized him—or his estate—so highly?
Could the imperial descendants be unable to defy the ancestral prohibition on elixirs openly, and so have ordered King Yang to refine them inside King Yang Estate instead?
"Have you looked into the estate's purchase records?" Bai Jingyan asked.
Neither Wei Zhong nor Bai Jinxiu had thought that far. Wei Zhong apologized first.
"This servant has been negligent!"
"Look into it with particular care—see whether there are records of buying the Three Yellows, saltpeter, or pine resin."
At Bai Jingyan's words, Bai Jinxiu nodded.
"I'll find out. It won't take long."
"If the Emperor has truly laid his hands on the elixirs..."
The Grand Princess shook her head.
"He will not live long. And yet... receiving them this covertly means that if anyone tries to talk him out of it, he will surely suspect that a spy has been planted at his side."
Not even the Grand Princess could dissuade him. She was the Grand Princess of Jin, the Emperor's own aunt—and yet the Emperor regarded her as a Bai.
The Bai clan had surrendered the military power the Emperor had been anxiously clutching at. But still he could not bring himself to trust them. He already watched Bai Jingyan warily enough; if her grandmother moved to counsel him, the Grand Princess herself might have survived, but the Emperor would have moved to kill Bai Jingyan—and every last remaining member of the Bai family besides.
Far better, then, to leave the Emperor to sink into the mire on his own. It seemed wisest for the Crown Prince to inherit the throne sooner rather than later. At the very least, the Crown Prince trusted Bai Jingyan.
Bai Jingyan had no interest in persuading the Emperor, but she worried that if he died too soon, some unforeseen variable might arise.
"I did not summon you here for this alone. Ayan—you must beware of King Yang!"
Having said this, the Grand Princess looked to Wei Zhong.
"Go and bring him in!"
Wei Zhong nodded and left the courtyard.
Bai Jinxiu looked at the Grand Princess, uncomprehending.
"Grandmother?"
"Ever since it came to light that King Xin, to save his own skin, had seduced Ayan's maid into planting a letter written in your grandfather's own hand in the study, I have thought about King Yang day after day! However I turn it over, King Yang does not strike me as the sort of fool who wouldn't even know what the crime of betraying one's country is. He is trying, unmistakably, to drive the Bai family to their deaths!"
The memory set her heart pounding again despite herself, and the Grand Princess spun the prayer beads in her hand rapidly.
"So I sent Wei Zhong to find out why King Yang would ever do such a thing. And he has found at least part of the answer."
Scarcely had the Grand Princess finished speaking when Wei Zhong came back in, hauling a young man whose legs trembled so badly he could barely stand.
He was a pale-skinned man without a beard, and he had only one arm.
The moment he entered and saw Bai Jingyan—clad in silver armor and radiating a formidable menace—and the Grand Princess in all her imposing dignity, the strength drained from his legs and he dropped to his knees, shaking like a leaf in the wind. Wei Zhong seized him by the collar and dragged him across the floor before the Grand Princess, Bai Jingyan, and Bai Jinxiu.
The man scrambled back down onto his knees, pressed his forehead flat to the ground in the Grand Princess's direction, and dared not lift his head.
"Who are you?"
Bai Jinxiu asked, staring down at the man kneeling on the floor.
"Th-this servant... this servant Haru was a servant in King Yang Estate who served tea to King Yang. Before, I merely followed Eunuch Dongji about and took his orders. But after Eunuch Dongji died, King Yang dismissed all the servants of the estate, and this servant was assigned to attend His Highness in Dongji's place."
The eunuch tried to raise his head, but the instant he glimpsed the hem of Bai Jingyan's armor he flinched and pressed his face down until it nearly touched the earth again. Then he confessed everything.
"This servant... this servant Haru, hoping His Highness would look on me a little more favorably, had been scheming to let it be known, however subtly, that I was close with Eunuch Dongji. I decided I would make a show of burning paper money for Eunuch Dongji. That way, I meant to let it be known naturally that we were on good terms.
"But then... I witnessed something I never meant to see. I saw King Yang telling a man in black robes that he bore a grudge against the Bai family thicker than blood!
"King Yang was explaining to that man that the Duke of Zhenguo had tried to overturn a case for the sake of Censor Jian Zhongwen, driving Consort Dong to her death, and that the Second Prince had committed treason only because he was left with no other choice! Had the Duke of Zhenguo not meddled, he said—and it was the Second Prince's army at the time, was it not—what reason would the Second Prince ever have had to turn traitor?
"And then the man asked King Yang: the men of the Bai family of the Duke of Zhenguo were already all dead, so why drive the whole house down into ruin? And King Yang answered him thus: that... that it was because the Zhenguo Commandery Princess still lived, and while she lived the Bai family continued to bask in honor—so they had to be killed! He said that only when the Bai family had been torn limb from limb and their name extinguished root and branch would the grudge be sated—and he begged for the man's sincere partnership in it!"
Remembering that scene, the eunuch trembled from head to toe.
"I had learned a secret of King Yang's that could never be allowed to spread, and I tried to flee at once—but I was caught! Not knowing what to do, this servant recited the speech I had prepared beforehand. I said I had come to burn paper money for Eunuch Dongji! But then King Yang said to me: since I seemed so very close with Eunuch Dongji, I ought to go to him instead—then Eunuch Dongji would not be lonely either!
"Then one of his guards struck me, and I fainted on the spot. When I came to, I was inside a carriage. They were dragging this servant to Eunuch Dongji's grave, meaning to bury me alive! When I tried to run, the guard drew his sword, and this servant had no choice but to throw myself into the river—I barely saved my life. My arm was lost in that river too! By great fortune, Lord Wei fished this servant out of the water, and by dressing another corpse in my place, I was able to stay alive!"
The eunuch finished his account in a thin, weeping voice and raised his head. The moment his eyes met Bai Jingyan's—watching him as though to weigh the truth of it—he hastily bowed his head again.
"Did you get a proper look at the man in black?"
Bai Jingyan asked.
"No..."
The eunuch answered, then went on.
"But I believe King Yang addressed that man as 'Your Highness'! He said, 'Your Highness, do not worry. I sincerely wish to form an alliance with Your Highness!'"
A prince?
Bai Jingyan turned the teacup in her hand over her fingers, lost in thought.
A prince who would ally with King Yang. She had already ruled out certain princes of Dadu. Not long after ascending the throne, the Emperor had rooted out every royal kinsman in the capital who either harbored great ambition or possessed ability enough to be deemed a threat.