Palace Maids, Destinies Bound to the Imperial Palace (2)
At the foot of Mount Dashu in Hefei stood Jinmyeong Manor.
From the plaque of the pavilion nestled in the manor's innermost depths, a vitality seemed to leap from the carved characters themselves — as if a dragon might uncoil and take flight at any moment.
Deep within Jinmyeong Manor lay Wuncheonwon.
There sat Yi Yugyeong and Nam Woo-jeong, who two months prior had been driven from Yingtianfu by Jin Myeong, his fellow eunuchs, and Hyundo, the Wudang Palm King. With them was Song Jeon, known within Suchengye as the Grand Preceptor.
Song Jeon took a slow sip of tea and set his cup down.
"How are your bodies faring?"
Yi Yugyeong and Nam Woo-jeong sat side by side before him. The empty left sleeve of Nam Woo-jeong's robe hung limp where Hyundo's Ten-Step Brocade had taken the arm; Yi Yugyeong's face was still pale from the internal injuries she had suffered. Two months had passed, and still the damage showed.
"This young lady is well enough now, Grand Preceptor."
"This officer has no issues either."
"To think that old monster Hyundo had already come down from the mountain. So he was up there all along."
Nam Woo-jeong's martial prowess stood at the Peak Realm — Late Stage, a level at which he could contend with the masters of great sects and aristocratic clans on even terms. The man who had broken both him and Yi Yugyeong in a mere two exchanges — and done it with the Ten-Step Brocade, no less — could only have been Hyundo.
"This young lady failed to anticipate it as well. Who would have thought that old monster, vanished from the world for over seventeen years, would suddenly reappear?" Yi Yugyeong answered, her expression hard.
Hyundo had been brought into the fold the moment the Yongle Emperor took the throne. The construction of the Daoist temples on Wudang Mountain had been confirmed with that accession, and for the seventeen years since, the martial world had assumed Hyundo was living in seclusion somewhere among Wudang's seventy-two peaks.
"This old man thought the same. We all believed he was in retreat. But perhaps even that vicious old monster has changed with age. Mercy, of all things — it hardly suits him."
The Grand Preceptor found it genuinely strange that Hyundo had let Nam Woo-jeong, Yi Yugyeong, and the others leave with their lives. Who was the Palm King Hyundo? A Daoist of the Wudang Sect, yes — but a man who, by the number of people he had killed, ranked comfortably among the ten deadliest in the realm. He was a figure who made every unorthodox and demonic path under heaven grind its teeth. And that same Hyundo had spared the very people who had used underhanded methods against the promising young talent of his own sect?
It did not add up.
"It will not have been mercy. He let us go so that he could hunt the Covenant."
"True enough. A temperament forged over decades does not change so easily. Still — for all his trouble, it will come to nothing."
"They will not find this manor."
They were not fools. They knew perfectly well why they had been spared; they would hardly have allowed themselves to be followed. And in this martial world, they had prepared more than one or two false identities. Neither Song Jeon nor Yi Yugyeong felt the slightest concern that Jinmyeong Manor or Wuncheonwon might be exposed.
"As it should be. And you, General Nam — what do you intend to do now?"
Song Jeon asked this of Nam Woo-jeong, who had been staring into empty air with half-lidded eyes. The question was concern, thinly veiled. He had lost an arm. Would he be all right?
An arm was a tool of offense and defense, yes — but before that, it was an instrument of balance. The higher a martial artist climbed, the more a difference as thin as a sheet of paper decided victory or defeat. That was the world of true masters. And this was no swordsman or saber artist, wielding a short weapon. This was a spear master, a man of the long weapon, who had lost an arm. The cost could not be small.
"This officer still has one arm remaining."
Nam Woo-jeong answered with the same expression he always wore — a face set hard as stone. Put another way, a face of unbending will.
"Indeed... you are of Lord Nam's blood. With a man's mettle such as this, the Covenant Lord will put you to great use."
"This officer will strive without rest, Grand Preceptor."
"If this affair is handled well, we should be able to drive at least one dagger into that traitor's heart. Let us wait and see. The time is nearly upon us."
Song Jeon gave a slight nod and lifted the teapot, filling the empty cups with a soft trickle of tea.
In the interval before their winter operation, Song Jeon and Suchengye had played a piece of their own. They had been struck. Was it not only proper to strike back?
"The one who put Noble Consort Wang in the ground will not be in his right mind for some time."
"He will not. It will be worse than when the Kwon woman they brought in from Joseon died. A great help to the grand plan, I should think."
"Even so... to sacrifice Grand Academician Fang's granddaughter like that..."
The moment Yi Yugyeong mentioned Fang Xiaoru — the man who had opposed the Yongle Emperor and seen ten degrees of his kinship exterminated — Song Jeon's eyes flashed sharp as a blade.
Song Jeon and Yi Yugyeong had placed Fang Xiaoru's granddaughter inside the imperial palace.
"This young lady spoke out of turn."
"That child is the spitting image of the Grand Academician's unbending nature. She will slaughter her own kin and still refuse to shed what she considers unnecessary blood, all in the name of holding to the righteous path."
"..."
"She is a child unsuited to the grand plan. What use is someone vicious only toward herself and her own? You must be vicious toward others. The realm itself could be washed in blood and it would not be enough. Or does some pity stir in you simply because she is a woman, as you are?"
As Song Jeon said, judgment of Fang Xiaoru had always split into two camps. One hailed him as the very incarnation of integrity and loyalty. The other condemned him as a rigid fool whose stubborn clinging to his own convictions had gotten his entire clan and every soul connected to him massacred for nothing.
"...No."
"Great things cannot be accomplished with those who lack ruthlessness."
"This young lady will take it to heart. And the Covenant Lord...?"
Yi Yugyeong rebuked herself for slipping, however briefly, into a humane sentiment, and asked after the Covenant Lord's whereabouts. She had spent two full months in closed-door recovery, and there was a great deal of intelligence she had not yet grasped.
"The Covenant Lord has gone to Hainan."
At that same hour, in Noble Consort Wang's chambers at Jangan Palace, Jin Myeong and the Consort sat facing each other.
"An incense sachet made from crushed and compacted oleander. The Manja orchid in the flowerpot. The agarwood in the garden. When these three fragrances combine, they become a substance called Heart-Penetrating Incense Poison."
"Heart-Penetrating... Incense... Poison?"
Oleander was a shrub whose leaves, stems, and roots all carried toxin. The Manja, by itself, was harmless — a spring orchid prized for its powerful, distinctive fragrance.
"A fragrance poison that seeps into the heart, Your Highness. At a certain moment the toxin activates, severs the blood vessels leading to the heart, and the heart itself stops."
"Th-the heart stops? Then we must summon an imperial physician at once!"
Noble Consort Wang went white at the words. And why would she not? If it stopped this instant, what then? She was twenty-four years old, and the thought of dying young held not the faintest appeal.
"First we must determine who presented those items to Your Highness. The traitor may well be watching you even now."
Jin Myeong guided the Consort's anxious, impatient heart with a steady hand.
"Ah...! Yes. You are right. Then the wretches who gave me those three things were trying to kill me. The insolent creatures!"
"The sachet's contents are wrapped in paper, and there is no danger unless one handles them directly. The Manja orchid and the agarwood are, on their own, entirely harmless."
"So all three might be traitors — or none of them?"
"Just so, Your Highness. The traitor may have used three women who knew nothing at all as mere couriers."
"The sachet... I believe that was given to me by a Joseon merchant's daughter..."
Accepting Jin Myeong's reasoning, Noble Consort Wang began to search her memory. The first person she recalled was the one who had given her the incense sachet.
"A Joseon merchant's daughter...? Would that be Lady Yeo of the Dapeung rank, Your Highness?"
The words "Joseon merchant" brought a face immediately to Jin Myeong's mind. He knew Lady Yeo, the Joseon merchant's daughter, rather well — she was, in her way, a famous woman.
"Yes, Lady Yeo. This grows more remarkable by the moment. There are nine thousand palace maids in this palace. Do you mean to tell me you have memorized them all? They say the eunuchs of the inner court are the true ghosts of the imperial palace — and now I am beginning to find you frightening."
"It is the most basic requirement of the eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial, Your Highness."
The answer Jin Myeong offered the astonished Consort was a bald-faced lie. Noble Consort Wang, whose nature was artlessly sincere, was so consumed by the matter of the incense poison that she swallowed it without a second thought. Who on earth could memorize the personal details of nine thousand people?
Basic requirement, my foot. I remember her because she's famous.
Lady Yeo had been, in the life before Jin Myeong's regression, a central figure in the greatest massacre of palace maids in recorded history — the largest number ever killed in a single stroke. She and Noble Consort Wang had been the twin causes of that slaughter. The Consort had created the circumstances; Lady Yeo had been the trigger. Of course he knew her.
But this is starting to feel ominous...
He had always believed that Noble Consort Wang's sudden death had twisted the Yongle Emperor's temper and brought on the massacre. And now the woman who had given her the incense sachet turned out to be one of the two women caught in an affair with a eunuch.
Was that not a little too neat?
One of the other two who brought the remaining items... surely not. No. It couldn't be.
The causal threads between Noble Consort Wang's sudden death and the palace maid massacre were beginning to tangle in ways he did not like.
"And who brought the Manja orchid, Your Highness? It is a rare flower — you would certainly remember."
An ill premonition settled over him. Jin Myeong suppressed a faint shudder and pressed the question. The Manja was a treasure among orchids, counted among the so-called Four Heavenly Kings of the orchid world. To forget who had presented it was unthinkable — all the more so when the recipient was a devoted orchid enthusiast.
"You are right. That I remember clearly. Lady Eo gave it to me."
"Lady Eo! Would that be Lady Eo of the Dapeung rank?"
"I am no longer even surprised. Yes, that's right. Why do you look like that? What is the matter?"
"Then the agarwood — who brought the agarwood, Your Highness?"
Jin Myeong was so stunned he cut across her question without realizing it.
Lady Eo of the Dapeung rank. Like Lady Yeo, she was a woman who had been caught in an affair with a eunuch. Which meant that the two people who had set the massacre in motion had both supplied Noble Consort Wang with ingredients for the Heart-Penetrating Incense Poison.
Who. Who is it...
The ill premonition had become reality. Noble Consort Wang's sudden death had been a planned assassination — and the catastrophe that befell the palace maids had been no accident either. Of that he was now certain.
Someone is inside the imperial palace.
The proof was this: Lady Yeo and Lady Eo had taken their own lives the instant their affairs with eunuchs were discovered. In the life before his regression, Noble Consort Wang's cause of death had been paralysis of the heart, and so neither woman had ever been questioned. Yet they had killed themselves the moment the affairs came to light.
The one who brought the agarwood. That one is the key.
Which meant that the person who delivered the agarwood — or some third party — had likely been controlling Lady Yeo and Lady Eo. If the Consort's poisoning were ever discovered later, the true body of the plot would have needed to dispose of its couriers. The assumption held.
"That one is difficult, even for me. I believe a female attendant from the Imperial Academy of Medicine brought it, saying the fragrance calms the mind and body and aids digestion. But who it was, I cannot quite... hmm..."
"The Imperial Academy of Medicine... that much makes sense. Agarwood does indeed have those properties."
"In any case — whether they were put up to it or did it in ignorance! Thanks to them I nearly died—!"
And then, in that moment — as Noble Consort Wang, furious at the thought of how close she had come to departing this world in complete ignorance, raised her voice in anger —
"Kh—!"
The Consort, who had been about to strike her own knee, collapsed.
Her heart stopped. Her eyes rolled back. The hand clutching at her chest froze in place and began to tremble.
The toxin accumulated in the body has erupted all at once, seizing the vessels to the heart.
The Heart-Penetrating Incense Poison that had been lying in wait inside her had activated.
"Attendant! Is there an attendant outside!"
Jin Myeong swallowed a mouthful of empty air, his face gone urgent, and called at once for the Consort's personal eunuch. He had sent the man well out of earshot so that none of this conversation would be overheard, and now he shouted loud enough to make the pavilion itself ring.
A moment later—
"You called, sir—! Hhk! D-Director!"
The attendant eunuch came running at full tilt, took one look at the fallen Consort, and went rigid with terror. The eunuchs and palace maids who piled in behind him were no different. What kind of bolt from the blue was this?
And worse — Jin Myeong had his hand planted squarely on the Consort's chest, a sight that made their very marrow run cold.
This damn eunuch, who does he think he's grabbing?! One wrong move and I'll be buried with the treasure pot today, damn it all!
Even for Jin Myeong, who had been riding high of late, this was going too far. Or so they thought. Jin Myeong himself showed not the slightest concern.
"Summon an imperial physician at once! Physician Jo! It must be Imperial Physician Jo Sik, do you understand!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Go and give them this official's rank and name, and tell them Grand Director Jang In will take responsibility for what follows. Tell them to bring the Thousand-Year Jade Honey!"
Thousand-Year Jade Honey — the honey that bees had gathered in the fissures of jade — was an essential medicine for driving the incense poison from Noble Consort Wang's body. It was also a treasure that could not be released without the approval of the Emperor himself or the Grand Director of the Imperial Pharmacy. A true spiritual elixir, if ever there was one.
"Thousand-Year Jade Honey! It shall be done!"
"And further! If the Jinyiwei or the imperial guards try to stop you, tell them Her Highness has collapsed and that this official has ordered the use of a divine art! Take this official's token!"
"It shall be done!"
The attendant snatched Jin Myeong's token of authority and launched himself from the spot.
The air split with a shrieking whistle of displaced wind.
A short while later, Jin Myeong was using his Isin True Qi to intercept the poison surging toward Noble Consort Wang's heart and brain.
Toxin that had accumulated over a long period had erupted all at once, and its force was ferocious. The Consort had never practiced martial arts, and her body could not accommodate a large volume of true qi. A perilous tug-of-war dragged on. Jin Myeong was doing everything in his power, but the Isin True Qi was being driven back, inch by inch, toward the heart.
And then—
"Director! Are you inside!"
A sudden commotion rose outside, and Jo Sik's voice cut through it. Jo Sik of the Imperial Academy of Medicine had arrived.
"Director Jang! Keep going!"
"Physician! Quickly! Attendant — clear everyone out! Until Grand Director Jang In arrives, not a single person is to be admitted!"
"Yes, Director!"
Jin Myeong had the crowd withdrawn once more, and Jo Sik began inserting needles at once. The hands of a physician in his seventies, a man who had given his entire life to the medical arts, were precise and swift as a testament to that lifetime. The Consort's pale, luminous skin was soon dense with needles.
Several minutes later.
"Is there a palace maid here — quickly, the Jade Honey for Her Highness...! Damn it! Director Jang!"
Jo Sik was thrown. The next step was to administer the Thousand-Year Jade Honey to the Consort, and there was not a single palace maid in the room. Jin Myeong had just banished every last one of them, female attendants included.
"What?"
Jin Myeong looked at him in bewilderment, and Jo Sik whispered the reason in a low transmission of sound. That was why a palace maid had been needed. Jo Sik had been snatched up and flown here by the attendant; the female physicians had not yet arrived.
There was only one method left. If it had to be one of the two of them—
Better that Jin Myeong do it — a eunuch — than Jo Sik, who for all his years was still a man in full. A man stealing a kiss from an imperial consort's lips? And not just any consort — Noble Consort Wang, who would soon be invested as Empress? If that fact reached the Yongle Emperor's ears, a living hell of slaughter and chaos might unfold on the spot.
But what choice was there? The palace maids were gone, and the Consort was about to die.
Jin Myeong saw that there was no other way. He had not known it would come to this when he cleared out every palace maid in the room. He had brought it on himself.
His mouth closed over hers.
A man's full lips met a pair of lips that were soft and full, and pressed askew. The Jade Honey melting in Jin Myeong's mouth passed, with a gentle rhythm, down Noble Consort Wang's throat in small, careful swallows.
It was a scene in jarring contrast to the desperate urgency of the moment. Even the imperial physician watching found that, for that brief span, time itself seemed to stop, and the very air turned sweet. Whether from the melting Jade Honey or something else, a honeyed fragrance filled the room, and the kiss between the handsome young man and the beautiful woman went on a little longer still.
When every treatment was at last complete, Jin Myeong turned to the physician with a distinctly uneasy look.