Chapter 19

The tainted virgins were quarantined, Bo Tao was disgraced, and six eunuchs were whipped, two of them so badly that they were not expected to live. Ji Yue heard the news with the stoicism of an empty heart. The other girls in quarantine with her sobbed or had maidenly hysterics on a regular basis. During the noon meal, Head Eunuch came and apologized for the grave mental illness of his subordinate who perpetrated such a heinous crime. He told all of them that they would be allowed to return home to their families without disgrace.

No one left, of course. They all knew it was a lie. And no one dared say that it had been the Head Eunuch who had met them at the door to the palace and who had directed them inside. In such a way, the virgins hoped to buy favor with the evil man.

The Dowager Consort visited later that day. She went from room to room, a sly smile on her face as she praised their new quarters. It was to become the home for the lowest harem. She spent the most time in Ji Yue's bedroom. She complimented Ji Yue's bravery and confided that the man she had gripped was permanently maimed. Then she remarked on how wonderful it was that her son was so open-minded as to not require honor killings for them all. They would become wives despite everything!

Ji Yue did as was expected. She kissed the ground in thanks for the Emperor's generosity. Then she lifted her head and pinned the Dowager Consort with a dark stare. She had not forgotten the eunuch who escorted her to the party. She remembered that he had tempted her with sweet treats. He could not have known that except through the Imperial Consort.

Which meant the Emperor's mother had helped plan this disgrace. So Ji Yue stared hard at the Dowager. And the longer she glared, the darker the woman's color became.

"I would have helped you, Dowager Consort," Ji Yue finally said. "I would have seen to your comfort out of respect for your place as his mother." She straightened up from the floor, then made it to her feet. But the Dowager did not let her leave.

"And what will you do now?" The question was half taunt, half fear.

Ji Yue arched her brow and made her next words a vow. "I will see that you get the honor and respect you deserve."

Then she walked away, knowing she had just declared the most powerful woman in the Forbidden City as her enemy. It was a foolish thing to do, and yet the petty vengeance felt right. Worse, all sorts of possible slights and petty revenges came easily to mind. Within two hours, Ji Yue had thought of a dozen ways to make the Dowager's life a misery, and in this way, she soothed her own battered heart.

By evening, she grew sick of her own thoughts. Petty revenges she would never enact could not distract her for long from her real pain, the real ache of losing the love of her life. She could have fled the country with Bo Tao. She could even now be lying in his arms dreaming of the sons that they would have.

If she had run, would her father really have been destroyed? Would her mother truly have committed suicide from the shame? It was a possibility, she knew, but would they really commit suicide? It was possible, and yet...

If she was doomed to the lowest harem anyway, would the Emperor truly care if she escaped with his best friend? Would he really punish two such insignificant beings when he had all of China to oversee? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

She collapsed onto her knees before the fire in her room. Her gaze traced the dance of the flames. She felt like the burning log, on fire and slowly turning into a tiny knot of black ash. Did she whither now after one day in disgrace? How would she survive after a year in the lowest harem? Or worse, how would she live outside of the Forbidden City as she and Bo Tao ran from an angry Emperor?

The choices collided in her heart and her mind. One moment she thought she would run to Bo Tao and beg him on her knees to take her from here. The next moment would have her crying because the shame would destroy her family. And in that dark moment, she heard the one voice she most hoped and feared to hear.

"Virgins!" Bo Tao called. "The Emperor has brought you a present."

She spun around, her heart leaping to her throat as she looked through her doorway. His expression was hard as if frozen into place. She detected no softness in his eyes or his demeanor, and yet she thought his gaze lingered on her face. Did he see her tears and her regrets? She ducked her head in shame. She did not want to increase his suffering with her own. With her head down, she slowly stood, leaving her room to join the other tainted virgins in the main gathering place.

He watched her come into the center room. She knew it because her body tingled with awareness, but when she lifted her gaze, his face was turned to the room at large. He looked over all the girls, his expression hard, but his eyes sad. And then he held up nine red ribbons, each with a cheap monkey charm in the center.

"Virgins," he said again. "The Emperor apologizes for the insult given to you last night. He gives you this token of his esteem and bids you wear it tomorrow during the final selection of his brides."

Silence greeted his words. All understood its meaning. After all, the Emperor could not remember which of the thirty-six remaining virgins were the ones who had been insulted by the white apes last night. But this necklace, this cheap monkey charm would identify them as clearly as a black, ugly smear across their faces.

Ji Yue winced at the unfairness of it all. But in the silence following Bo Tao's pronouncement, Ji Yue felt a spark of intelligence. Suddenly she was lifting her head and pinning the disgraced Master with a sharp stare. "We are all commanded to wear this?"

He nodded, his chin dipping with a firm, angry motion.

"But does the Emperor say where we are to display this sign of his generosity?"

Bo Tao's lips curved in a slow smile. "I, too, have been punished," he said firmly, "for you virgins were in my care. I am punished for allowing such a heinous event in the first place. And so it is with great honor and humility that I wear my mark of shame here." Then to everyone's shock, he unbuttoned the top of his jacket. He pulled back the flap of his shirt so that all could see the pinned ribbon resting on the inside of his coat. Then he slowly closed his shirt. If he had not shown it to them, none would have known it was there.

Which meant that the tainted virgins could do the same. They could hide their ribbons! That meant they had nearly the same chance as everyone else! After all, the Son of Heaven had only seen them during one banquet. How would he tell one virgin apart from another except by a hidden token?

"You arranged this, didn't you, Sun Bo Tao?" Ji Yue asked.

He arched his eyebrow. "The Emperor commanded such tokens of shame. Is it my fault that in his fury, he forgets to specify the details?"

She smiled, her first real smile of the entire day. "You risk much in doing this."

He shrugged. "Can I fall further from grace?"

Yes.

Yes, he had a great deal farther to fall, but he had done it anyway. Ji Yue was the first to step forward, lifting the ugly ornament from his hand. "Thank you, Master of the Festival," she said, her heart in her eyes.

One by one, the tainted virgins stepped forward, taking her ribbon and secreting it away. "Thank you, Master of the Festival," each murmured and then disappeared from the main room, their voices raised with renewed excitement.

"You have given them hope for tomorrow," Ji Yue said when it was only him and her left. There wasn't even a eunuch to guard them, so far had they fallen from grace.

"I would give more," he said as he crossed to stand before her. "I would give you–"

She pressed her hand to his mouth. She did not want to hear his words. She did not want to allow herself to hope. "Tell me truthfully, Sun Bo Tao," she said. "For this shame, what is your punishment?"

He frowned and slowly pulled her hand from his mouth. But he did not release her fingers. "Men are never to blame," he said softly, "even when it is completely our fault." His eyes told her that he blamed himself for everything. For not knowing about the party, for seducing her when she had been all too willing, for everything that had passed. "I am commanded to wear this silly token, and another will speak in my stead at the marriage festival."

So no real punishment. "And afterwards?"

He looked down at their intertwined hands. "The position of my choice. I told him I must have an official place of power in his government or I will leave."

She looked up at him, truly pleased. "That is excellent news! Then you can have your own home and take a wife and..." Her voice trailed away. She did not like to think of him taking a wife who wasn't her.

"I would still give it up for you," he said. "We can still run."

She closed her eyes, fighting the urge to rush into his arms. "How would we live?" she asked. "What would you do?"

There were no jobs in China for a disgraced man. And that assumed that they were not caught and killed for their audacity.

Bo Tao shrugged. "I could learn something new. Ji Yue, it is not impossible to begin again. There is a very large world outside of China."

"But your whole life has been here. You were born to stand by the Emperor's side." Then before he could dismiss her objection, she rushed ahead to the next. "Have you ever lived poor?"

"My family is not wealthy, Ji Yue."

"But you grew up here, running with the future Son of Heaven. Have you ever wanted for rice in your bowl?"

"I do not care."

"You will," she returned.

"No, Ji Yue, I won't. Not if you are by my side."

She wanted to believe him. She did believe him. But he belonged in the Forbidden City helping the Emperor direct China. She would not let him throw his entire life away for her. "I care," she said. "I will not run."

He grimaced and released a puff of disgust. "You women are taught sacrifice from the cradle. You are here to serve men, to devote yourself to honor and our well-being." He abruptly gripped her arms and hauled her roughly forward. His eyes burned like fire, and she gasped in stunned shock. "Even you," he rasped, "with all your intelligence and your strong qi, you do not think that I need you, Ji Yue. That without you, I will..." He swallowed. "I will be hollow." Then he crushed her mouth to his, kissing her as boldly and as passionately as she had ever experienced.

She melted against him. How she ached for the dream that he offered!

Then he released her. The separation was as abrupt as the kiss, and she swayed on her feet. She wished he would steady her. She wanted to be in his arms again. But he held himself apart, and she was forced to balance herself while his attitude shifted from passionate to bitterly cold.

"Bo Tao–"

"Take this, Ji Yue," he said.

She looked down and saw that he held out two carved jade combs. The one was a dragon coiling in exquisite majesty. The other was a tigress, regal and fierce. Male dragon, female tigress–symbols as old as China–and he was giving them to her.

"Why?"

"They were my aunt's. She wore them when she was selected by the last Emperor, so she believed them to be lucky. According to her, when the two are separate like this, then the wearer still searches for her true heart. If a man were to steal the dragon from you–" He plucked the dragon comb away from her fingers. "Then he has taken your heart, and you belong to him."

Her eyes watered at the sight of him holding the dragon comb tucked against his chest.

"But if you wear them linked like this," he continued. "Then you have already found your heart." He reached out and carefully joined the two combs. The mechanism was subtle and intricate, but when he was done, she saw a dragon and tigress locked together in...

She smiled. "That is not an appropriate comb for a virgin."

He shrugged, but his eyes remained serious. "Tomorrow morning the virgins will assemble. They will be placed throughout the gardens and the walkways of the Forbidden City."

"I know."

"The Emperor will walk among you and choose one to be his Empress, four more to be his primary wives, and the rest will be separated into the middle and lower harems."

She nodded. "Yes, I know."

He pressed the linked combs into her hands. "Wear this comb linked like this, and the Emperor will know your heart is given to another." Then he took a breath as he carefully separated the two pieces. "Wear them apart and..."

She lifted her head. "And what?"

"And I believe he will select you as his Empress."

"What?" she gasped. The shock of his statement set her heart to clamoring in her throat.

His lips twisted into a rueful grimace. "Do you not understand why I was set to be Master of the Festival? Do you not know my strengths even now?"

She knew his intelligence and his compassion. She knew his fierce passion for his country and his virility as a man. "Which strength?" she laughed. "There are so many."

He flashed a smile at her, but then it disappeared. "Yi Zhen set me to find the most perfect of the virgins, the smartest and the most wholesome." He released a short breath. "He set me to find the best woman to be Empress. And I found her."

"Me?" she breathed.

"You."

She shook her head, the whole conversation too overwhelming. "But will he listen to you? He would pick me as his Empress?"

"I believe so, yes. If you leave the combs apart, he will know that you offer yourself to him and to China."

She swallowed. It was an awesome destiny and the very dream she had set for herself when she'd first learned of the Festival. "And if I link the combs, Bo Tao, what then? What is to happen to me then?" She searched his face for the truth, but saw only uncertainty.

"I cannot say, Ji Yue. I have asked for a boon. I have pleaded for my wishes, but..." He paused as looked down at their joined hands.

"Was he terribly angry with you?" she whispered.

He released a short laugh. "It is a terrible thing to steal a woman from your best friend."

"Especially if that man is the Emperor of China."

"Exactly so."

There was a noise in the hallway. Two girls chattering with excitement that had not been present in this palace since the tainted virgins arrived. Bo Tao sent her a desperate look, then stepped back away from her. She was left holding the two combs–one in each hand.

"I cannot promise anything, Ji Yue. I can only hope."

She would have said something then. She would have whispered how much she loved him, except the words did not form. And then their time together was lost. The girls came around the corner, gasping in surprise when they saw the disgraced Master still standing there.

Bo Tao arched his brow at them, silently daring them to question his presence. They flushed bright red, then scurried away. Bo Tao looked at her, but she shook her head. He could not risk speaking plainly again. Where one virgin lurked, whispering and giggling in gossip, a dozen more were sure to follow.

He understood her message and knew it to be true. So he gave her the deepest bow she had ever received, then he turned and walked away.