Dragon Moon (16 page)

In the morning. Ping tied up her hair, and put on her travelling gown so that she looked like someone who could afford to buy jade jewellery.

Jun smiled when he saw her. “You look nice,” he said, then stared at his shoes as he blushed.

“You take this.” Ping handed her imperial seal back to him. “We can pretend we are imperial officials inspecting the jade.”

He took the seal and tied it around his waist.

They reached Long Xiang just after midday. It was a village of no more than 20 houses nestled comfortably into the slope of a hill. The village gates were thrown open and traders from all over the Empire and beyond were visiting.

The sound of people carving jade could be heard from outside the walls. There were three streets in the Tinkling Village. Every household was involved
with jade carving. Every person played a part in the village’s industry. Each street had its specialty—in one only hair decorations were made, the second only necklaces, earrings were the specialty of the third. Three households specialised in wind chimes, which only the richest people in the Empire could afford. Stalls outside each house were hung with the household’s wares and they clinked in the breeze. That was what gave the village its name. Even the children had their own special task. They gathered dry grass for packing the jewellery so that it arrived unbroken when it was sent to all corners of the Empire.

There was no inn in the village. Traders usually arrived early, made their purchases and returned to Xining in a single day. Kai was so excited he couldn’t keep still, but in the shape of Ping’s little brother, that didn’t seem out of place.

“How do we know who the great man is?” Jun asked.

“The most important man is the village elder,” Ping replied. “Once word spreads that there’s an imperial official visiting, I’m sure we’ll get his personal attention.”

As they strolled around the village, Jun showed Ping’s seal to the villagers, telling them they were there to buy jewellery for the imperial ladies in Chang’an. The villagers were very interested in the unusual white jade that the seal was made of, and no one noticed
that the characters said it was the seal of an Imperial Dragonkeeper, not an imperial purchaser. Neither Ping nor Jun corrected them when they assumed that Jun was an important official and Ping was the Empress’s head lady-in-waiting. News of the imperial visitors soon spread and before long the village elder came and invited them to stay for the night in his own home. Ping was sure that he was the great man.

The elder’s name was Master Cai. He wasn’t as old as some of the village elders they had met, and he wore a silk gown as fine as those of the Duke of Yan. His house was a two-storey building with many rooms. There were silk hangings and bronze ornaments more suited to the house of a lord than a village elder. That evening they were invited to eat with Master Cai’s family. It was a lavish meal of four courses. Kai, in the shape of Ping’s younger brother, was sent to bed early.

Ping hinted that they intended to buy many pieces of jewellery for the Emperor’s sister and mother. Though the meal was excellent, Master Cai’s wife found much to complain about to their three servants. After the meal, when Mistress Cai had gone to make sure that the servants cleaned the dishes properly, Ping tried to turn the conversation to dragons. But all Master Cai wanted to talk about was jade. Jun even said that he had been instructed in particular to find a jade dragon. Ping peered into the elder’s eyes, looking for some understanding. There was none.

The next day, Master Cai had arranged a tour of Long Xiang for his guests. They visited many jade carvers. Jun bought a few pieces of jewellery, to keep up the charade. He said they were only buying samples on this journey, but the village elder was getting impatient. He had been expecting the imperial official to spend the Emperor’s gold much more freely. Eventually, Ping decided that the only thing left was to be direct.

“I heard a story as we were travelling that there is a dragon living in the mountains around here,” she remarked casually after they had finished the tour and returned to the elder’s house.

“What nonsense!” Master Cai said. “I’ve never heard such a tale.”

He left them to turn his attention to traders more interested in parting with their gold.

“I think we’ve just about worn out our welcome in the Tinkling Village,” said Jun.

Kai was moping around miserably.

“Look at Father’s silk again,” he said.

Ping took out the silk square.

“There is one more clue that you haven’t deciphered,” Jun said. “Just because you’ve made sense of one line of the
Yi Jing
reading, doesn’t mean that you should ignore the map. Perhaps they work together.” Jun read out the final place name. “Blazing Dragon Valley, Ye Long Gu. What else can that mean?”

Ping wrote down other characters pronounced
ye
that
meant sickness, night and liquid. She thought back to all the books she’d read at Beibai Palace, all the characters she’d learned.

“There’s also this one.” She wrote down the character which meant to visit someone who is revered. “Perhaps there’s another ‘great man’ in the village besides the elder.”

Ping and Jun went out to the courtyard and struck up a conversation with Mistress Cai. Ping asked about the history of the village, how it came to specialise in jade carving. The woman didn’t know.

“Is there someone else in the village who might know?”

“There is no one who knows more than my husband,” she said proudly.

“But Master Cai is young for a man of such an important position,” Ping said. “There must be men who are older.”

The woman nodded. “My husband is wise for his years, everybody says so.”

“Who is the oldest person in the village?” Ping persisted.

“Granny Wang is very old. So is Mr Chu. But I suppose the oldest person would be Lao Longzi. He’s an old fool who doesn’t know anything about jade carving. He’s not from around here. He’s not even a craftsman. He settled in Long Xiang and made a living as a merchant.” She spoke the word as if it was an insult.
“He used to take our goods to towns in the south to sell, until he got too old to travel. You won’t get anything out of him. He’s as deaf as a stone.”

Ping looked over to Kai, who was sitting in his little-boy shape on the other side of the courtyard.

“Never mind. It’s not important,” Ping said to the woman. She stretched. “It’s a nice day. I think we might go for a stroll around the village.”

“But you have an appointment to see the head carver in Necklace Street,” Mistress Cai exclaimed.

Ping looked at Jun, wondering how she could get away.

“I’ll go and see the necklace carver,” Jun said. “You and your brother go for a walk.”

The woman called for a servant to bring her outdoor shoes. Then she and Jun left the house.

“Long gu,”
Kai said excitedly, after they had left.

Ping nodded. She wrote two characters in the earth. They read ‘deaf merchant’.
Ye Long Gu
also meant ‘visit the deaf merchant’.

It only took two enquiries to find the home of the deaf merchant. No one seemed to know his real name, he was just known as Lao Longzi—the old deaf one. Even though he had lived in the village for more than 50 years, he was still considered a stranger. He lived in the last house in Earring Street. The small house was so dilapidated, it was hard to believe it could still stand. Rain had washed away part of one mud-brick wall,
lengths of wood propped up another. The wind or birds had carried away a good deal of the straw thatching from the roof.

“There doesn’t seem much point in knocking on a deaf man’s door,” Ping said to Kai.

She pushed open the sagging door and entered a courtyard. A few herbs and vegetables were growing in a garden bed. Three skinny chickens pecked at the hard earth. A very old man was sitting on a bench in a patch of sunlight on the other side of the courtyard with his chin resting on his chest. His gown was patched and darned. His hair was pure white and tied back loosely in a plait. A walking stick leaned against the bench at his side. He didn’t notice them enter.

Ping went over to him and very gently touched his hand. The old man wasn’t startled. He slowly raised his head and smiled at her as if he wasn’t at all surprised to see a young woman standing before him. Ping took out the silk square and opened it up. She spread the map on the old man’s lap. He peered at the markings for a long time.

“I don’t think he understands the writing,” Ping said to Kai. “His eyesight might be bad as well as his hearing.”

She took the mirror from her pouch and held it out to the old man. He reached for it with his left hand. His fingers were as stiff as twigs, but he managed to take hold of it. He ran a crooked finger over the dragon
design and mouthed a word. Ping leaned closer. “What did you say?”

The faintest sound came out of the old man’s mouth. “Danzi?” he whispered.

“Did you hear that?” she asked Kai.

“Didn’t hear anything,” Kai said. Dragons don’t have good hearing.

The old man’s claw-like fingers reached out and grabbed a fold of Ping’s gown. “Danzi?” he repeated.

Ping shook her head. The old man thought she was a shape-changed dragon. “No,” she said, though she knew he couldn’t hear her. “I’m not Danzi, but I’m looking for the dragon haven.”

The old man stared at his image in the mirror.

“How can we tell him what we want?” Ping said.

“Kai knows.”

She saw something shimmering just out of the corner of her eye. Kai was turning back to his true dragon shape. The old man looked up from the mirror and gazed at the young dragon.

“Lao Longzi,” said Kai. Ping could hear his words in her mind. “My father wants me to go to the dragon haven. Can you tell us where it is?”

The old man’s lips were so thin they barely existed. He seemed unable to form a smile, but his cloudy eyes brightened. He reached out and touched Kai’s scales. Tears filled his eyes.

“Dragon haven,” he breathed.

He had heard Kai’s unspoken words. He was a Dragonkeeper.

The old man was staring at Kai. “Who is your keeper?”

Ping could hear his words as well, but his voice was just a whisper.

“Ping is Kai’s keeper.”

Lao Longzi looked at Ping. “A girl?”

“I was Danzi’s Dragonkeeper,” Ping said.

“So was I,” Lao Longzi said. “Is Danzi …?”

Ping stared at the old man. Kai reached out and touched him with the pads of one paw.

“Danzi has gone to the Isle of the Blest,” Ping replied. “He asked me to take Kai to the dragon haven. Can you tell me where it is?”

“Secret place,” the old man said. “Must never be written down or spoken aloud.”

Ping held her breath.

“Long Gao Yuan.” The words echoed in Ping’s mind. “Dragon Plateau.”

“Where is it?” Ping’s heart was beating fast.

“I’ve never heard of a female Dragonkeeper,” he said.

Speaking those few words seemed to have taken all the old man’s energy. His head sagged onto his chest again. Ping and Kai waited, but he didn’t stir. She took the silk square from his hands, then they left the courtyard.

They hurried back to the elder’s house. Ping gabbled the news to Jun. Kai was making an excited gonging sound. Jun couldn’t understand either of them.

“Slow down,” he said.

“Lao Longzi told us the name of the dragon haven,” she whispered. “It’s called Long Gao Yuan.”

“And where is it?”

Ping’s excitement melted away like snow in spring. “He didn’t tell us that. I don’t think he believed I was a true Dragonkeeper.”

Kai wanted to pack their bag and run off to find Dragon Plateau immediately. Jun tried to calm them both down.

“We don’t want to rouse the villagers’ suspicions. As far as they’re concerned, we’re imperial officials buying jade jewellery. We’ll leave tomorrow morning as planned and say we are returning to Xining.”

“You’re right,” Ping said. “Lao Longzi has kept this secret for many years, we mustn’t let anyone know our destination.”

“That will be easy,” Jun observed with a crooked smile. “Even we don’t know where we’re going!”

Ping did some
qi
exercises to calm her, while Jun spread out his purchases. He had had to buy more jewellery to keep the jade carvers happy.

“You have nearly enough to start your own jade business,” Ping observed.

“I might give them as gifts.” He held up a lovely
hair clip. “I think my mother would like this piece. My sisters will like the earrings.” He picked out a pendant in the shape of a dragon hanging from a leather thong. “But this one is for you.”

“I can’t take that,” she gasped. “It must be worth a fortune.”

The dragon carved on it was nothing like a real live dragon. It was delicate and curved. Its body was marked with spots, and its horns, talons and knee hair were all carved as delicate curls. It was beautiful.

“I knew it was yours the moment I saw it,” Jun said, reddening. “Please take it.”

He slipped the leather thong over Ping’s head. It was Ping’s turn to blush. She studied a stain on the floor.

“Thank you.”

Ping went back to Lao Longzi’s house later that afternoon. The old man was sitting exactly where they had left him.

“Can you tell me where Long Gao Yuan is?” Ping asked. “I have to take Kai there.”

The old man opened his eyes but didn’t reply.

“It’s what Danzi wanted.”

Lao Longzi slowly raised his head. “In the mountains.” One of his twiggy fingers pointed towards the north-west.

Ping waited for him to say something else, but he didn’t.

“Is there anything else you can tell me?”

Lao Longzi shook his head.

The evening was spent at a long and drawn out meal with Master Cai, listening to him recount the special skills of his children. Then his wife entertained them by playing a zither and singing very badly. The night passed as slowly as water dripping through a crack in a bucket.

Ping was up before dawn, packed and ready to go. She had changed back into her worn trousers and jacket. Kai couldn’t eat his breakfast. They set out before the sound of the jade workers’ tools could be heard. The perplexed elder stood at the doorway yawning in his nightgown as they thanked him for his hospitality, and promised to send a large order once they had shown their samples to the Emperor. They walked back the way they had come until they were sure they were well out of sight of the village. Then they stopped.