Dragon Moon (30 page)

It was too late to sow grain. There would be some grass for the animals to eat, and people could plant winter vegetables, but it would still be a tough winter.
Hopefully the people would survive through it. Ping was sure there would be good rains next spring.

“So where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know.”

“Kai is in his right place—in the world of dragons.” Jun said. “Now it’s time for you to take your place in the world of people.”

The world of people frightened Ping.

“I’ve never had a place there. I’ve been looking after dragons since I was four years old.”

“You’ll discover how you should be spending your life,” Jun said.

The rain slackened and then stopped. Ping got down from the donkey and dried Jun’s face with her sleeve.

“You make it sound easy,” she said.

“You could go to Chang’an,” he said. “The Emperor would give you an imperial post. You could live a grand life.”

Ping shook her head. “That’s not the life for me.”

She couldn’t imagine returning to Beibai Palace either.

“What about your family? You could live with them.”

“No. I’ll visit them from time to time, but there is no place for me with them.”

“Do you like mulberries?” Jun asked.

Ping smiled at him and nodded. He was the only friend who had ever come back to her.

Jun put his arms around her and kissed her.

Ping remembered the vision she’d had of her own future—a comfortable home, a life shared with someone.

“Your mulberry trees will be flourishing in this rain,” Ping said.

For the first time in her life she could choose what she wanted to do. Jun held out his hand and Ping took it. They walked together leading the donkeys.

Three weeks later, Ping looked up at the night sky. There was a full moon. A dragon moon. She took Kai’s scale from her pouch. It glowed luminous green in the moonlight. As she turned it this way and that, the tip of the scale glittered red, black, yellow, green and white. She lay down to sleep, holding the scale to her breast.

She dreamt of a dragon, a green dragon, a happy dragon. He swam in coloured pools. He learned how to hunt. The jingling sound of his laughter filled the air.

The Chinese words in this book are written in
pinyin
which is the official way of writing the sound of Chinese characters using the English alphabet. These words aren’t always pronounced the way you might think. Here is a guide to help you pronounce them correctly.

I have been known to throw the
Yi Jing
when faced with a difficult problem (using coins not yarrow stalks), though I’m pleased to say it wasn’t necessary during the writing of this book. Ping’s
Yi Jing
reading is based on the first chapter of that ancient Chinese book, which is more often written as
I Ching
and known in English as
The Book of Change
.

I read several translations of this chapter, then made my own interpretation with the help of my minimal knowledge of the Chinese language and the great online dictionary and translation aids at http://www.mandarintools.com/

Chinese, with its four tones and many homonyms (words that sound the same, but mean different things), is a fascinating language. I spent many hours (sometimes pleasurable, sometimes infuriating) using the online dictionary while working out the punning place names on Danzi’s map.

I am indebted to all the historians, researchers and translators whose labour has enabled me to learn about ancient China. For a full bibliography of sources used, please see my website at www.carolewilkinson.com.au

Though some sources say that the Chinese puzzle
qi qiao ban
(Seven Cunning Pieces—known in English as Tangram) is ancient, while writing this novel I discovered that the current view is that it is not. I decided to use the puzzle in my story anyway. Texts of the
Yi Jing
have turned up in Han dynasty tombs,
so maybe one day someone will find an ancient Tangram set.

I would like to thank Vicky Deresa for her invaluable help with the three place name puzzles and Danzi’s four-character message. I would also like to thank Haiwang Yuan for telling me the Chinese version of “out of the frying pan into the fire”.

Thank you to Andrew Kelly and Alison Arnold of black dog books once again for their wonderful editorial assistance, creative support and friendship. Thanks also to everyone else at black dog for reading drafts.

I’d also like to thank Blue Boat Design, especially Rob Davies, for another gorgeous cover, Julian Bruère for his meticulous maps, and William Lai for his beautiful calligraphy. There were some tight deadlines for this book, so I am particularly grateful to my husband John and my daughter Lili for putting up with more than usual angst as I wrote it.

Finally, I’d like to thank all those readers of the previous two books in the
Dragonkeeper
series who took the trouble to write to me. Their enthusiasm and encouragement have been inspiring.

The completed dragon’s head that Lady An makes from the Seven Cunning Pieces. To make the shape yourself or see how the puzzle was solved, visit: www.dragonkeeper.com.au

Carole Wilkinson’s Dragonkeeper series is loved by readers all over the world and books in the series have won both literary and children’s choice awards. Carole embarked on her writing career at the age of 40, happily leaving behind her previous employment as a laboratory technician in jobs involving blood and brains. She has been making up for lost time ever since. She has a fascination with dragons and is interested in the history of everything. Her books are a combination of meticulous research and imagination.
Carole’s website is
carolewilkinson.com.au