Sharon Shinn - Gateway

“I was nervous the whole time,” Daiyu admitted. “But Xiang seemed pleased with me afterward, so I guess I did all right.”

Aurora smiled. “If she didn’t berate you for your clumsiness and stupidity, you must have been outstanding.”

“Chenglei was there,” Daiyu said abruptly.

Aurora grew very still. “Did he speak to you?”

“He spoke to everyone in the room, including me.” She hesitated and then said, “He was nothing like what I expected.”

“How did he seem to you?”

“Gallant. Intelligent. Charismatic.” She met Aurora ’s eyes. She knew her own expression was suspicious. “He did not strike me as a man who was evil.”

“I have always thought true evil had a seductive charm,” Aurora said quietly. “It is very easy to shun someone who is deliberately cruel, and everyone loathes a man who is brutal and vicious. Such people have a hard time winning followers. But an individual who is gracious, who is attractive, who smiles and flatters and praises-that is a person who can lead whole nations to disaster. Who would not want to follow such a man or woman? Everyone is drawn to beauty and wit.”

Daiyu was far from convinced and made no attempt to hide thatfact. “But there are plenty of people who are attractive and courteous who are not horrible,” she argued. “There’s a man at my father’s church who’s so good-looking, you’d think he was a television actor. But he runs the soup kitchen and he volunteers at the prison, teaching law classes. So you can’t just say beautiful people are bad.”

“I didn’t say that,” Aurora said. “I said evil is seductive. It’s two different things.”

“I suppose I’ll get a chance to gauge him a little better when we dance at the Presentation Ball,” Daiyu said.

Aurora watched her narrowly for a moment. “I suppose you will.”

Daiyu changed the subject. “How’s Kalen?” she asked, as she had asked every night. “Have you thought of away that we can see each other?”

“Daiyu-”

“I heard the bronze bell ring tonight,” Daiyu went on. “So I know he will be at the river tomorrow. Maybe I can convince Xiang that I need to buy something at the shops down by the Zhongbu.”

“And will you also convince her that you need to go by yourself, so that no servants see you go wading into the mud, seeking out cangbai boys?” Aurora asked in a sharp voice.

Daiyu lifted her chin defiantly. “You promised me I would be able to see Kalen again,” she said. She left the implied threat unspoken. If you don’t keep your promise, I won’t stay at Xiang’s.

Aurora studied her a moment in silence. “He has taken a job,”shesaidatlast,almostreluctantly,“attheaviary.Hehelps clean the grounds.”

“The aviary!” Daiyu exclaimed. “Chenglei mentioned it to me. I bet Xiang would let me go there.”

Aurora shrugged. Her blue eyes were troubled. “Perhap sshe would.”

There was a sound in the hall, most likely one of the servants walking by. Aurora and Daiyu both fell silent, listening, until the faint noise receded.

“Time for me to go,” Aurora said.

“Tell Kalen I’ll come see him at the aviary,” Daiyu said.

“I’ll tell him you’ll try ,” she responded. “Be careful, Daiyu.”

She slipped out into the hallway so quietly that even Daiyu could not hear her footsteps moving away. Daiyu thought, I’ll be careful after I’ve had a chance to see Kalen.

XIANG WAS AMENABLE to the idea of Daiyu touring one of the city’s well-known attractions, possibly because of the way Daiyu phrased her request.

“Yesterday the prime minister asked me if I had seen the aviary, and I was ashamed to say that I had not,” Daiyu said in a mournful voice over breakfast. “What if he asks me again at the Presentation Ball? What shall I tell him then?”

“You shall tell him you have visited the grounds and enjoyed them very much,” Xiang said, tapping her long red fingernails on the tabletop. “That is a most excellent idea. I myself cannot abide the place, for there are bird droppings everywhere, and it is hot, and all sorts of people may be found there. But you might enjoy it.”

“When can I go?”

Xiang considered. “Tomorrow afternoon. You have no appointments with dressmakers or dancing instructors, so you may take a few hours to go. I am expected at the council, so I will not accompany you.”

Daiyu tried not to let her excitement show on he rface. “May I go by myself?”

Xiang looked undecided, but eventually shook her head. “No. I will have one of the servants go with you. Perhaps I should ask Mei if her son would like to escort you-but no, it is too soon. Perhaps in a few days.”

That was a complication Daiyu didn’t need, but she merely nodded her head. “Yes, Mistress. Thank you, Mistress. I will be happy to go tomorrow.”

Daiyu only wanted to visit the aviary for a chance to see Kalen, so she was surprised by her own reaction to its grandeur and gorgeousness.

The whole expedition was unexpectedly perfect. Aurora had managed to be selected as the servant who would accompany Xiang’s niece to the bird sanctuary, and she nodded almost imperceptibly when Daiyu asked her an imploring question with her eyes. Did you tell Kalen? Will he be there? The driver was in an expansive mood, and he actually pointed out a few city landmarks they passed on their way. As always, Daiyu tried to figure out where they might be if Shenglang was really St. Louis, but within a few turns, she was hopelessly lost. They were going east and south, she thought; other than that, she had no idea.

The aviary was huge-a latticework iron cage at least the size of a city block. From the street, all she could see through the black grillwork was plant life, giant trees brushing the top of the structure, great leafy vines twining around every individual rod so densely that it was almost impossible to see in. Daiyu stood before the entrance, mouth gaping, staring at the clustered greenery. She saw a flash of feathered red near the pointed apex.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said to Aurora in a low voice. The driver had asked when he should come back for them, and Daiyuhadsaid,“Twohoursfromnow,” butshewas wondering if she should have said, “Tomorrow.” It might take her that long to walk around the inside of this place.

“It is most impressive,” Aurora agreed with a smile. “Even more so inside.”

Indeed, once they were through the gate, Daiyu stared even harder. The aviary was full of lush vegetation that took up most of the available space from the ground right up to the top of the iron cage. At the lowest level, the soil was covered in thick grass and the occasional patch of flowering shrubbery. In the middle level, short trees spread their stubby branches, heavy with summer green leaves; and towering above the whole space, giant oaks and elms sent their reaching limbs poking through the metal restraints of the grill. Ropy vines tied all the levels together, twining around trunks, dropping down from overhanging branches, bursting into erratic blossom at the most unexpected junctures.

Birds were everywhere.

Some gathered ont he branches, chattering and calling; some swooped from that lush green ceiling toward invisible prey below. Others hopped along the ground, pecking at nuts or insects. A few clung to the tree trunks, tapping their beaks against the bark. A few, as large as peacocks, strutted across the lawn and uttered incomprehensible cries of disdain.

Every bird in the aviary was red, some a deep vermilion, some a speckled white and crimson, a few with black markings along their wings and tail feathers. Daiyu only recognized two or three species that looked vaguely similar to the birds she knew back home-those might be woodpeckers, those scarlet tanagers, and cardinals were everywhere-but most of them looked unfamiliar and exotic.