Sharon Shinn - Gateway

There was a short silence. Daiyu could almost feel Chenglei thinking. As for herself, she couldn’t think; she could scarcely breathe. This conversation made it obvious Chenglei was far more worried about the dissident Feng than he had earlier led her to believe.

“And you’re positive he is in the riverbed at this very moment?” Chenglei asked.

“No,” Chow replied quietly. “He may have managed to elude us. He may have escaped up the eastern bank while we were getting men into position. But we were very fast, Prime Minister. I believe he is still there.”

“Then open the gates,” Chenglei said.

At first, neither Chow nor Daiyu understood what he meant. Chow said, “Excuse me, Prime Minister?”

“Open the gates to the river,” Chenglei said, enunciating very clearly. “Let the water sweep him away.”

There was a moment’s silence while even the sinister Chow seemed shocked. “Every laborer in the river will drown, Prime Minister.”

“Stonepickers are easily replaced,” Chenglei said dismissively.“This is the best chance we have had in weeks to silence the rebel. Open the gates.”

There was a slight sound. Daiyu imagined Chow was bowing. “Yes, Prime Minister. It shall instantly be done.”

Daiyu was halfway down the first flight of steps before she even realized she had moved. Her heart was a misfiring cannon booming inside her chest; her lungs were mangled sacks laboring against a vacuum. Flood the river! Drown the stonepickers! Murder Feng… and murder Kalen…

Nononononono…

She had no plan, she had no clear thought in her head except to plunge down the steps and burst out the front door, then run and run and run all the way to the river. She could not possibly make it in time. However Chow had arrived at the mansion, it undoubtedly had not been on foot. Could she catch a trolley? Would it beat Chow’s vehicle to the waterfront?

She took the final three stairs with a leap and skidded onto the patterned carpet of the foyer, almost somersaulting across the floor. “Daiyu!” someone exclaimed, and she looked up in astonishment to find Quan staring at her.

She had completely forgotten he was there.

“Quan,” she said breathlessly, and dashed across the wide room to lay her hand on his arm. “Quan-my good friend-I have just realized-there is something desperately important that I need. I must have it, I must have it right now. Can you take me? Can you drive me to the riverfront?”

He had instantly put his hand over hers in ac omforting fashion, but now he frowned. “To the riverfront? But what-”

“Please,” she begged, tugging him toward the door. “There is no time to waste. I will explain on the way. But please, please hurry.”

He hesitated only a moment-a traditional man whose instincts clearly warred with his affection for this unpredictable girl-and then grabbed her hand and started running. “Let us go!” he cried.

His car was idling in the curved driveway, guarded by admiring servants. The two of them leaped in and Quan wheeled away from the house, driving in his usual manic fashion. Daiyu clung grimly to the seat, scarcely noticing as he swerved around trolleys and wove through traffic, careening around the narrow corners without slowing down. Too many thoughts scrambled through her mind for her even to care that Quan risked both of their lives with his hazardous driving. Chenglei is evil! and I should have used the bracelet and I’ve been so foolish clamored for attention, but the only thought she could really hold in her head was Kalenwilldrown,Kalenwilldie…

“So tell me, Daiyu!” Quan called over the noise of the rushing wind and the screaming of a teenage boy who jumped out of his way. “Why are we dashing so madly to the riverfront? This is not at all what I expected.”

There was no way her tortured brain could come up with a story that made much sense. “There is-something I had told Xiang I would buy-before the celebration tonight,” she said. “We saw it one day in a shop near the riverfront. I lied-I told her I had it already-and I don’t. And I just remembered. She will be very angry with me if I appear without it.”

He shook his head, looking baffled and amused. “Sometimes you women are hard to understand.”

Oh, you would have an even harder time understanding if I told you the truth. “We can only be grateful that men try to understand us even so,” she agreed.

As they approached the river, traffic grew denser, and Quan was forced to slow down. Daiyu felt herself straining forward on the seat, as if by sheer will she could force the car through the tangles of vehicles and knots of pedestrians with their carts. They were close enough to the river now that Daiyu could spot the bright slash of the red lacquer gate, close enough that the streets narrowed into an almost impassable warren of twisting circles and cluttered alleys. Quan found his way blocked by a large vehicle that appeared to be delivering goods to a shop. Cursing under his breath, he whipped around a corner only to faceadeadend.Whenhetriedtobackup,theexitwasclogged with cars that had come to a complete standstill.

“Will you please move your cars?” Quan shouted over his shoulder. “We have very urgent business to complete!”

There was no time to waste. “Forgive me, Quan. You have been most kind,” Daiyu said, and jumped down from the seat.

“Daiyu! Wait a moment! Daiyu!” he shouted after her.

“Meet me at the chocolate shop in half an hour!” she called over her shoulder. Not because she expected to join him there, but because she thought otherwise he might come after her, and she could not risk that.

She could not risk anything.

Kalenwilldrown,Kalenwilldie…

Rounding the corner, she accelerated into a flat-out run. Pushing past the men and women in her way, darting into and out of street traffic if that route looked faster. Every minute counted, every second. She needed the shortest, most direct route toward the gate, toward the river, toward Kalen.

How close was Chow? How long would it take him to find the workmen to raise the gates?

She burst free of the last cluster of buildings and onto the broad stone swath of yin-and-yang symbols that separated the city from the riverfront. She could see them now, the stonepickers bending over the great muddy expanse of the emptied riverbed, moving with slow deliberation across the littered landscape. Which one was Feng? Which one was Kalen?

Wasn’t every laborer in the Zhongbu someone’s friend, someone’s beloved?

She’d had no plan, she’d had almost no coherent thought, but as she raced toward the river she saw the bell tower and instantly knew what she must do. She altered her course to run in that direction, calling out Gabe’s name before she was even close enough for him to hear. A few people idly standing along the riverbank turned to give her curious looks, but no one seemed alarmed. No one seemed to realize that the world was about to end.

She arrived at the base of the bell tower, staggering a little, her breath coming so harshly that she felt like a knife was sawing across her rib cage. “Gabe!” she panted, then louder. “ Gabe! Ring the bells! There’s been a terrible mistake-ring the bells!”

There was no answer, and Gabe didn’t poke his head over the edge of the tower. Daiyu felt a fresh surge of horror. Had Chow beaten her here? Had he murdered the bell ringers so that no one could call the stonepickers out of the river? Furiously she shook the gate, and the broken lock came open in her hand. She would have to climb to the top of the tower herself.

Forcing her trembling, exhausted legs to function, she dragged herself up the spiral staircase, gasping for air, feeling her hands shake on the railing, moving as fast as she could. “Gabe,” she tried again every time she could gather enough breath, but he never answered. She dimly remembered Kalen saying that Gabe had found a girlfriend with whom he spent all his time. It was still fairly early in the morning, and the stonepickers usually worked till noon. Perhaps he had simply assumed that he could chance arriving late… that there would be no reason to summon the stonepickers out of the river before their usual time…