Sharon Shinn - Gateway

“And no one has seen him since last night?”

“But he was missing last night, too! Don’t you remember?”

“I thought he had been called into the house on business.”

“Did anyone talk to him at the party? Was he even there?”

“He wasn’t there at all last night?”

“What do the servants say?”

“They’re mystified. The head of the council has been called in, but what will she be able to do?”

“Do you think it’s possible he was injured?”

“In his own house?”

“But if no one saw him here last night-”

Daiyu accepted only small portions when the servants came in offering food. She was not sure she would be able to choke down a bite.

Eventually, the adults joined the young women at the table, and they all ate in uneasy silence before returning to their rooms.

“Collect your things,” Xiang said to Daiyu in a tense voice. “We will not be staying to view Chenglei’s treasures after all.”

“But, Aunt!” Daiyu exclaimed. “Have we offended the prime minister in some way?”

Xiang’s mouth was tight. She was clearly disappointed, but her eyes also showed a little anger. She was not used to being abandoned without an explanation. “No,” she said at last. “But it seems his plans have changed.”

They were packed and out of the house within the hour. Daiyu was not surprised to find that news of Chenglei’s disappearance had preceded them, for Mei was awaiting them in Xiang’s overdecorated parlor when they arrived home. Xiang impatiently waved a hand at Daiyu to dismiss her, but Daiyu left the room very slowly, trying to listen.

“The whole city is talking!” Mei exclaimed before Daiyu passed out of earshot. “Where can Chenglei be? Has he fallen ill? Fallen drunk?”

“Consorted with a hired woman who poisoned his drink?” Xiang suggested. Her tone was both acid and eager-this was potentially a tragedy, but it might simply be a scandal, and Xiang and Mei lived for gossip.

“I suppose someone could have harmed him, and yet-”Mei said.

“It seems the unlikeliest of the possibilities,” Xiang agreed. “I think we will find that he has either been very indiscreet or veryunlucky.”

“His position will be compromised,” Mei said.

“Unless he has a very good story.”

“But what could that story be?”

Satisfied, Daiyu continued on up to her room. She was fairly confident that, no matter what theories they proposed, they would never come close to the truth.

She pushed open the door to her room and found Aurora waiting inside.

“Daiyu, what did you do?” the blond woman asked in a hushed voice.

Hastily, Daiyu shut the door and the two of them huddled together just inside the closet, talking in whispers. They had not spoken to each other in two weeks, but all they really needed to discuss was yesterday. Aurora gasped when Daiyu related Chenglei’s plan to flood the river and showed alarm when Daiyu repeated the conversation in the backyard.

“He said he was going to arrest me,” Daiyu finished up. “I reached for my quartz talisman so I could go home-but he took it from me and opened the pouch. He-he disappeared. But no one saw him go because we were standing at the back of the lawn and all the fireworks were going off.”

Aurora stared at her. “You sent him away-to your own iteration?”

“I suppose. I didn’t mean to. Oh, Aurora, is that where he’s gone? To Earth? What will happen to him there?”

Aurora shook her head in a disbelieving motion. “I have no idea. I don’t even know where he might have ended up. The quartz talisman was calculated for your body, not for his. He could be anywhere-at any time.”

“Will you and Ombri go after him?” Daiyu asked.

Aurora nodded. “Yes. If we don’t, he will find a way to wreak damage in your iteration.”

“I’m so sorry,” Daiyu said.

Unexpectedly,Aurorahuggedher.“Don’tbesorry.Youwere given a difficult job and you managed to do it, even though you didn’t do it the way we planned.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about Chenglei. But when I talked to him-he was so charming-I actually liked him. And I was pleased that he liked me.”

“You are not the first person who has fallen under his spell, and, unfortunately, you will not be the last,” Aurora said. “If men like Chenglei were easier to resist, the world-every world-would be a less hazardous place.”

Aurora patted Daiyu’s shoulder and then stepped back, turning brisk. “Now,” she said, “Xiang will be preoccupied with Mei for a good long while, don’t you suppose? This will be an excellent time for you to leave.”

“Leave? To do what?” Daiyu said. She felt her face light up. “Can I go to the aviary? Can I see Kalen? I have so much to tell him!”

“I meant, it’s time for you to leave Jia,” Aurora said gently. “Time for you to go back to Earth.”

Daiyu stared at her, suddenly feeling stricken. “Home?” she repeated.“Today?”

Aurora nodded. “We have no time to waste. Ombri and I must go after Chenglei, and we cannot leave until we have seen you safely home.”

“But I-but now ?” Daiyu stammered. “There are so many things left to do-”

Aurora watched her steadily. “There was only one thing here youhadtodo,andithasbeendone.Itistimeforyoutogo.”

Daiyu shook her head, slowly, stubbornly, even as a bubbling grief built up in her chest. “I’m not leaving until I say good-bye to Kalen.”

“Daiyu-”

“I’m not!”

Aurora shrugged helplessly. “All right. We will return to the house before we send you on your way.”

Daiyu was already hurrying out of the closet and over to a small desk stocked with writing materials. “And I have to leave a note for Xiang. I have to make up some excuse, give her some reason. She’s become attached to me, and I don’t want her to be hurt.”

“It will hurt her no matter when you go and how you do it,” Aurora said. “A note will not change that.”

But Daiyu was adamant on this point as well. “It will only take a minute,” she said.

Nonetheless, she sat there for at least five minutes, trying to think up a story that Xiang would accept with relief instead of pain. Finally, she picked up the elegant writing utensil and wrote with great care on the thick, pressed sheet of paper.

Mistress Xiang:

I am sorry to grieve you this way, but I must leave you suddenly before I shame you and your venerable name. I have lied to you so long that I am now almost glad to tell you the truth. I am a worthless girl who does not deserve all the attention and affection you have heaped on me. I have fallen in love with a cangbai boy, and he has gotten me with child. Soon this will be evident to everyone. I cannot stay to dishonor you or cause distress to Mei’s noble house, and so I am leaving. Knowing how angry you will be at your servant Aurora, who first brought me to your attention, I have suggested that she leave your house and never return. I beg for nine times nine hundred pardons, but I know I do not deserve one. I wish I had the right to truly call you Aunt.

Your niece-who-is-not, Daiyu

Aurora was reading over Daiyu’s shoulder. “Very well put,” she said. “Now, let us go.”

It was heartbreakingly simple to leave the house. There was little need to pack, since the only items Daiyu had to bring with her were the gold shirt and black pants she had been wearing when she arrived in Jia. Xiang did not unexpectedly emerge from the parlor to demand where she was going; no servants challenged them at the door. Daiyu and Aurora simply walked out the front entrance, strolled down the sidewalk, and soon lost themselves in the bustle of the congested streets. They were a few blocks away from Xiang’s before Aurora hailed a trolley, and they elbowed their way into the crowded aisle for the ride to the riverfront. A change of trolleys, another dreary ride, and they were in the cangbai district where Ombri and Aurora had their house.