From Cygnet to Swan Page 5

  Chapter 5

  “Vua, wake up and be quiet,” Inon whispered in Sheiji’s ear. It was near midnight one month after the library incident. Fa-Ying had chosen Inon to be Sheiji’s special bodyguard and the devoted soldier was never far from his young king’s side, even at night.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Sheiji sleepily.

  “Sheiji, follow me,” whispered another voice. It was Fa-Ying.

  Sheiji got out of bed and put on his clothes and straw sandals.

  “Not your shoes,” whispered Fa-Ying. “They’ll make too much noise on the floor.”

  “Where are we going?” asked Sheiji, rather annoyed at having been pulled from his bed at such an hour.

  “Just follow me,” said Fa-Ying.

  Inon bowed as Sheiji passed. Fa-Ying opened the door and peered out cautiously. “Come, Sheiji.” He motioned for Sheiji to follow him.

  They walked down the hall and through innumerable doorways. “Are we there yet?” asked Sheiji after a while.

  “Shh,” Fa-Ying hushed him. “No noise.”

  They walked in absolute silence for many more minutes. Finally they went through a door into a room filled with boxes.

  “What’s this?” asked Sheiji.

  “Shh, I’ll tell you later,” Fa-Ying whispered. He turned his head slowly from one side to the other, scanning the room. Then he quietly shut the door behind him.

  Fa-Ying walked to the left wall and ran his hand up and down the cold stone. He grunted and pushed a stone with his fist.

  There was a grating noise and the wall opened revealing a long dark corridor. “Come, Sheiji,” Fa-Ying whispered.

  Sheiji followed Fa-Ying into the corridor and the door slid shut behind them. As the door closed, the corridor was mysteriously lit up with torches lining the wall. Sheiji stood looking around him in amazement. Fa-Ying chuckled.

  “How…what…where are we?” Sheiji stuttered.

  “We’re in the wall of the palace,” replied Fa-Ying simply. “We must go further on, though.”

  They began to walk down the corridor. There were many passages leading off in all directions, but they stuck to the same main path.

  “Here we are,” said Fa-Ying finally, turning off into a dimly lit hallway. Only one torch perched on the wall.

  Fa-Ying pressed a stone in the wall. With a grinding noise, a doorway appeared in what had previously been a solid wall. Fa-Ying grabbed Sheiji’s arm and pulled him into a room.

  The door shut with a groan behind them and an eerie silence followed while Fa-Ying stumbled around looking for a light.

  “Ah,” said Fa-Ying and several torches blazed. It was an odd sort of light. White, rather than orange, as would come from normal torches, and the flames did not dance, but held quite still. The torches in the hall had been like that also, Sheiji recalled. It was strange, very strange.

  The room in which they now stood was a large one. The walls were made of a dark gray stone with gold, black and blue swirled throughout. These walls were not like the roughly cut, coal-black stone in the corridor. They were beautiful and polished until they shone. Sheiji supposed they were some sort of marble. They were also not wet and slimy, like those in the corridor; in fact, the room was not damp or cold in the least but warm, as if a fire burned brightly in a fireplace, though there was none. The door that they had walked through was made of glistening stone, exactly like that of the walls.

  In the middle of the room was an oddly made table. It was not of the design that Sheiji was accustomed to. The furniture he knew was all made of hard, gnarled, black oak, with only one small flower or leaf carved into the dark wood.

  But this; it was like nothing Sheiji had ever seen before. The olive-colored wood was as smooth and cool as silk. It was polished to absolute perfection so it reflected the torchlight and made Sheiji squint. The legs and sides of the table were richly embellished with carvings of flowers and leaves, cups and plates, tropical fruits, birds and fish and animals of all kinds. They were all so masterfully carved that they seemed almost real; as if they could grow and move and speak.

  Sheiji drew in his breath at the sight and almost forgot to breathe altogether. Never had he seen such a beautiful sight as this table with silk pillows carefully arranged around it. “Oh, how wonderful,” he finally stammered.

  “Do you like it?” asked Fa-Ying with a smile of pride.

  “Oh, yes,” replied Sheiji breathlessly. “Where did it come from?”

  “Do you not know?” asked Fa-Ying surprised.

  “No,” replied Sheiji.

  “It was your father’s.”

  “My father’s?” asked Sheiji. “I’ve never seen it before.”

  “I suppose you haven’t,” Fa-Ying sighed. “They were a gift to your father from your mother’s parents when they married. Crafted by none other than Misho himself!”

  “Who?”

  “Misho, do you not even know the most famous carpenter in Jiwu and Imatsuro?” asked Fa-Ying. “I see that you don’t. Well I shall have to teach you about him as well. Anyways, when your mother died, the king was so grief stricken, that he ordered this table to be destroyed. He ordered that everything in the Kingdom of Imatsuro that had been made by Misho be destroyed and anything that looked remotely like a one of Misho’s works must also be destroyed.”

  “Why?” asked Sheiji. “Misho didn’t do anything to my father.”

  “We cannot always understand the mind of a grieving man, Sheiji.”

  “How did you get this table if it was destroyed?”

  “I said the king ordered it to be destroyed, not that it was. We had a nice bonfire with a table that was similar. Of course, only a few knew.”

  Sheiji stood looking around wordlessly. He had so many questions that he didn’t even know where to begin.

  “Sit, my king,” Fa-Ying ordered. Sheiji sat on one of the beautiful pillows that surrounded the table and Fa-Ying sat beside him on another.

  “There are many things I must teach you, Sheiji. So many things and so little time. But first I must warn you and tell you of things you may not wish to hear.” Fa-Ying looked at the silent king and continued, “As I am sure you know, your brother does not want you to learn what I am going to teach you. He has forbidden you to go to the library, or read any of the books because he is afraid that if you learn all that is necessary for you to hold a successful reign, he will lose his power. And now that he has nearly declared himself king, he is afraid you will kill him when you gain that power. He has forbidden me to teach you also, so we must be very careful.”

  Sheiji nodded. “What will he do if he finds out you are teaching me?”

  “We must make sure he does not find out,” replied Fa-Ying, carefully avoiding the question. He did not want the young king to know how great a risk he was taking.

  “Sui-Tsai has many spies all over the palace. Even in your own bedroom. Money and fear both make many followers,” Fa-Ying said quietly. “Here it is safe, there are no spies. But we must keep it so. Never speak of what we do here or of the conversations we have. Never even give a hint that we come here or that this place exists, not even when you think there is no one around. We may speak freely only here.”

  Sheiji was frightened by Fa-Ying’s stern warning but he remained quiet as Fa-Ying continued.

  “Now, you may ask me anything you wish to know and I will answer it to the best of my ability. What do you wish to know?”

  “I don’t know where to start!” Sheiji laughed nervously. He thought for a moment. “I suppose…I suppose I would like to know…may it be anything, or must it be about being king?”

  “Ask whatever you like, Sheiji,” answered Fa-Ying. A twinkle of amusement played in his eyes.

  “How is it that those torches do not flicker and how do they light all at once?”

  Fa-Ying chuckled, “That, my boy, is a long kept secret of these passageways. Can you figure it out? Go and take a look at the torches.”

  Sheiji jumped up and st
rode over to the wall. He peered at the torch. It didn’t look like fire. He touched it carefully and pulled his hand back quickly. “It’s hot,” he marveled. “But it’s not fire. It looks like a stone. What is it Fa-Ying? Is it a stone?”

  “Yes or very nearly. It is a gem, found only in Imatsuro, Jiwu and Kasara. When heated it gives off a steady, bright light. You see, there is a clay pipe that runs just under each torch. There is a lever that, when turned, sends hot water from the heaters through the pipes. The hot water heats the gems and causes them to glow.”

  “Amazing!” cried Sheiji. “Why doesn’t the whole palace use them?”

  “They are very rare. In fact, you and I, and perhaps one or two other people, are the only ones who know they are here. Not even Sui-Tsai knows they are here,” said Fa-Ying.

  “Does anyone else know about this secret passage?” asked Sheiji.

  “Only a select few of your father’s close friends know.”

  “Are they loyal to me or to Sui-Tsai?” asked Sheiji.

  “Most will be loyal to you, young Sheiji,” replied Fa-Ying.

  “Why does my brother want to be king?”

  “Power, Sheiji, he wants power.”

  “He has power,” replied Sheiji.

  “He wants more power than what he can get as a prince,” replied Fa-Ying. “For now, being Regent is enough, but later…”

  “What?”

  “Now, Sui-Tsai must come to you before he makes any big decisions such as declaring war or even executing a criminal. Soon he will grow tired of this and will declare himself king. He cannot do that, however, while you are still alive,” Fa-Ying warned.

  “Do you think he would kill me?” asked Sheiji.

  “I am sure of it,” Fa-Ying replied. “Now, we must have some studies before you go back to bed. Sit and we will begin.”

  Sheiji sat and Fa-Ying took down a narrow book. “Arar’mima Kawa-Matsu sezo,” murmured Sheiji, reading the title. He looked up in surprise, “How did you get this? You know Tamé forbid me to touch any of the books in the library.”

  “In the library, yes. But this was not in the library. Sui-Tsai ordered me to burn it. Let’s just say, I decided to spare this book and burn another,” Fa-Ying smirked.

  Sheiji smiled, “I’ll remember when I am king that any time I want something burned, not to tell you. This is the second thing you’ve saved contrary to your orders.”

  “Oh, no. I’ve saved many more things, and you shall see some of them,” said Fa-Ying. “Now, the subject of our lesson, I am going to teach you Thánh.”

  “What is that?” asked Sheiji.

  “It is a special language known only by the royal family and their close advisors,” explained Fa-Ying. “You must know it in order to be king.”

  “Does Sui-Tsai know it?” asked Sheiji.

  “Yes, now I want you to read what it says here. This will be your school book.”

  “Toizu…sezo,…dezo…durorczay…durazi…vàoza…anhziy…hurorngzoy…denziy…khizu…toizu…chetzey.”

  “Okay, stop. Now do you know what that means?” asked Fa-Ying.

  “Of course not. I don’t speak Thánh or whatever you call it,” Sheiji said.

  “Hush, boy, of course you know what it means, you just have to think. It is more of a code, than a language, really.”

  Fa-Ying watched the boy as he tried in vain to puzzle out the code.

  “Please, tell me, Fa-Ying,” begged Sheiji.

  “I shall not. You need to figure it out for yourself.” Fa-Ying pursed his lips and no matter how much Sheiji begged, he would give no hint. Finally, Fa-Ying said, “Well, I suppose you cannot think very well when you are tired. We will leave now.”

  Sheiji followed Fa-Ying out of the secret room and back to his bedroom. He could hardly remember how he even got undressed and to his bed. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.