Clockwork Samurai (5 page)

Dark rumors floated about the Summer Palace. This was where the Emperor had women brought to him. Dancers, entertainers, Han women with their bound lotus feet. Women who were unsuitable as consorts, yet no woman was truly forbidden to the Emperor.

I knew Yizhu wasn't as depraved as the eunuchs made him out to be, but I grew nervous as the carriage neared the palace grounds. I had never been summoned to the Summer Palace. The celebrations and rituals there were meant for the highest ranked of the Emperor's subjects.

The airship loomed large with the dragon's head carving clearly visible at the prow. A symbol of the imperial fleet. The carriage passed through the outer gate with armed guards monitoring the passage from the watchtowers.

Rather than heading into the palace proper, the carriage veered west toward the airfield. My curiosity ran wild.

The imperial court often gathered for the launching of the dragon ships, but as we neared the vessel, there was only a small retinue of imperial guards. Everyone else appeared to be airfield staff or crewmen.

Headman Aguda stood at the dock, still and foreboding. He nodded toward me as I stepped down from the carriage.

“You're late, Miss Jin,” he said, coming toward me in long strides. “The ship nearly left without you.”

I stared up at the billowing red sails and the great balloon frame filled with hot air. The gunpowder engines rumbled within the lower gondola. Thick cables kept the airship tethered, but the dragon was straining against the anchors, vying to fly free.

Aguda held a scroll out to me, and, in a daze, I reached for it, not yet comprehending.

“Your new assignment awaits.” His lips twitched as he gestured toward the rope ladder.

My heart pounded. There was only one airship mission I knew of scheduled to embark this week. Chang-wei's diplomatic mission to Japan.

Tentatively, I placed a hand upon the rope ladder. An attendant came to help me onto it. I hugged the scroll tight to my chest as I clung to the rope. Bit by bit, I was hoisted up toward the deck.

Chen Chang-wei was there, staring at me in astonishment as I climbed on board.

“So this is our late arrival?” A middle-aged man in imperial uniform, who I assumed was the captain, stood next to Chang-wei.

I handed him the scroll. “Sir.”

My voice caught in my throat. Chang-wei's gaze bore into me, seeking explanation. Unfortunately, I didn't have one to give.

“Physician Jin Soling.” The captain looked from the scroll to me, then back. “Every ship has need of a good physician. Especially in foreign lands.”

He didn't sound convinced. Nevertheless, an official decree was not one to be questioned. A moment later, he gave the order to free the ropes.

Chang-wei regarded me without blinking. “Soling.”

“Chang-wei.”

For the moment it was just the two of us, face-to-face, as the crew prepared to lift off.

“I'm glad you're here,” he said finally.

I glanced back down to the ground as the airship began its steady rise. Headman Aguda lifted two fingers in an informal salute.

“I'm glad as well,” I murmured.

From the outside, it might have looked like Aguda was showing me favor. I had asked to be reassigned from the harem, and here I was. But everything the headman did was for his own gain. If he put me on this mission, it could only mean it served his plans.

Aguda needed eyes and ears on this airship. And the likely target of his attention was Chen Chang-wei.

Captain Zhao worked to accommodate my presence, instructing the crew to clear a cabin. When I came to my temporary lodging, a satchel had been placed upon the sleeping berth. Someone had packed my personal belongings inside: a folding leather case containing acupuncture needles, a kit of medicinal herbs.

There was little privacy in the palace, but the thought of Aguda or his minions going through my room made my skin crawl. But I'd been granted freedom. At least for the moment.

By the time Chang-wei came by, we were high up in clouds. The sky outside my window was a dark, inky swirl, penetrated dimly by the guide lanterns fixed around the hull of the airship.

“Were you aware of this?” Chang-wei asked.

“I was summoned directly to the airfield. I requested a new assignment, but I never thought Headman Aguda would bring me here.”

With Chang-wei. My pulse pounded excitedly.

Chang-wei raised an eyebrow. “You asked to be reassigned?”

“I had to do something. The Emperor . . . the way he—” It was too difficult to explain.

The details were unimportant. The important thing was that I could breathe easy now. I didn't have to worry about being caught in some palace scheme or unwittingly attracting the Emperor's notice.

Chang-wei nodded, but his expression remained distant. Thoughtful. He closed the cabin door and pulled a stool up beside the bed.

“You don't seem happy about this,” I prompted as he sat down. I was a bit wary of the situation myself.

“No. No, this is good. This is useful.”

I was unconvinced.

Chang-wei finally met my gaze directly. His tone changed, and he became all business. The serious scholar and official I'd come to know.

“Diplomatic visits to Japan are not permitted,” he explained. “Only trading ships are allowed into Nagasaki, and only the ones that have been properly sanctioned.”

“And this airship?”

“Captain Zhao has a long-standing agreement with the trading houses in Nagasaki. I'm posing as a physician being brought in to treat the inhabitants in the Chinese foreign settlement.”

“So it makes perfect sense for me to pose as—”

“As my wife,” he finished. “This was good thinking on Aguda's part. Perfect sense.”

His reluctant tone told me he wasn't quite convinced, either. “This isn't the first time Aguda has tried to use us for his
schemes.”

“But he's not here now. It's just you and me,” I assured, even as suspicion gnawed at me.

“The Grand Council doesn't trust me.”

“I trust you.”

Chang-wei was unquestioningly loyal to the throne. He had convinced me the empire's struggle was our struggle.

He seemed to relax, though only slightly. “There's no need for them to worry. My motives are clear for anyone to see. I want to propose a collaboration. Simple.”

“What sort of . . . collaboration?”

The choice of word was strange in and of itself. I knew little of military matters, but a nation that had kept itself in isolation for several hundred years wasn't likely to change within the course of a single visit.

“The empire of Japan has developed weapons that can be of use to us. Advanced firearms, based on Western designs.”

I moved to the edge of the berth. “Will guns be enough to defeat the
Yangguizi
?”

“It's not the foreigners we're fighting.” His tone took on a grave note. “A larger threat comes from within. The rebel army is advancing on Shanghai.”

“
Heaven and earth.
”

An army of thousands had besieged us in Changsha. Miners and laborers and peasants who were tired of being enslaved.

“They've grown stronger since we faced them.”

“If they're able to take Shanghai—”

“Then nothing will stop them from marching on Peking.”

No wonder Yizhu was troubled day and night. A year ago, the rebel army had failed to take the city of Changsha, but the neighboring strongholds were not so fortunate. The rebels had modified the heavy machinery taken from the mines and factories and turned them into war engines. Cities crumbled beneath their assault. With each victory, their numbers swelled.

“We don't have the strength to hold off the
Yingguoren
and fight the rebels at the same time. The Emperor agreed to establish contact with the Japanese scientists. They might be willing to work with us.”

“But it's dangerous. We're forbidden from going there.”

He nodded. “This is not an official diplomatic mission, nor am I authorized to offer an alliance. The Emperor still believes his empire vastly superior to Japan. We are not to be seen as paying tribute.”

It was a fine line to walk, but Chang-wei had experience striking such a balance. He'd lived among the Westerners for years.

“You said that we had received a message from the Japanese,” I prompted. “Are they expecting us?”

“There's no way of knowing. Your father once maintained unofficial communication with several scientists through the trading port in Nagasaki. He would send envoys a few times each year to exchange information. Near the end—”

He stopped suddenly and looked up at me, apologetic.

“It's all right.” The pang of grief was only momentary. “Continue.”

“Near the end of your father's life, he managed to establish communications across land and sea.”

Chang-wei reached beneath the bunk and produced a wooden box and a scroll, which he set down between us. I shifted back to allow him room as he spread out the map.

Realization struck me. “This was your cabin, wasn't it?”

He must have moved out hastily, leaving his belongings behind. “Your comfort is more important than mine,” he said with a smile. “I can sleep anywhere.”

I smiled back at him. I had missed this feeling of being close to Chang-wei, of sharing confidences. I remembered then that he was lending money to support my brother's studies. I needed to speak to him about that, but now was not the time. I didn't want to be indebted to him.

Chang-wei returned his attention to the map. “The empire of Japan has limited all foreign trade to two settlements here in Nagasaki.”

The empire of Japan consisted of a string of islands curving to the east of the Joseon peninsula. Chang-wei indicated a location at the southern tip of the chain.

“There isn't as great a distance as one would think between Nagasaki and Peking. It can be traveled by sea in less than a week. By airship, in less than two days. My research through the Ministry archives uncovered mentions of a project to build a signal tower in Peking.”

I knew immediately where the tower was located. “The Observatory.”

Chang-wei nodded. “Among the instruments.”

I had seen the Ancient Observatory when we'd arrived by airship. The platform had been built upon the ramparts of the old city wall and featured a series of astronomical instruments and structures cast in bronze and steel. At the center was a spire that rose high into the sky. I'd assumed it was yet another device for measuring the heavens.

“I first thought of it when I saw the device inside your father's puzzle box. I knew the box and device were Japanese in origin, but I didn't recognize its purpose.”

Both Chang-wei and I looked to the wooden box set between us. The exterior was lacquered to a glossy black finish but otherwise unadorned. Chang-wei slid open the lid to reveal a drum of twisted copper wire and other metallic parts. My father's device was among them.

“It's a receiver. It took me the entire year consulting with old diagrams to fix the signal tower. Once it was operational, I started to receive messages.”

Fascinated, I peered into the box. Chang-wei leaned in close, pointing out the metal plate with a cylinder attached. “The listening device attaches here. We should still be close enough to the tower.”

Wires extended from the receiver to connect to an earpiece in the shape of a dragon. The device curled around my ear,
attaching to form a cuff above the lobe.

A series of faint clicks came from the piece. “How do you know someone is sending this message?”

“The signal comes and goes, but I'm convinced the pattern starts to repeat after two hundred and fifty-six signals,” Chang-wei explained. “I've written it down here.”

He showed me a page of his notebook where he'd recorded a series of dots and dashes. I listened closer to the signal, searching for the pattern, but I was more aware of Chang-wei, head bent beside me, as we embarked on this new mystery.

“I haven't been able to decipher any of it,” he confessed.

He had made an appeal to the Emperor based on a mysterious message he couldn't interpret? I hated to admit I was as skeptical as the Grand Council.

“How do you know the message is an invitation? It could be warning us away.”

Chang-wei was adamant. “The tower was built in collaboration with the Japanese. Someone is signaling us, trying to start the conversation. We can't ignore it. This is what your father started, Soling. This is what he dreamed of. An exchange of ideas.”

The way he spoke of my father touched me but also made me nervous. My father, the former head of the Ministry of Science, had been executed when the guard towers and cannons had failed to protect our key port cities from falling to the
Yangguizi
. Much later, I learned the reasons weren't so black-and-white. He'd written a report criticizing the empire's technology and defenses as inferior to the inventions of the West.

And now Chang-wei insisted on going down the same path.

I dropped my voice low even though we were alone in the cabin. “It was those ideas that labeled him as a traitor.”

“But the flaw was not in his way of thinking. And Emperor Yizhu is different from his father.”

That was true. Yizhu hated the
Yangguizi
even more than his father had, but Chang-wei was too idealistic to realize it.

I stared down at the coded message. Listened to the faint clicks coming from the receiver. Did my father's associates on the other side even know he had been executed a decade ago? Did they realize their signals had been lost to the sky?

Until now.

“The transmitting tower resides in Nagasaki, the only port open to our ships,” Chang-wei went on with growing excitement. “Someone is trying to reach us there. We can't send a message back, but we can find the tower. We can reestablish contact.”

“What happens when we find this person?”

His eyes shone bright. “Then we will no longer be alone in this fight.”

* * *

The airship was a falcon-class transport vessel, more lightweight than the war-class ships and designed for smaller supply runs. From what I could see, the envoy consisted of Chang-wei, a translator, an armed escort of four Forbidden Guardsmen
and now myself.

The vessel flew through the night with the engines purring beneath us. I tried to get what rest I could. As Chang-wei had promised, by midafternoon as I strolled the upper deck, I could see land in the distance. Were we truly so close to the island empire?

“Come see the harbor.” Chang-wei beckoned me to the side.

A wave of dizziness struck me as I looked down and gauged how high we were. The coastline below was barely visible through the clouds.

The countryside was far away and quiet from up here. A feeling of awe swept over me just as it had when I had entered Peking in the Emperor's dragon airship. In the blue waters of Nagasaki Bay, I could see several ships, their sails the most visible feature from on high.

I also realized for the first time what a strategic advantage airships could serve. For the last several years, Peking had pushed the factories in the south to the breaking point manufacturing more. Mining crews had been worked to exhaustion to produce ore. The number of vessels in the imperial fleet was carefully guarded. The Emperor didn't want our enemies to know we were gathering our strength.

As the airship gradually descended over the bay, I could clearly make out a fan-shaped island in the distance, just off the coast.

“Dejima, the Dutch trading port,” Chang-wei explained, coming to stand beside me. His shoulder brushed against mine, and the year apart faded away. It was like this between us when we'd first arrived in Peking.

“Only a limited number of trading ships are allowed into Japan each year from each nation, and contact with foreigners is strictly controlled. Our empire is at least allowed a settlement on the mainland.”

Several stone watchtowers lined the coast, rising high above the wharf. Chang-wei produced a pair of eyeglasses from the pocket of his sleeve and put them on. He adjusted the telescopic attachment over the right lens. Then he scanned the shoreline, his gaze sweeping over the entire bay before us. He seemed to be searching for something. With my naked eye, I could see the outline of the city and the rise of the hills beyond, lush with vegetation.

“This is when we find out whether our official request is in order. Captain Zhao is sending the signal now.”

Up in the main mast, I could see flashes of light as the crewman angled the signal mirrors.

“We needed to get special dispensation to land an airship.” Chang-wei handed the spectacles to me. It took me a moment to focus the eyepiece onto the watchtowers, at which time I could clearly see the cannons aimed at us.

“All should be well,” Chang-wei murmured as I tensed.

I had a nightmare vision of crashing into the sea in a ball of flame. At that moment, an answering signal came from the nearest tower. I handed the spyglass back to Chang-wei. And then waited.

The boom of cannon fire never came.

“They're hailing us in,” Captain Zhao reported.

I let out a breath and gripped the rail as the airship continued its gradual descent.

“Nothing to fear,” Chang-wei said, reaching out to touch his hand to mine. The touch was brief, there and gone.