Serpentine (18 page)

Skybright’s growling stomach woke her. She stepped gingerly out of bed and opened the lattice window. It was already a few hours past dawn. She had slept the previous day away. Skybright dressed slowly, brushing her hair then winding it into braids close to her head. The scabs on her back had healed almost completely, revealing pale new skin, striping her flesh like she was some exotic animal.

She rubbed coarse salt against her teeth and carefully swiped a damp cloth over her face, avoiding her stitches. The wound didn’t throb as much as it had the previous day, but her skin still felt stretched too tight.

Skybright was headed for the kitchen to find some food when Rose ran up to her. She gasped and covered her mouth when she saw Skybright’s face. “Lady Yuan is asking for you.”

It was rare that Lady Yuan called for her, and they hadn’t spoken much since … that morning.

“She’s in her bedchamber.”

And she’d never called Skybright to her private quarters before. Alarmed, she caught Rose’s sleeve. “What is it?”

“It’s the mistress. She’s disappeared—”

Skybright ran toward Lady Yuan’s quarters before Rose finished her sentence, leaving the handmaid alone in the corridor, gaping after her.

She forced herself to pause in front of Lady Yuan’s reception hall. The door panels, carved with peonies, were closed. She tried to catch her breath, wiping the sweat from her forehead and upper lip with a handkerchief. Her cheek was throbbing again. She finally knocked on the door panel, and Lady Yuan’s head handmaid, Nightingale, slid the door open.

Skybright had always admired Nightingale. She was four years older than Skybright, always calm and capable, performing her tasks with a dignified elegance. But the fresh powder on the handmaid’s face didn’t disguise the redness around her eyes. “Skybright. We’ve been expecting you.”

Nightingale’s obvious distress increased Skybright’s own anxiety. Zhen Ni had never left the manor on her own, and certainly not without Skybright accompanying her. Now her mistress was wandering on the roads alone, an easy target for bandits and demons alike. If only she had warned Zhen Ni more of the monsters and bloodshed she had seen in these past weeks, perhaps she would have listened, and stayed. Perhaps if she had been more truthful to Zhen Ni, and a better friend …

Skybright swiped her damp palms against her trousers and stepped inside. The subtle perfume of roses filled the air. Ceramic bowls full of the flowers, in pinks and yellows, adorned the tables around the reception hall. Lady Yuan’s quarters were papered in the lightest blush of pink, and two huge landscape paintings hung on the far wall. Four deep curved back chairs faced each other across a dark walnut table inlaid with pearl. Brocaded cushions in each chair added to the plush feel of the space. It was more intimate than the main hall but every bit as opulent.

“Lady Yuan is waiting for you in her bedchamber.”

Skybright entered the bedchamber alone. Lady Yuan’s platform bed was even grander than Zhen Ni’s, with silk drapes in a light sage tied back at the sides. The bedchamber was large enough to include another seating area, and Skybright found her there, alone on a cushioned chair.

Lady Yuan nodded to the seat across from her. She dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. Fighting the sick feeling in her stomach, Skybright sat and Lady Yuan recoiled when she saw her face. “Zhen Ni had told me you hurt yourself yesterday. But I had not realized to what extent. Is Nanny Bai taking care of you?”

“She is. Thank you, Lady Yuan.”

The older woman slanted her head, a gesture that reminded her of Zhen Ni. They had the same eyes, beautiful and expressive. Why had she never seen the similarity before?

“It was the last time I spoke with her, when she came to tell me about your accident. Rose went to Zhen Ni this morning to find her quarters empty, her bed not slept in.” Lady Yuan straightened. She was impeccably dressed as always, the stiff collar of her emerald tunic beaded with pearls. But no amount of cosmetics could disguise the blotchiness of her skin. “It was my fault,” Lady Yuan continued with a trembling voice. “I was too harsh with her when I discovered her deception.” She pressed the handkerchief against her face.

Skybright shifted her feet, not knowing what to do. As close as she was to Zhen Ni, she had never been close with Lady Yuan.

“I knew she was hurting after I sent Lan away. I read her suffering so clearly in her eyes. But I didn’t go to her, didn’t comfort her. She cared for Lan beyond just friendship, and there’s no future in that. I believed she needed to be taught a lesson. She’s a woman now, not to be coddled. I was only trying to make up for my lax ways.” The tears came freely, and Lady Yuan didn’t even bother to dry her cheeks. “Do you know what it feels like to be a mother? It feels like I carved a piece of my heart for every precious child that I conceived. I hurt when they hurt. And like any mother, I only want the best for them. Now she’s gone.”

“Why didn’t you call me earlier?” Skybright asked. The question was both bold and rude, but she was trying to control her panic over Zhen Ni’s disappearance.

Lady Yuan’s response was unexpected. She half laughed, and picked up a piece of rice paper rolled up on the tea table. “Zhen Ni left a note. She asked, or rather instructed me, not to.”

“Was that all it said?” Skybright wanted to snatch the letter from Lady Yuan’s hand, but what use would it be when she couldn’t read?

Lady Yuan unfurled the short piece of paper and read it aloud:
Do not worry for me. I will return home. Do not wake Skybright. She knows nothing and is ill.
Lady Yuan sighed and put the letter back on the tea table. “My daughter didn’t even sign her name. I waited two hours after dawn, then sent Rose to fetch you. Thank the goddess Master Yuan will be away for another week at least tending to business. It’ll be a disaster if he returns and Zhen Ni is still gone.”

It was so like Zhen Ni to leave demands even in this terrible instance. And yet, she was still looking out for Skybright’s well being. Skybright was desperate to find out everything. “You have searched—”

“Since after dawn. In the forest, in the city, in the town. I’ve hired ten men I trust to help the manor staff. An artist has been drawing a likeness of Zhen Ni all morning to accompany the announcement of her disappearance. These have been distributed and pasted everywhere.” Lady Yuan drew her back even straighter, as if she could armor herself by stiffening her spine. “I care little for decorum now. My daughter is wandering out there alone and I just want her home safe again. The reward for finding her alive is one thousand gold coins.”

Skybright flinched at the word alive. “She’s probably on her way to Lan’s home.”

Lady Yuan nodded. “I’ve sent Golden Sparrow with an escort of eight men to the Fei manor. We’re hoping we’ll intercept her along the way.” She touched Skybright’s hand and she jumped in her seat. “Is your face all right? It looks painful.”

“Yes, Lady Yuan.”

“Skybright, I was harsh with you as well. I know how much Zhen Ni cares for you. You’ve been nothing but an exemplary handmaid and companion to her.”

Skybright recalled how despondent Zhen Ni appeared when she had left her bedchamber the previous day. It was her fault that her mistress had run away. She’d been a terrible handmaid to her in these last few weeks, and an even worse friend.

“I shouldn’t have beat you, Skybright,” Lady Yuan said, interrupting her thoughts.

Skybright inclined her head, so the woman could not glimpse her expression. “It was your right as the lady of the manor.”

“Even so—” Lady Yuan struggled for composure, to rein in the distress written so clearly on her face. “I know you’re as worried as I am. Please pray that Zhen Ni will return home to us safely.”

Skybright left Lady Yuan’s beautiful quarters in search of Nanny Bai. She was housed on the other side of the manor with a large front room filled with drawers of medicinal herbs. She didn’t visit often, as the sharp and bitter scent of the chamber would often linger in Skybright’s clothes for days.

She found the older woman at her square blackwood table, grinding something with mortar and pestle. The chamber was infused with the pungent scent of sage. Nanny Bai glanced up when Skybright pulled another wooden stool to the table.

“You’ve heard,” Nanny Bai said in her grating voice.

“I just came from Lady Yuan’s.”

“They did not get you sooner?”

Skybright swallowed with guilt, and she had to wait a moment before replying, “Rose had been tending to Zhen Ni.”

“Zhen Ni was very concerned about your face. She came yesterday to give me specific instructions on taking care of you.” Nanny Bai snorted. “As if
I
needed guidance. Now I know why. She was planning to leave even then.”

“When did she come see you?”

“Midday. She had just come from your bedchamber.”

It was as Skybright thought. Her refusal to speak truthfully to her mistress was the last aggrievement Zhen Ni could endure. “I have to find her.”

Nanny Bai sighed. “Lady Yuan has taken care of that. The reward is so generous I think the entire province is in search of our mistress.”

“I’ll have better luck. Zhen Ni had always said it, and she was right. We
are
like sisters. And I’ve failed her in these last weeks.”

“Lady Yuan would worry.” Nanny Bai had not ceased in her rhythmic motions of pounding pestle against mortar.

“She would understand. I’m useless here without Zhen Ni. A handmaid goes where her mistress goes. Will you tell her tomorrow, after I’m gone?”

Nanny Bai set the pestle down and rested her gnarled hands on the table. “It’s dangerous out there in the world, Skybright. Especially now.”

“I can take care of myself, Nanny. But Zhen Ni can’t. She’s smart and brave, but she’s never left the manor on her own before.” The more she spoke, the more terrified Skybright became for her mistress’s fate. Demons had escaped from hell, and there’s no knowing what Zhen Ni might encounter. “She needs me.”

“I can’t argue with you. Lady Yuan will be upset with me. But I’ll tell her tomorrow that you’ve gone, and the reason why.” She stood and fetched a jar from one of the low shelves. “I made this ointment for you just this morning. It should be enough to see that the cut heals.”

The jar felt cool and heavy, and she had to hold it with both hands. “Thank you, Nanny Bai.”

The older woman patted Skybright’s hair, scrutinizing her wound. “It still breaks my heart to see that cut on your lovely face.”

“No matter. The pain has eased.”

Nanny Bai gave a low chuckle. “You’ve always been practical to a fault.”

Skybright kissed Nanny on the cheek before she left, wondering how practicality could ever be a fault.

Skybright packed a knapsack with a few changes of clothing, a light blanket, and food that would keep for the journey. She retrieved a satin pouch filled with coins from her dresser, a savings of her allowance from Zhen Ni. But she had rare occasion to spend the coin, as the Yuans provided everything that she needed.

It was evening when she sneaked out the side entrance of the manor, making her way down the main road. Zhen Ni had left in the dead of night, and Skybright wagered that she took this more direct path the previous evening to travel as quickly as she could, before moving into the trees when daylight broke, to avoid searchers once her disappearance had been discovered.

Skybright had taken a map from Nanny Bai with detailed drawings of their province, Shi Lin, named for the dense forest that covered most of the region. Lan’s home was in a town three days away by carriage. But it would take much longer on foot. The roads took a more direct path from their town of Chang He in the Tian Kuan mountain down to Lan’s town of Hong Yu near its base. Skybright knew that there were no clear trails within the actual forest, and it was especially dangerous now with the breach in the underworld. She wished again that she had emphasized the danger to Zhen Ni, even though it probably wouldn’t have deterred her. Once her mistress set her mind to something, she’d follow through no matter what.