Three weeks later, T'ien Sun-Sin received orders to meet Calvary-Colonel Hsia on his return from his bi-annual purchase of fine horses. The Third Prince still on his religious retreat, orders had come from somewhere high up that the Fourth Prince would take on the duty, being otherwise underemployed. Sun-Sin greeted the order with a smile of pure pleasure. He had been cooped up in the capital for far too long.

"Another week and I will forget how to ride," he said to Lieutenant Luyo.

"A pity when you have just moved in here, though, sir."

He had taken the house in the Northeast quarter, a few minutes' walk from the city gate. Neither grand nor inadequate, the house had a peaceful air for it was set in the center of a large walled lot that backed onto a warehouse district. On either side were family-residences of respectable older officials. The gardens were a bit neglected, though the house itself had been kept in good repair by a pair of caretakers, now taken on as servants. The new majordomo had confessed loftily that he had an interest in gardening and would be more than pleased to take on the task of planning a new appearance for the grounds. Meanwhile, the work of the decorators had been delayed. Sun-Sin was not uncomfortable in his still-mostly empty rooms; he was a soldier, after all.

"The house will keep until I come back. All the better for my absence, perhaps. You met my majordomo, Dongru?"

"Yes. He seems quite the stuffed shirt."

"He comes highly recommended by my step-mother, the Grand Consort."

"I meant no disrespect, sir!"

Sun-Sin patted his friend and subordinate on the arm. "Do not worry; I think he is a stuffed shirt, too. My step-mother thinks I will run riot once she is not present to keep an eye on me. But Dongru has a bit of a gleam in his eye, or so I thought."

"If you say so...."

"Get the troop together. We will ride out at first light. A little light training before we return to the frontier."

Luyo looked eager. "Have the orders come through?"

"Not yet. But they told me when they gave me this assignment that it will not be much longer."

"Good! I hate to think what our playful Khitan friends will get up to if we are not up there to persuade them into good behavior."

Dongru did have quite a knack for turning last year's robes into smart attire. His master's folds were crisp, his underclothes white as clouds, and his armor bore a polish even richer than the military-code demanded. However, Sun-Sin did not bother his servant when he went out later that night. He needed no assistance in dabbling his fingers in charcoal dust and wiping it over the white streak in his hair, making it vanish. For the rest, simple black trousers, gathered close to his calves, and a black shirt with a black kerchief over his face required no valeting.

Sun-Sin waited on the rooftop of the Crown Prince's palace until the guards below had walked on. The moon had not yet risen so he did not even cast a shadow. He walked cautiously over the rounded tiles and then flipped himself with deceptively casual ease into the inner court. He knew the place well, yet at night distances were easily mistaken. The trickling water in the center of the courtyard would mask any noises he might make, though it would also hide any noise made by anyone else.

Slipping from pillar to pillar, he became one with the night. He had an apology to make before he left the capital and he did not want to wait until he returned in a few days. Pei-Fei had turned a scornful shoulder when he had tried to make her smile after their little quarrel. Best to beg her forgiveness before time could harden her resentment.

Such a fuss over his unwillingness to put his armor on display in his hall! How had it gone from an amicable discussion between two warm hearts to a tearful complaint that he did not attend to her, did not care for her opinion, and obviously found her troublesome?

He meant to do no more than slip into her chamber, drop a sentimental sigh over her sleeping form, and leave a poem on her pillow. He had already made up his mind to ask the king for permission to marry her; this romantic gesture would show his sincerity.

He knew from something she had let slip which room was hers. Gazing at the Grand Consort's palace, he saw that lights still flickered behind the rice-paper screened window. Faintly the sound of voices, though not the words, reached him in the depth of the still night. Why was she up so late?

Sun-Sin felt a surge of hope, setting his heart beating faster, that she, remorseful at their parting, might be composing a poem of her own. She had said laughingly that she sometimes could not sleep if the inspiration to write took her, though she had thus far always refused to show him any of her verses. Maybe if he listened, he would hear her recite a creation about him, adding another delight to flutter his susceptible heart.

Staying beside the wall so that he could not be seen in silhouette against the yellowish paper, he knelt and poked a tiny hole in the screen near the ground. There were two women's voices audible now though they were speaking low. But as he bent down to listen, he heard footsteps in the room coming closer to where he crouched.

"Dominoes are so engrossing," said a woman whose voice he did not recognize. "I had no idea it was this late."

"Confess! You were not detained by our game; it was the wine." That was Pei-Fei. He had never seen her drink; he wondered what mood a little wine would put her in. "I am glad of your company, Lady Chu. Now that I have finished my task regarding the Fourth Prince's manor, I find the days far too long."

"You do not know long days as I do. I cannot wait until Consort Sing is farther along in her pregnancy. Maybe then some of us other ladies will get our chance."

"I hope for your sake that you will. For me, however, I would take the hiatus as a blessing."

The concubine chuckled. "There speaks a virgin, if you do not mind my plain speaking."

"I hope not to be one for long."

"Oh, you have hopes of the Fourth Prince?"

Sun-Sin smiled to himself. He had not committed himself yet, but it would take a far stupider girl than Pei-Fei not to know he was mad for her. Even the fact that she was actually three years older than he was and still unmarried had not given him pause. She was so enticing; never the same way two days running. Cold one day, soft and sweet the next, while always offering helpful suggestions about his manor, his relationships, even how to order his troop. And so gratifyingly grateful when he thanked her for her interest. Sometimes she was the teasing creature he had first met, while other times she was reserved, while giving hints that, red candles burning, she would be everything he wanted in a wife.

"As there is no one else in the royal family whom I could potentially marry...yes, I have hopes of the Fourth Prince."

"Is it so important to marry into the royal family?"

"You ask me that? You who already have a position here? Of course it is important. I come from a family with eight girls, all older than me. My parents have no money left for a decent wedding, let alone enough to entice a nobleman into marrying me. That is why Mother falling ill was such a blessing for me. Without that, the Grand Consort Liu would never have brought me here. The crying and pleading I had to do to persuade Mother to write wore me out!"

"You must have played your role very cleverly. I saw the Fourth Prince look at you yesterday. He is deeply enamored."

"I hope so. Of course, he is in the army but I can soon persuade him to hand in his resignation. I am not having him get killed and turn me into a useless widow! Not until I have at least one son to return me to the palace after I bury him."

"Why do you love the palace so much? It is not as wonderful as it seems from the outside." Lady Chu sounded thoroughly disillusioned.

"You are fed regularly, waited on hand-and-foot by servants. You have beautiful clothes and jewels. You can lie about all day if it pleases you. Nobody tells you what to do except the Grand Consort Liu. If you have a child, you are unassailable for life unless you do something foolish like sleep with a handsome young guard from Hangchow."

"How do you know...? I mean, that would indeed be foolish."

Pei-Fei gave a laugh that ended in a hiccup. "I will regret saying these things to you tomorrow but I think you will keep my secrets. I hope you will. I think we could be good allies and...who knows? Even friends."

"If you marry the Fourth Prince and go into his manor, we will not meet often."

"But what fun we shall have when we do."

Dazed, Sun-Sin took few precautions as he left his position by Pei-Fei's door. He had stayed there too long, frozen or turned to stone. He thought of how he had once bitten into a peach, lush and ripe, warm from the sun, only to find half a worm wriggling in the depths. He had spat at once, but it had been a long time before he got the bitter taste of disgust out of his mouth.

Sun-Sin knew all he had to do was show himself to his brother's guards to guarantee a quick death. A man found on these premises after dark could only be poaching in the Crown Prince's private reserve. The only thing that held him back was the consideration that the Crown Prince's women would be tortured to discover which of them had been his lover. His own great-grandfather's brother had been executed for trifling with one of the king's wives. The woman in the case had taken poison. It was still a scandal to be mentioned as a warning to impetuous hearts. Someone had written a play about the incident, Last Dawn of Two Lovers, still banned from performance in Wuyue.

Even with a heart as heavy as Kunlun Mountain, Sun-Sin could still leap to the top of a wall without effort. His mind elsewhere, his honed reflexes took over, carrying him silently over the rooftops the way he had come. But a body can only do so much on its own. When the moon came out, he was seen.

"Halt! You up there!"

"What it is, Guardsman?" his superior demanded.

"I thought I saw a man on the roof, Corporal Shao."

"You did? Where?"

"There! There he is!"

Sun-Sin came alert. He realized the moon had risen while he was sunk in misery. The guards were gathering in the courtyard below, outside their own mess-hall, pointing and shouting. He crossed the pitch of the roof and slid down to the far side. He had his bearings now, seeing a way out of the maze of buildings, courts and walkways. Unfortunately, he was on the river-side of the palace and the rapidly mustering guards were between him and the quickest route out.

The most important thing now was to escape from the Crown Prince's manor. If he could reach the larger court of the king, there were many places where he could plausibly explain his presence even so late at night, even so peculiarly dressed.

Leaping across a wide gap between the eaves of one building and another, he almost lost his balance on landing when he realized his urgent desire to escape the Crown Prince's manor had less to do with saving his life than in keeping Lung Pei-Fei from knowing he had ever gone to see her. He would rather lose his life than give her that satisfaction. Let her wonder forever why he had grown so cold after their pleasant relations. Let her doubt her own perceptions as he now doubted his.

Sun-Sin saw an open window above him. He leapt up, caught the top of the over-arch, and swung himself in, legs first. It was a servant's room, a single candle showing it to be unoccupied except for a threadbare woman's robe hanging from a stand. Breathing hard, he sat down on the edge of the bed.

Like a dumb animal, he felt a pain he could not name. In the darkness, tears splashing onto his hands, he found he blamed Lung Pei-Fei less than he blamed himself. He had been blind to think that he was somehow immune from the murky side of court life, that he was not just another pawn in a game that had begun centuries before his birth. In a way, he should be grateful to her for awakening him from this innocent carelessness that had already lasted too long. Maybe one day he would be. Now, losing that contented spirit felt like the greater betrayal.

After a bit, he stood up, wiping his face with his kerchief, sick of himself and his self-pity. He left his poem on the pillow; let that confuse the poor housemaid who obviously occupied that room. Maybe her heart, young or old, would turn toward a lover. Sun-Sin wished her better luck than he had himself.

He listened by the window. No one seemed to be shouting or running about now. Going out the way he had come in, he leapt off the sill and caught the edge of the tiled roof. Pulling himself up past the ceramic guardians that lined the up-swept eaves, he crouched like one of them to get his bearings again. He thought he recognized a taller tower; surely that stood on the edge of the palace grounds, overlooking the river and the heart of the city beyond.

But Sun-Sin had no sooner traversed another two courtyards before the shout, "There he is!" went up, followed shortly by a flight of spears. As he ran, he kicked free some tiles that slid to the ground with a crash. "He is throwing tiles at us!"

"No, that was an accident," Sun-Sin said and laughed, his heart lifting.

Ahead of his pursuers for a moment, he stood above the gate on a high garden wall. In front of him, a steeply-humped bridge spanned a wider lake than any he had ever seen within the palace walls. Someone had taken great pains to make it look natural. Frogs sang among the reeds while the night-breeze set the bamboo to rattling. Moonlight silvered the water, setting it glowing like the moon itself. He wished he could bathe his hot face in that cool water.

"Get him!"

"That is the Garden of Tranquility! He is an assassin! Attack!"

"This is positively the last time I deliver my own love letters." There was nothing else to do. "Looks like my wish to die tonight is going to come true." He heard the long whine of a spear flying through the air. Before it reached him, he dove directly into the lake, praying it was deeper than it looked.

The lake water received him, the rings spreading out, lapping against the shore-line. Hiding among the reeds, Sun-Sin keenly felt the absurdity of his position. His only hope was to stay in the water until the guards gave up. He faced the fact that he might be there all night. "Better to die of exposure than of embarrassment," he muttered.

With a start, Sun-Sin realized there was a man in long robes standing beside the lake, not a dozen feet away. Or was it a statue of some god? He certainly stood very still. He had not cried out in surprise though he must have seen that dive.

"Do you need a hand?"

The figure could move. He came closer, bent forward, and held out a hand, long and white in the moonshine. Sun-Sin looked at it as if it were a mirage. "I can explain...."

"After you are out of the water, I think."

Grasping it, he was pulled up, his feet slipping on the mossy edge of the stone lining. He got his rescuer a bit wet in the process. Dripping, Sun-Sin smoothed his sodden tunic, pressing the water out of it, though he might as well have saved the effort. He was soaked right through to his skin. "What a mess."

The man spoke, his voice deep. "Are you an assassin?"

"Not I."

Did the man's stalwart shoulders sink a bit in relief?

"A thief, then. Bold indeed to steal from the royal palace."

"Not a thief either. Just...I am lost."

"Lost? At this hour?"

"One can be lost at any hour," Sun-Sin said reasonably. "I am sorry to have troubled you, honored sir. If you could just point in the direction of the front gate?"

The man turned, his face in shadow, even though his nose had a high bridge that caught the light. A gleam of pale gold came from the holder of his knotted hair. There was a similar metallic gleam from his shoulders. Sun-Sin had thought for an instant from the stance that he was Eldest Brother, but the voice was older and deeper.

Sun-Sin, standing with his face in full moonlight, knew that this stranger must be studying him. He hoped he looked honest and trustworthy. He ran his hand over his hair, feeling the rivulets of lake-water running down his neck. Glancing into his hand, he saw dark smears on the palm. He wondered how visible the white streak that gave away his identity was in this light. If only he had trusted to a hood instead of trying to be clever.

"It is that way. But there are many guards between my...this garden and the gate. I doubt that you will get through, even across the roofs."

"I must try."

"Because you are lost?"

"Because I must. I have an appointment in the morning that I cannot miss."

"With a woman?"

"No. Although yesterday it might have been. Not today. No, tomorrow I must ride out with my troop on his majesty's service."

"His majesty must be glad to have such men at his command. Here, take this."

From his sleeve, he brought out a square of white stone that shone as he tossed it, tumbling through the air, to Sun-Sin. He snagged it out of the air by the silken tassel threaded through a hole. Smooth and white, heavy and solid, the jade was worth at least half a province. On the face, deeply incised, was a representation of a complicated knot ending in a dragon's head.

"Show it to the guards. They will let you pass without question."

"How can I return this item to you, honored sir?" The dark figure must be a general of the highest rank and Sun-Sin bowed to him as such.

"Do you know anyone in the palace?"

"I know the Grand Consort."

"Then send it to her. She is...kind to my wife. Never disregard the connections between women, young man. They are essential to any plan you choose to make."

"I am certain you are right, honored sir. However, as a military man, I am glad to say that there are no women in my brigade."

The man's laugh now was open and amused. "They are capable of war, though with other weapons than a sword. The arrows they use pierce deep indeed. Go on your way, young man."

"A thousand thanks, honored sir." Though he wished to ask the gentleman's name, he did not dare. As a younger man to an elder, that would be beyond discourteous. If the man wanted him to know, he would tell him.

Sun-Sin saw the awe on the guards' faces as he presented the jade, holding it before him like a magic talisman. They bowed to it and passed him onto the next courtyard or gate. If their eyes lingered on his wet clothes or the cloth now covering both his face and his head, the jade forbade any questions.

He was never so glad to be out of the palace before. Hanging the jade from his belt, he kept a protective hand over it as he neatly evaded the two guards detailed to follow him. They were well-trained but his speed and ability to take a wall in stride defeated them. Distantly, from the center of the capital, he heard music and other sounds of gaiety. Though he wanted a drink with all a desert-dweller's desperation, he dared not take the risk of losing his talisman by accident, misadventure, or theft.

He stopped under a house-lantern to look at the jade. Who in the kingdom had a dragon for a symbol? The Crown Prince carried the emblem of the tiger, second brother the boar. The Third Prince used the insignia of the lion while his own armor bore a hawk.

The dragon belonged to only one man.

Sun-Sin watched as though from a long way away as his hands started to shake.