The Immortal Words (The Grave Kingdom), стр. 90
Emissaries had been sent to the conquered kingdoms by ship, with news of the Battle of Fusang and offers of peace. It would take days for the responses to come, but Rowen was patient and willing to wait for the answers before attacking. He would not force the other kingdoms to join him, he had confided in her. But he would liberate them from Echion’s minions when the time was right. That was when he asked her, once again, to be the leader of his ensign to the world. She agreed.
On the morning of the third day, the missing siskin found Bingmei training in the yard in the queen’s portion of the palace grounds. Guards constantly patrolled the walls, as they’d already had two experiences of individual dragons returning and causing havoc. She was delighted to see the bird and reached out to its mind.
I need you to find my child, little siskin, she implored. Please help me.
Come! replied the siskin energetically. Come to the pagoda on the hill!
Bingmei’s eagerness was so compelling she almost flew directly there, but she went to find Rowen first. He was walking in the garden with General Tzu and King Zhumu, discussing whether Liekou should be prevented from marrying Cuifen, even though she carried his child. The law about destroying all female children had been abolished immediately, along with the rest of the Iron Rules.
“If she’s chosen Liekou, what else matters?” Rowen asked.
“But she is my heir. Should I not have a say in who rules my kingdom?” Zhumu demanded.
“What is it, Bingmei?” Rowen asked when she arrived breathlessly.
“I need you to come with me. It’s . . . it’s urgent.”
“What’s wrong?” the general asked with concern. “Have you seen another dragon approaching?”
Bingmei’s eagerness boiled inside her like soup. “No, General. It’s a personal matter.”
“Can it not wait, then?” Zhumu insisted. She smelled his spoiled emotions, his dissatisfaction with his daughter and his bodyguard.
Rowen held out his hand, and she guided him to the doorway. “You’ll excuse me, I’m sure. You know how I feel about Liekou. Hasn’t he earned our trust after all he’s done?”
Zhumu scowled, but his feelings relented. If not for Liekou, his daughter would have perished in the winter.
After she and Rowen were beyond earshot, she said, “We need to go to the pagoda on the hill outside the northern walls.”
“Let’s fly.” Immediately, he transformed into the majestic phoenix. When he was in that form, his eyes were no longer mottled with shadows. His sight was perfect. Bingmei leaped into the air, transforming into her phoenix form for the first time. The stretching, pulsing feeling was majestic and glorious. She saw the plumage of her own feathers and how they matched the color her hair had turned when it had lost its whiteness. The transformation was effortless and immediate, and together they flew above the palace, heading to the northern wall and the hill beyond it. She relished flying with him, the dizzying distance adding to the thrill as they soared on the wind.
The sunlight shone through the pine trees covering the upper slopes of the hill and gleamed on the roof tiles of the pagoda. The honeyed smell around them was her own hope. From the vantage point of the sky, she could see the palace behind them, the inlet jutting in from the waterway leading to the shrinking glacier. To the north, she could see the Death Wall, which hosted thousands of soldiers who still didn’t know that their master had been killed.
She transformed back to human as she lowered down to the edge of the pagoda, and Rowen circled it once before landing beside her, his feathers and claws and hooked beak suddenly metamorphizing back into the features of a man.
The scents from inside the pagoda hit her strongly. The smell of fish. The smell of her baby. And the smell of the concubine who had cared for Shixian.
The siskin perched atop the meiwood beam at the edge of the roof and chirped loudly, anxiously. The occupants of the pagoda appeared in the doorway as Rowen and Bingmei approached it. The woman held a baby wrapped in blankets.
Shixian.
Bingmei stared at them in shock, her heart warming with gratitude. “Quion,” she whispered. She rushed to them, reaching for her child. The woman handed him over with a sad smile. The relief of holding him again overpowered Bingmei’s emotions.
A buttery bread smell had mingled with Quion’s usual scent of fish as he stood deliberately near the woman. It made Bingmei smile. She had never met anyone so deserving of happiness as Quion.
“Hello, Bingmei,” Quion said, dipping his head to her. He stood by the concubine. “This is Lianhua. She’s the one who has been caring for Shixian.”
“I know who she is,” Bingmei said, looking at the other woman while feeling pangs of gratitude and perhaps the slightest bit of jealousy. Lianhua had no smell of deception in her. She’d lost her own child and had willingly devoted herself to Bingmei’s son.
“It’s Quion,” Rowen said. “I recognize your voice.” Bingmei caught the scent of jealousy from him as well, but it was not nearly as strong as it had been in the past.
“Hello, my lord,” Quion said. “It’s time you met your son.”
The smell that came from Rowen revealed his conflict and uncertainty. The siskin chirped with animation.
Lianhua gripped Quion’s arm as she watched Rowen and Bingmei, who clung to the baby and pressed him close. Shixian’s smell was so sweet to Bingmei the aching in her heart finally soothed. She’d feared she would never be able to hold him again. She did not know where Xisi had fled to, and so there was no