An Embittered Witch, page 17
I slowly picked my way down the white marble steps away from the Hall of Celestial and Terrestrial Union, casting my mind back to the map of the palace grounds. The gardens were at the north end of the compound, so surely the feasting hall had been between the last palace and the garden.
I turned north, to my left, once I’d reached the ground. Yes, there loomed the Palace of Earthly Tranquility directly before me. It was a mirror image of the Palace of Heavenly Purity which we’d walked through to reach the feasting hall, there being no other way to get around the huge structure.
Ah, but closer examination showed that the two palaces weren’t exactly the same. The one before me was slightly smaller in scale, which allowed for a narrow corridor between the high stone wall and the palace itself. If my calculations were correct, this should lead me to the gate of the gardens.
This suited me, for feeling so stuffed and logy as I was, I had no desire to mount any more steps in my search for the Imperial Gardens. I glanced behind me. The few groups of people weren’t paying any attention to me, so I quietly slipped through between the walls.
There was only darkness and dead silence in the passageway. The stone stretched up above my head, the overhanging roof of the Palace closing me off from the moonlight and the reflected glare of the city. But I felt no fear. There were no supernatural elements here, no ghosts of concubines past. Perhaps it was as Win had said, that all the magick of China had been purged out of everyday life and pushed and squeezed into the cells surrounding the old Buddhist nunneries.
In a place with such a terrible history of abuse and excess and wars, I would have expected to feel more of the past’s vibrations echoing, but I didn’t give it much thought as I was intent on reaching the fresh garden to breathe oxygen. My headache, although lessened, still remained, and I pushed on through the empty shadows.
And there were the enormous gates leading to the northern-most end of the Forbidden City. And yes, there was the green moistness of the garden was in the air, it was calling to me. I quickly made my way along the path to the towering wall with the gates within.
The tall wooden door, surprisingly, opened easily with a slight push, and I hesitated on the threshold. Was I allowed to enter? The evening’s organizers had given the delegates the tour of all the main palaces and museum spaces on our way to the feasting hall, but nothing had been said about us going beyond the prescribed route. So, strictly speaking, we hadn’t been forbidden to explore and Cate hadn’t seemed to think it was a problem.
On the other hand…
‘Are we allowed in there?’ The whispered voice cut harshly through the quiet of the space.
Win.
‘What are you doing? Following me?’ Of course she was. That was her assignment, to keep close tabs on me when not sucking up to Cate and Hugh. She was still following the witch’s orders and not letting me out of her sight. How had she snuck up on me wearing those stupid stilettos? ‘The gate is open – if they didn’t want us in here, they would have locked it, don’t you think?’
She drew closer, and looked nervously at the dark opening. Beyond, I could smell the perfume of the flowers, yes, even in January there were blooms lending their fragrance to the air. I could see the whiteness of petals glowing in the pitch black of the gardens within the portal.
‘I don’t think it’s a good idea.’
‘Why are you whispering? There’s no one around to hear.’ I boldly pushed the door open further. It was heavy and designed to close off the interior from the eyes of the court. ‘You don’t have to come in. I just want a breath of fresh air and some quiet. Go on back to the Hall.’
I stepped through into the garden.
Win made as if to join me, then reached out to grab my arm. ‘Don’t!’
I shook her off and attempted to close the door, to leave her outside. ‘If you don’t like it, leave.’
But she followed me on my heels as if she was stuck to me, determined not to let me be alone or give me any peace.
We paused as we stood inside the gate, not even noticing as it silently swung closed behind us. It was pitch black in here, inside the secret walled gardens of the Emperor. And here, here was the supernatural element which had been so absent in the rest of the Palace enclave.
‘Do you feel it?’ I found myself whispering now, too. My headache was all but forgotten as I smelled the magic amongst the greenness.
Despite the time of year, the garden’s air was warm with scents, an almost tropically moist breeze wafted around us. A pathway glowed ahead of us, the white marble pebbles reflecting what little light escaped from the sky, forking off into meandering paths around the groupings of large cedar trees, their branches drooping to the ground from their great heights. There was not a sound in this garden, not even the wind in the branches.
‘I think this is a very bad idea.’
Her body shivered beside me. I had an uncomfortable, niggling feeling she might be right, but I would never acknowledge that. Beneath the gorgeousness of the perfumes and the freshness of the over-oxygenated air, there was another tone, a darker tone, an electric magical confluence in the atmosphere of this enclosed garden.
Yes, Win might be right, but I wasn’t going to admit it, certainly not to her. Serve her right for following me where she wasn’t wanted. The path crunched beneath my flats as I boldly stepped out.
‘Like I said, you didn’t have to come. I’m going to do a bit of exploring.’ I began to wander along the path, letting it take me along the twists and turns until the gate was out of sight. Win’s steps behind me were surprisingly subdued, as if she were creeping along, not wishing to disturb any sleeping creatures.
She was muttering under her breath.
‘Like I said, you don’t have to come along,’ I said as I stopped suddenly and whirled around to face her. ‘You can –‘
My words faltered as a swish of wings of fabric or something sounded overhead, and the faint breeze caused by their passing lifted the hairs on the back of my neck.
Twenty-Nine
‘What was that?’ Win had jumped onto the path behind me as she shrieked and stood uncomfortably close. Too close. I shook her arm off me.
‘Just a bird, an owl or something,’ I muttered. I looked up into the sky but all I could see was the reflected lights of the city off the smog cover. There were no stars in this quiet place.
‘Or a dragon?’ She was whispering now. She moved a little away from me, and stood uncertainly on the path.
We both stood still with our ears open. No birds sounded, no hoots or squawks or even the sweet lonely sound of a nightingale. It was quiet, like the quiet of a crypt. Yet there was still something buzzing in the air, something just out of the range of human ears.
‘Do you feel it?’
‘What?’ I asked reluctantly. I didn’t want her to say it out loud.
‘The magic. It’s all around us.’
‘How can that be?’ My whisper was low, but furious. ‘This is not one of your magick cysts – how can it be? There are thousands of people coming through here every single day. Thousands and thousands of Mundanes.’
‘Well, maybe it becomes a magic cell after dark,’ she insisted. ‘What do you know about it all? I’m telling you there is strong magick here in this garden. Thought you were supposed to be such a powerful witch. You have to be able to feel it.’
I nodded slowly. ‘Yeah. Okay, I do, alright?’ I lifted my head. I was beginning to regret my obstinance in entering the garden. ‘Maybe we should just leave?’
We both stood and looked all around us. We were surrounded by the large cedars whose branches drooped all the way to the ground. I could swear they hadn’t been so close a moment ago. I cast my eye to the ground. We were standing at a crossroads of the path, a divergence, where the white marbled pebbles went off in four directions.
‘Which way is out?’
‘It’s got to be behind us. We didn’t come very far.’ We set off back the way I thought we had come. Win took my arm and this time I let her.
But we hadn’t gone ten feet before I could see that this couldn’t be the right route. The layout of the trees was wrong, and there was no sign of the portal through which we’d arrived in to the garden.
‘Let’s try the other direction,’ Win urged, still hanging on tight. We retraced our steps, but the crossroads had disappeared. Instead, the path stretched out before us in a single strand of glowing white, curving around the trees.
‘That’s impossible,’ I told her, my voice the barest whisper. ‘What’s going on here?’
‘Oh shit,’ she breathed.
‘What?’
She heaved the deepest sigh. ‘I think we’re screwed. We’re really up the creek without a paddle.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Do you know what you’ve landed us in?’
‘I? Listen honey, you don’t have to follow me everywhere I go. Okay? No one forced you through that gate.’
‘Fine. I won’t tell you, then.’
‘Win.’ My voice must have sounded a warning. The skin on my back crawled, itchy with sweat.
‘Okay then,’ she said after a pause. Her shoulders drooped as if in defeat. ‘We’re in a vortex. A negative magic vortex.’
I could only stare at her, my mind racing through all of the Venerable Nachtan’s lessons on the ancient Greek witches and their philosophies of magic. Nope, nothing came to mind. My shoulders twitched uncomfortably. Negative magic? ‘What the hell is that?’
‘It’s exactly what it sounds like,’ she snapped, suddenly flaring back to life. ‘And it’s your fault!’
Her eyes were burning black as she glowered at me through the darkness. The trees had grown even closer during our exchange, imperceptibly moving when I took my attention off them, like in a game of statues gone horribly wrong. I fought against the pure terror coming to a boil in my gut. I had no idea what Win was talking about, or how we possibly could have caused this situation, but I was seized with the need to make things right because something in the air was very, very wrong.
‘Well, whatever,’ I said, my teeth clenched against the bile in my throat. My hands were shaking, and it wasn’t anger, it was a purely physical reaction, a message from my body to get the hell out of there. Wherever there was. ‘How do we get out of this?’
‘There’s one way, and only the one way. I don’t see how it can work, not with you.’
‘I’m losing my patience here, Win.’ And was about to lose that fantastic lengthy feast, too. The honeyed rose petals were not sitting well with the garlic and thyme shrimp. ‘What do we have to do?’
She looked up and stared at me. ‘We have to drop the negativity.’
‘For the love of… Win, never mind our personal politics.’ My whole body was breaking out in a sweat.
‘See? You’re not willing to let it go. We’ll never get out of here. And I can’t do it by myself because you’re here, and you’re attracting the vortex!’
‘What, do you mean that somehow we’ve created this… this weirdness that’s happening?’
‘That’s what I’ve been telling you!’
‘It’s not just me, Win,’ I retorted. My legs were starting shake now. ‘It takes two to tango.’
We stared at each other, feeling the pressure of the trees all around us. And then – another swoop of wings, closer to our heads and another. I could have sworn I felt claws lightly catch the loose hairs on my head, yet there was nothing to see. I huddled closer to her.
‘Dammit. What do we need to do?’
She turned to face me and took both my hands in hers. ‘We have to shut our eyes and disbelieve the negative.’
‘The negative magic? The vortex? Which?’
‘All of it.’ She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. ‘We must not feed the vortex. We must trust each other and loosen the barriers between us.’
After a pause, she opened her eyes again. ‘Come on! You need to do this. The vortex is feeding off the negativity.’ She’d forced the calmness into her voice, the patience. I could tell it was false.
‘But what is this thing?’ It was a dark force, it was sucking at the very air we breathed, taking the oxygen out of our lungs.
‘Christ Dara! Do you want to get out of here or not? We haven’t much time left.’ She panted as she darted a frenzied glance at the woods all around. The garden had grown perceptibly darker as the reflected light of the city was cut off by the height of the trees now towering over our heads. ‘The vortex happens when magick is forced in on itself. There’s no presence of the nuns here to temper it, and so when we walked in through the portal, we hit a pocket of magick. You felt it too! And now it’s feeding off the feelings between us.’
As if those feelings were all my fault. If she wasn’t such a … If she hadn’t … I opened my mouth to argue with her, but she cut me off.
‘It can’t end well,’ she warned, allowing the fear in her voice again. ‘Do you want to end up as a ghost in the Imperial Garden? Because that’s what will happen if we don’t work together on this!’
I took a deep breath, as much as I could. Whatever. The magick was now building like maggots crawling all over my skin. Perhaps she was right this time. ‘Okay. Let’s do it.’
‘You have to trust me. We will close our eyes and walk. Clear your mind of everything but awareness, be mindful of the bond between us that we are creating.’
‘Which direction will we walk?’
‘I will lead, if you allow me. Yes? Do you trust me?’
I nodded, then realized she probably couldn’t see my action. I swallowed. ‘Yes. I trust you Win.’ I had to work to shut off the voice which nastily whispered I didn’t have any choice in the matter.
‘Walk to your left. My right. Slowly.’
We began to move, like a slow dance, one step and pause. Another step and pause. The wind had picked up in that short space of time, like a tornado touching down, then it grew spinning and whirling through the branches of the cedars. I could almost feel those soft arms brushing against me, reaching out to grab us.
‘Pay no attention to the things you think you hear and feel.’ Win’s voice was a soft murmur, a small oasis of peace in the whirlwind around us. I held on to the sound like a lifeline. ‘These things are not real. Keep your attention only on the bond between us, the magical bond we are creating. Let Peace be.’
But there was no peace outside our small bubble. The trees, or unseen creatures within them, were murmuring, growing excited, I could picture sharp teeth reaching out to us.
‘Stop that flow,’ Win said softly, not ten inches from my ear. She understood how difficult this process was. ‘Just be aware of you. Nothing can touch you.’
Not even the dragon which swooped yet again, screeching in its defeat. A single claw ripped through my hair as the wings beat all around us. I steadfastly held on to Win and her voice, refusing to allow myself to become a meal for a dragon which wasn’t even real.
And then, suddenly, all was silence once again. The wind died as fast as it had begun, the dragon was no more, I could even sense the trees had retreated. I took a grateful gulp of the rich air in the garden. Win stopped her slow crab-walk to the side, but her hands remained in mine.
‘Are we there yet?’ I breathed. I could no longer feel that terrible vortex of magic, yet the air still wasn’t totally mundane and clear.
‘You can open your eyes now,’ Win replied. Her voice was soft and gentle. She let go of my left hand and moved to my right side.
The night was no longer so dark. The white marble pebbles glowed slightly, but it was a natural glow from the purity of the stone, nothing other-worldly or magical about it. The trees once again kept their distance, spotted here and there about the garden, and the smell of the flowers was not overwhelming, as befitted a garden in winter.
I looked about in wonder that the magical storm had dissipated without a trace. ‘You did it.’
‘We did it,’ she reminded me.
Behind me also, all was as it should be. ‘How do we get out of this garden now?’
She shrugged. ‘Dunno. I totally lost my bearings somewhere there.’
I looked all around me again, full circle this time. There were no landmarks beyond the trees, nothing to show where we were, except a solitary roofline, far above our heads and some distance away.
‘Let’s head over there,’ I suggested. ‘Looks like that building is on a rise. There should be a way to climb up and get the lay of the land. It’s high enough that we’ll be able to see where the Palaces are.’
The path led directly to the structure, and once we cleared the cedars, we were at the bottom of a small hill. It looked artificial, as if a giant child had built a hillock from a load of giant-sized pebbles. We stood at the foot and gazed up.
‘Looks like there’s a gazebo way up there.’
I nodded in agreement. ‘There should be a way up to the top?’ I sounded doubtful because I could see no stair way or path through the jumble of rock.’
‘Perhaps at the back.’
We set off to circumnavigate the hill. The path, now concreted and well-used with a low barrier fence protecting the hill, led through huge pine trees all around it. We walked all around, yet found no route to the top.
At the front of it again, I held out my hand to stop Win. ‘Wait – there, in that shadow. Is that a doorway?’
Curious and curiouser. A doorway set deep into the center of this manmade hill of white marble. This was a terribly strange land.
‘It is!’ Win jumped over the short barrier to make her way to the wooden door, almost invisible in the shadows.
And it was at that moment that I saw the Chinese lion’s head carved out of the white marble. It was terrifically lifelike and fearsome. As was the dragon next to it. Like a large gong sounding in my head, I suddenly knew where we were, and what lay beyond that door.
