Temptation of the Butterfly, page 2
Whoever this man was, she’d guess he was only half-Lintianese by birth. His pronunciation of the language was flawless, indicating he’d been raised in their ways or had access to a stellar language upload program.
He was taller than most men Fen had been around, though not so tall as Mei’s space captain husband who practically towered over her. Captain Jarek of the Var also happened to be a foreign cat-shifting prince.
“Who are you?” she asked the handsome stranger, not moving.
“Aaron,” he answered. His gaze focused on her feet. Fen resisted the urge to hide her toes from view. They tingled with just a stare from him.
“Aaron?” she repeated, rolling the foreign name around in her mouth. “What is your family name? Or is that your family name?”
“Piers.” The answer was clipped.
“How did you get in here, Piers Aaron?” Fen asked.
“Forgive my intrusion, Princess, I heard you scream for help as I walked by and thought you needed rescuing.” His hands gripped in light fists at his side. They were strong, calloused hands, the hands of a worker. He glanced around the room, refusing to look directly at her. “I see now you were merely playacting. Forgive my mistake. Duibuqi, excuse me.”
Fen tensed. There was something in his tone that bothered her. It took her a moment to realize it was disdain, mixed with a touch of pity. He thought she was crazy, screaming for help when there was nothing to be rescued from. So much for the theory that this man had magic. Could she really blame his reproach? All evidence of her dire situation had disappeared, making it appear as if she’d been screaming like a madwoman for no reason. Fen hardly needed rescuing from her bedclothes.
The man was so serious, so rigid as he waited for her to dismiss him, that she couldn’t help but tease him in the hopes of putting him at ease. “Do you know there is a penalty for wandering about outside the royal chambers, even if you were waiting to save me from myself?”
Aaron glanced up at her words, and she tried to smile to show she was joking, but the look in his dark eyes stopped her cold. What she could only describe as resentment burned within his gaze.
Out of all the Zhang children, Fen was most gifted with charm. It was more than the natural ability to put people at ease, it was a power bestowed upon her at birth by their sacred Jade Phoenix. When she spoke, she could induce a person to tell the truth or to show their true emotions. And, to an extent, she could control them by playing their emotions against them with the power of persuasion. It was a great responsibility, one Fen never used for ill intent.
Her powers being as they were, she knew she shouldn’t have been surprised to see the raw emotion in the man’s eyes. To anyone else, he would appear stoic and calm, but she saw his resentment, his borderline anger and hate that bubbled just beneath the surface. Did he hate her? Resent her? Her family? The palace? It was hard to say without knowing who he was or why he was within the walls of Honorable City.
The sudden impact of his hidden emotions made her uneasy.
“I have the emperor’s permission to stay in Péng You Hall.” Aaron lifted his jaw, the gesture one of pride. Then, as if catching himself, he deliberately lowered his eyes once more. Pride was not something she saw too often in commoners, at least not when they knew she was there.
“You’re a guest?” she asked in surprise.
Aaron nodded once. Fen wasn’t sure if she should believe him. Maybe he trespassed on palace grounds. A thief? Instantly she dismissed the thought. A thief wouldn’t have stopped to save her. But, then who? Being one of the four unmarried royal children still residing at the palace, she was expected to welcome any of their guests. Although, at fifty-one years of age, she hardly considered herself a child, even if she did look exactly as she had thirty years ago.
“Here?” she persisted. “You’re a guest here in the palace?”
He said again, “I have the emperor’s permission to stay in Péng You Hall.”
Fen nodded weakly, completely aware that she sounded like an imbecile as she forced her poor rescuer to repeat himself as if she were a child. It was hard to gather her thoughts so soon after the strange fire. The pull of his nearness wasn’t helping her concentrate—though to look at him, the pull was entirely one-sided.
“If you have no need of me, Princess, I’ll take my leave of you.” Aaron glanced up, again showing her the dark blue of his gaze. Fen gestured at him in dismissal. He pulled the door shut behind him and left without further comment.
For a long, silent moment, she stared after him, looking at the gold inlay on the door without really seeing it.
Suddenly, as she remembered the fire that had awakened her from her dreams, she sprang into action. Fen grabbed her robe off a nearby chair. As she ran, she slipped it over her shoulders, hurrying to make sure none of her siblings was harmed by the strange disappearing inferno.
The flames hadn’t been a dream. They couldn’t have been. They had felt so real.
A vision? she wondered, confused. An omen or warning?
Foresight was Shen’s gift from the Jade Phoenix, not hers.
In total, there were six royal siblings. Prince Haun was the oldest and heir to the throne. He had strength and a warrior’s heart. When the time came, he would make a great emperor. Second oldest was Jin, with the gift of knowing and understanding the past. Then Lian, who was blessed with grace, both in movement and temperament, and with knowledge of the present. He could defuse any situation with logic and made one fine dancer. Fen was next in line, born a few years before her younger brother, Shen. And the baby of the family was Mei, whose soul was like the wind, blowing free. Mei was pure instinct, led by the elements who whispered their secrets in her ear.
Beyond that, there were two siblings-by-marriage—Mei’s husband, Jarek, and Jin’s wife. Jin had married a foreign woman, Francesca La Rosa. They were living quite happily in the countryside away from the palace, where they were completing the building for a school to teach martial arts.
Since both siblings had found happiness in foreign arms, why shouldn’t Fen too be attracted to a man who wasn’t wholly of Lintianese birth? It wasn’t like she was going to marry Piers Aaron, she was just a little bit interested in him on a romantic level. Okay, a fair bit interested in him—naturally assuming he was a guest at the palace, like he said. She wondered if the emperor and empress would see it that way. In the immediate family, it was no secret her mother was disappointed in the matches Jin and Mei had made.
An ache filled her as she thought of her sister. She missed Mei. It was hard being around men all the time. She had hoped Francesca would be more open to friendship, but the woman was still too guarded. If only Fen had someone to talk to who wasn’t a brother.
She thought of her strange rescuer. Who was he really? What was he doing in the palace?
Stopping at Haun’s door, she pounded her hand against it. “Haun? It’s me, Fen. Haun? Are you safe?”
A sleepy-eyed Haun opened the door, mid-yawn. Irritated, he grumbled, “Hao le, hao le, that’s enough. Stop pounding, Fen, I hear you. What are you yelling about?”
He held the door to hide his waist, letting her see his naked chest. Fen averted her eyes briefly, as it was apparent her brother wasn’t dressed for the day.
“You’re not on fire?” Fen asked, again looking up at her brother.
“What?” He blinked in confusion, shaking his head in denial of the obvious question.
“No?” Turning before he could speak, she hurried toward Lian’s door, telling Haun, “Okay, good, I’m glad.”
Fen stopped to pound on Lian’s door. He too answered with a yawn.
“What’s happening?” Lian asked, more alert than Haun had been.
“I had a vision or something,” Fen said. “You’re unharmed?”
Lian nodded in the affirmative. “Shi.”
“No fire?”
“No.” Lian frowned.
“Ah, good,” Fen answered, turning to check on Shen.
“Wait, Fen,” Haun emerged from his room to follow her. He had put clothes on. “What’s going on?”
“She said she had a vision,” Lian answered for her.
“A vision?” Haun gasped. “But, Fen, you don’t have visions.”
“I know that.” Fen didn’t have a chance to knock as Shen slid open the door. “Any fire in there?”
“Fire? No.” Shen’s eyes were clear, signifying he’d been awake for a while.
“Good, you’re all safe. It’s just me.” Fen sighed with relief. To Shen, she asked, “Can I come in?”
Shen stepped back, waving his hand to gesture her in. Fen walked past him. The aqua color of the silk décor, embroidered with the ancient symbol of a fish amongst waves, reminded her of being underwater.
“This is going to be interesting,” Lian said behind her. She heard her brothers entering the room but was unsure where to begin the explanation of what had happened. A fire, but no proof of fire. How was she going to explain that?
“Now, jie jie,” Haun said. “Talk to us. What’s this about a vision and fire?”
Fen nodded, going on to tell them about her bizarre morning.
Chapter Two
The sun shone down over the beautiful imperial palace grounds, giving warmth to the early morning. Aaron took a deep, cleansing breath as he stood on the path outside the royal bedchambers. The air was sweet and clean, but that wasn’t unusual for the planet. Lintian was blessed with fair weather and a lush countryside—not that anyone could see the countryside from within the palace. A long wall guarded Honorable City, protecting it from the outside world. The city consisted of the palace buildings and surrounding grounds. On the outside, the walls were protected by a wide moat to keep commoners out.
Growing up outside the palace walls as a boy, Aaron had stared at Honorable City, awed by the people who lived hidden away from the rest of the galaxy. Like other Lintianese children who were not born into privilege, he used to fantasize what it would be like to be an emperor or, in the very least, a nobleman—to be rich and powerful, to have servants and means.
The palace was beautiful, but as an adult, he couldn’t see himself living inside its walls his entire life. Not that he wished to live where he did now. His village of Haohe was like every other Lintianese village he’d seen. Short, thatched-roof farmhouses were clustered together forming a tightly knit community where everyone knew everyone’s business. Though no one spoke of his past, they knew.
Lady Hsin, his employer, owned the village. The people worked in her factories, warehouse, and fields. Aaron was one of the highest-ranking workers, but nothing could take away the dishonor that marred him. If he stayed in the village, it was likely he’d never marry, never have a family or a real home. Sure, women took their pleasure with him—most in secret—for he worked hard to assure he was a good lover. He often liked to escape to the nearby hills, with their sea of yellow-blue grasses that surrounded the most beautiful creek on the planet.
He understood things better now that he was older, compared to when he was an awestruck young boy running around barefoot and peeking in at noble families in trepidation. Money and power did not make honor, they merely demanded it. Both could be lost within a blink of the eye. Whole worlds could end in mere seconds. Aaron knew. His whole world had ended in such a way. And his honor had been ripped from him with just a few short sentences.
Aaron had come to the imperial palace determined not to like what he saw. It was hard, considering the buildings and grounds really were beautiful. But what use did he have for these gilded treasures? Men like him didn’t belong in palaces. Men like him didn’t belong on this planet.
He would have left, had thought of it often, but something always kept him from going. At first, it was because he needed money to get off the planet. Lady Hsin gave him a job. Then, he thought to be in love. She was a farmer’s daughter from a nearby village. He met her in the forest near Haohe. But when she found out who he was, she’d stopped talking to him, going so far as to deny knowing him in public. Now he knew it wasn’t love, but lust that had driven his emotions.
He’d thrown himself into work and before he knew it, he’d climbed his way up to the top until he was in charge of much of the property, and the days just kept slipping by until he found himself here, in the palace, doing a job for the imperial family.
Aaron looked at his hands. They were rough, calloused from working in the mulberry fields and in the factory. A thin scar led up his forearm from his palm. He tried to remember where he’d gotten it but couldn’t. The old injury was just one of the great many that littered his body.
“What am I doing here?” he whispered, balling his hand into a fist. As much as he understood his place, he wanted more. That was why he was here. He was here to make more for himself, to elevate his station.
The city was a fortress, laid out over three quarters of a mile by a half mile of land. In the center was the largest structure, the Hall of Infinite Wisdom, set high upon stone to tower over the surrounding courtyard and gardens. Its roof could be seen from many points along the pathways. Also within the compound were practice halls where the royal family and imperial guards could exercise. There was a building where they paid homage to their ancestors, a library, an archery range, as well as the Exalted Hall used for weddings and private ceremonies. Barracks for the guards were near the weapons chamber, which wasn’t far from where Aaron was standing.
Delicate flowers bloomed throughout the courtyard and along the walking paths. Pink buds intermingled with dark blue, eight-pointed stars with golden centers. Eight was a number of fortune, and the flowers were planted to bring luck to the palace and those within. Though, ironically, the blue meili fa flowers attracted qizajian. The tiny butterflies had small bodies with large black wings, which formed the Old Earth number seven when they flapped forward in flight. Seven represented death.
The pretty pink flowers made him think of another butterfly, one hidden behind the walls of the royal chambers.
Princess Zhang Fen. All the beauty of the imperial palace paled with the thought of her. It had been so long since he’d seen her, but until that morning she’d never laid her eyes on him. She was a princess and he was little more than a servant. Why would she see him within a crowd of many? Why would she know who he was? Her name had been whispered and blessed since her birth.
One of his earliest memories on Lintian was his foreigner’s name being spat at him like a curse by a grandmother who wasn’t pleased to see the orphan boy on her doorstep in need of care. Yang gui zi, she had called him, foreign devil. His mother had treated him like a prince, and when his parents died, he’d lost everything, even the pretend title.
Princess Fen was the type of lady common men stared at. She was a dream, a fantasy, and she was renowned for her meek and gentle manners, which were second only to her beauty. Her hair gleamed, the long dark locks rich in color, matching her magnetic eyes. Slender and graceful, her willowy form seemed to float above the ground as she moved. Though she’d merely stood before him that morning, he remembered her walk well. When she came through his village, he would stare at her, watching her, foolishly wishing she’d look his way and notice him.
It had been years since he’d last seen her, and he never would have approached her now without cause.
Aaron was sweaty from his morning exercise. He’d awakened before dawn out of habit and had been about to go bathe when he’d heard the princess’ cry. The old clothes were hardly how he wished to greet her for the first time, and he was determined to make a better impression when next they met. He had no clue what had frightened her, only that she’d been huddled on the floor, screaming at the top of her lungs for help.
Had she gone mad? No one else came to save her. Were the princes and palace guards accustomed to her loud shouts?
“Forget about her,” he whispered. Forcing himself to walk toward the Péng You Hall, he tried to put the princess from his mind. “Women like her don’t know men like me.”
Chapter Three
“Xiaoxin, Fen, you’re about to wear a hole in my floor.” Shen chuckled, uncrossing his ankles as he continued to lounge back on his bed. He shifted lazily, as if trying to get comfortable while watching his sister pace the bedchamber. He was the most contemplative of them and often spoke with a sound mind. “What I don’t get is, are you upset that Aaron is really a guest, or that you had a nightmare about fire?”
Haun had informed them that the mysterious Aaron was truly a guest, but not one worthy of informing Fen about. Apparently, the man worked for Lady Hsin in the village near the noblewoman’s home. Fen knew the lady well and had visited her home often over the years. Lady Hsin’s family had produced the finest silks on the planet since her people had first migrated to Lintian from Old Earth, and they were the sole supplier to the imperial family.
“Why is he here, anyway?” Fen asked, trying to shove the memory of him from her mind. His blue eyes haunted her with their intensity. If he was here on business, why was he so upset? “We usually make the trip to Lady Hsin’s for new clothes. I like it that way. It’s one of the only times I get out of the palace.”
“The empress has ordered new silk tapestries from Lady Hsin to redecorate the guest chambers and some of the palace halls. He’s here to help with the order, taking measurements, whatever it is they do,” Haun said. “I had some of his helpers fit me for new tunics. I figured I might as well while they were here.”
“Sister, are you sure the fire you felt wasn’t something else?” Lian asked, standing near the door. He looked as if he was trying to be delicate, but she saw the hidden smile in his eyes. Haun was behind him, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. All brothers had the same semi-amused look.
