Free Heart and Soul by Sarah A. Hoyt Page B

out of the woodwork as soon as they found out Zhang was gone. Might as well add to it a very green young man who hardly knew how to comport himself.
    “Yes. I have no doubt of your ability to keep your people in order or lead your boat,” Jade lied. “And your loyalty to your clan that prompted you to protect them at this juncture tells me you’ll be a good minister to the emperor.” And that part, she thought, might be true, once he gained his footing and his sense of protectiveness expanded to include everyone in the Dragon Boats. “Meanwhile, I ask of you only that you try to recollect any strange actions or absences your father might have indulged in, in the last few months.”
    The younger Zhang kowtowed again. He must enjoy knocking his head on the boards of the boat. Or else, he thought that she might still turn on him, suddenly, and demand his death and that of his relatives. Perhaps she shouldn’t judge him too harshly for that belief. After all, her father had been a man of sudden rages.
    “My father was absent a lot in the last month. From…from things he said, I thought he had gone to India,” he blurted. “In pursuit of someone. I heard the word ruby mentioned a few times. I thought he meant no more than to steal some valuable jewel and thought maybe even your father, the former True Emperor of All Under Heaven, might have given him instructions from the Dragon Throne. I never thought that he might be doing it as treason.”
    “Of course not,” Jade said. Knowing the penalties for treason, she couldn’t imagine such a conscientious young man would want all his relatives slaughtered. And he would be well aware that his entire family, including concubines and young infants, couldn’t get away from Imperial rage fast enough, even if his father could. Also, unlike his father, the younger Zhang clearly cared if his relatives lived or died.
    “Also…when he came back…” He looked up, and bit his lower lip, as though in deep thought, or perhaps trying to slow down the words that finally came pouring out of him like water overpowering a weak dam. “When he came back, he was grievously wounded and he said something about fighting with a foreign-devil dragon.”
    Jade remembered, dimly, something about a foreign dragon from Third Lady’s tale. Or at least thought she did. “Rise, Zhang,” she said. “I’m satisfied. Now I wish you to steer this boat near the Imperial women’s quarters, that I might regain my proper place.”
    Zhang bent down to pick up the barge pole, bowed, then hesitated. Though he didn’t make a sound, she got the strong impression he wished to speak, and added, “You may say whatever you wish.”
    He bowed hastily, an overlong lock of hair falling in front of his eyes. “It’s only, Lady Jade, though I know it’s my name, and…and my father’s name…in my own family I’ve never been called Zhang, and it would be a great honor if you consented to call me by the name my family gives me.”
    Uncomfortable with calling the young man the name of the minister she’d always hated, Jade said, “I will do as you ask. What is that name?”
    He bowed, quickly, then threw his head back, flicking his hair away from his eyes. “Grasshopper, my lady, because of my nature.”
    She did not ask if it was his nature to be jumpy, or if perhaps he suffered from seasickness and turned green. It was of no consequence. Instead she spoke, in a polite tone. “Steer me toward the women’s quarters, then, Grasshopper, that I may change my clothes and think on what to do next. I must find where your father has gone. And what his plan is.”

 

    LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

     
    “I do not hold it against you, Third Lady,” Jade said, having called her sister-in-law to her quarters. “That you were right in the warning given me and which I chose to neglect. I do thank you for your accurate information, and regret only that I chose to give Zhang the benefit of doubt.”
    Third Lady bowed,