Page 24 of A Song to Drown Rivers
But it was not just me who had noticed. A group of young women giggled from the shade, their eyes sweeping hungrily over Fanli.
“He must be a scholar,” one said in a whisper designed to be heard. “He has such pretty hands, and the air of a poet.”
“Or perhaps he is a warrior. He looks like he knows how to hold a sword.”
“Hush, now, he is watching.”
“Shall we invite him over?”
I skidded to a stop beside the closest stall and motioned for Fanli to come over. There was a sour taste in my mouth, like I had bitten into an unripe grapefruit.
“Yes?” he said, moving to my side in an instant. “Would you like to buy something?”
The idea was far from my mind, certainly further than theimage of those women inviting Fanli to do anything, but the vendor leaned in with great eagerness, his gray beard trembling as he spoke. “How about these?” he asked, gesturing to the rows of crimson bracelets laid out over the cloth. They were all made of simple string and tied together with a small silver bead. “The string of fate,” he said. “It ensures that you are bound for eternity, that your souls will find their way back to each other in every life. Perfect for a pair of young lovers.”
It took a moment for the assumption to sink in, and once it did, fierce heat rushed up my neck. I waited for Fanli to clarify, but he only swallowed, like he was pushing an emotion down.
“Do you want it?” he asked me.
I had the sense, then, that we were standing on the brink of something; one step in the wrong direction, and we would both fall in. “It is pretty,” I said, in the same neutral voice he’d used.
He turned to the vendor. “How much?”
The vendor started to reply, but I reached for my purse, and shook out a light handful of coins.
“This is all we have,” I told him.
The vendor’s mouth puckered. “That’s hardly enough,” he said. “A single bracelet is worth twice that.”
I smiled sweetly at him. “Unless your bracelets are woven from gold, I doubt it. If you are unwilling to sell for such a reasonable price, then we will find something elsewhere.” I spun around and had taken but two steps when the vendor heaved a sigh.
“How did you know to do that?” Fanli asked as I set my coins down on the cloth. He spoke with genuine wonder, and watched me with sharp attention, like a boy who had just witnessed a magic trick.
“Have you never bartered before?”
He shook his head.
“But surely you must negotiate often in court?”
“Those tricks would not work here,” he said, his tone thoughtful. “I would have needed a day in advance to gather intelligence and root out my opponent’s weaknesses, their greatest fears, their attachments, and search through their past records for any crimes I could hold against them.”
I laughed, then realized he was not joking.
“Here you go,” the vendor said, holding out the two bracelets. “Have a good day.”
I took one and extended the other to Fanli, my heart beating oddly in my chest. When he didn’t move, just gazed at me with that unreadable expression of his, I faltered. Perhaps I had already stepped too far, pushed too hard against the invisible constraints. “You don’t have to wear it,” I said, feigning indifference. “Do with it whatever you like. You can even throw it away, if you wish, or give it to someone else.”
“No,” he said, taking the red string, his fingers brushing briefly against mine. His skin was soft, warm. I fought hard not to react, to recognize the feelings stirring inside me. “I’ll keep it.”
But as he slipped it inside his inner robes, a commotion sounded down the street. The violent drum of a horse’s hooves, yellow dust blowing into the air, clouding the antique displays and fresh fruit stands. There came a succession of loud crashes, broken by screams. A whip hissing.
“Make way for General Ma,” someone roared. “Make way or die.”
At once Fanli tensed, his mannerisms shifting, his fan exchanged in one movement for the hilt of his sword.
I was alert too.
They came like the monsters from my memory: ten men in bronze armor, rising tall on their powerful steeds, the Wu flag racing in the wind behind them. They rode on without care, without discipline, leaving utter chaos in their wake. Their long whips fell again and again on the horses’ flanks, but were swung with suchrecklessness that they cut close to anyone within their vicinity, lashing open sleeves and overturning cartons of berries. Howling children were yanked to the side seconds before they were trampled by those merciless hooves. Porcelains tipped over and shattered on the tiles.
