Jade Lee - The Concubine

One by one, the other virgins stepped forward, taking their ribbon and secreting it away. "Thank you, Master of the Festival," they murmured, and then disappeared from the main room, their voices raised with renewed excitement.

"You have given them hope for tomorrow," Ji Yue said when it was only the two of them left. There wasn't even a eunuch to guard them, so far had they fallen from grace.

"I would give more," he said as he crossed to stand before her. "I would give you—"

She pressed her hand to his mouth. She did not want to hear his words. She did not want to allow herself to hope. "Tell me truthfully, Sun Bo Tao," she said. "For this shame, what is your punishment?"

He frowned and slowly pulled her hand from his mouth, but he did not release her fingers. "Men are never to blame," he said softly, "even when it is completely our fault." His eyes told her that he blamed himself for everything. For not knowing about the party, for seducing her when she had been all too willing, for everything that had passed. "I am commanded to wear this silly token, and another will speak in my stead at the marriage festival."

So no real punishment. "And afterward?"

He looked down at their intertwined hands. "The position of my choice. I told him I must have an official place of power in his government or I would leave."

She looked up at him, truly pleased. "That is excellent news! Then you can have your own home and take a wife and…" Her voice trailed away. She did not like to think of him taking a wife other than her.

"I would still give it up for you," he said. "We can still run."

She closed her eyes, fighting the urge to rush into his arms. "How would we live?" she asked. "What would you do?" There were no jobs in China for a disgraced man. And that was assuming they were not caught and killed for their audacity.

Bo Tao shrugged. "I could learn something new. Ji Yue, it is not impossible to begin again. There is a very large world outside of China."

"But your whole life has been here. You were born to stand by the emperor's side." Before he could dismiss her objection, she rushed ahead to her next point. "Have you ever been poor?"

"My family is not wealthy, Ji Yue."

"But you grew up here, running with the future Son of Heaven. Have you ever wanted for rice in your bowl?"

"I do not care."

"You will," she returned.

"No, Ji Yue, I won't. Not if you are by my side."

She wanted to believe him. She did believe him. But he belonged in the Forbidden City helping the emperor direct China. She would not let him throw his entire life away just for her. "I care," she said. "I will not run."

He grimaced and made a sound of disgust. "You women are taught sacrifice from the cradle. You are here to serve men, to devote yourself to honor and care for us." He abruptly gripped her arms and roughly hauled her forward. His eyes burned like fire and she gasped in stunned shock. "Even you," he rasped, "with all your intelligence and your fire, you do not think that I need you, Ji Yue. That without you, I will—" he swallowed "—I will be hollow." Then he crushed her mouth to his, kissing her more boldly and passionately than ever before. She melted against him. How she ached for the dream that he offered!

Then he released her. The separation was as abrupt as the kiss, and she swayed on her feet. She wished he would steady her. She wanted to be in his arms again. But he held himself apart, and she was forced to balance herself while his attitude shifted to one of bitter cold.

"Bo Tao—"

"Take these, Ji Yue," he said.

She looked down and saw that he held out two carved jade combs. The one was a dragon coiling in exquisite majesty. The other was a tigress, regal and fierce. Male dragon, female tigress—symbols as old as China—and he was giving them to her. "Why?"

"They were my aunt's. She wore them when she was selected by the last emperor, so she believed them to be lucky. According to her, when the two are separate like this, then the wearer still searches for her true heart. If a man were to steal the dragon from you—" He plucked the dragon comb away from her fingers. "Then he has taken your heart and you belong to him."

Her eyes watered at the sight of him holding the dragon comb tucked against his chest.

"But if you wear them linked like this," he continued, "then you have already found your heart." He reached out and carefully joined the two combs. The mechanism was subtle and intricate, but when he was done, she saw a dragon and tigress locked together in…

She smiled. "That is not an appropriate comb for a virgin."

He shrugged, but his eyes remained serious. "Tomorrow morning the virgins will assemble. They will be placed throughout the gardens and the walkways of the Forbidden City."

"I know."

"The emperor will walk among you and choose one to be his empress, four more to be his primary wives, and the rest will be separated into the middle and lower harems."

She nodded. "Yes, I know."

He pressed the linked combs into her hands. "Wear this comb like this, and the emperor will know your heart is given to another." He took a breath as he carefully separated the two pieces. "Wear them apart and…"

She lifted her head. "And what?"

"And I believe he will select you as his empress."

"What?" she gasped. The shock of his statement set her heart to clamoring in her throat.

His lips twisted into a rueful grimace. "Do you not understand why I was made master of the festival? Do you not know my strengths even now?"

She knew his intelligence and his compassion. She knew his fierce passion for his country and his virility as a man. "Which strength?" she laughed. "There are so many."

He flashed a smile at her, but then it disappeared. "Yi Zhen set me the task of finding the most perfect of the virgins, the smartest and the most wholesome." He released a short breath. "He wanted me to find the best woman to be empress. And I found her."

"Me?" she breathed.

"You."

She shook her head, the whole conversation overwhelming. "But will he listen to you? He would pick me as his empress?"

"I believe so, yes. If you leave the combs apart, he will know that you offer yourself to him and to China."

She swallowed. It was an awesome destiny and the very dream she had set for herself when she'd first learned of the festival. "And if I link the combs, Bo Tao, what then? What is to happen to me then?" She searched his face for the truth, but saw only uncertainty.

"I cannot say, Ji Yue. I have asked for a boon. I have pleaded for my wishes, but…" He paused as he looked down at their joined hands.

"Was he terribly angry with you?" she whispered.

He released a short laugh. "It is a terrible thing to steal a woman from your best friend."

"Especially if that man is the emperor of China."

"Exactly so."

There was a noise in the hallway. Two girls chattering with an excitement that had not been present in the palace since the tainted virgins arrived. Bo Tao sent her a desperate look, then stepped away from her. She was left holding the two combs—one in each hand.

"I cannot promise anything, Ji Yue. I can only hope."

She would have said something then, except she did not know how to respond. And then their time together was lost. The girls came around the corner, gasping in surprise when they saw the disgraced master still standing there.

Bo Tao arched his brow at them, silently daring them to question his presence. They flushed bright red, then scurried away. Bo Tao looked at her, but she shook her head. He could not risk speaking plainly again. Where one virgin lurked, whispering and giggling in gossip, a dozen more were sure to follow.

He understood her message and knew it to be true. So he gave her the deepest bow she had ever received, then turned and walked away.

JI YUE'S FEET ACHED, her back had tightened into a knot of anxiety and her head felt as if it weighed a ton. She stood in the back of the Festival Garden, waiting with all the other virgins for the emperor to wander by and make his selection. If only she could move a little, wander the gardens and ease the aches in her body, but she was too terrified to move.

She was being ridiculous, she knew. Only an idiot would believe that the emperor would miss her just because she took a step or two in a different direction. But she had been told to stand here, that the emperor would wander through eventually, and so here she stood. At least she had a position where she could see some of the path. Li Fei fidgeted just a little ahead of her around a curve, but Ji Yue had been placed here—no doubt by the dowager consort—in the furthest reaches of the garden. The shrew probably hoped that the emperor would select his primary harem long before he made it to her.

Fortunately, Ji Yue had Bo Tao's assurance that the emperor would find her and that he planned on selecting her as empress. She fretted because she didn't know what she would tell the emperor when he finally did wander back here to talk. She held her two combs in her hands, alternately linking them together and snapping them apart. If she wasn't careful, she'd soon break the delicate mechanism.

Linked combs meant her heart was already given to someone else, to Bo Tao. Separate combs said she wanted desperately for the emperor to select her. A fairly simple choice, really: become an empress or a woman on the run with a disgraced husband.

But even with such clear choice, she didn't know what to do. A night's tormented sleep had shown her just how much she loved Bo Tao. She longed to see his face, to touch his cheek, to feel his arms tenderly tuck her close to his side. She loved everything about him and would willingly give her life if it somehow saved him.