Witch Fall(41)
People lined the streets and cheered, throwing orchids and lotus blossoms onto their path. The flowers’ delicate fragrance filled Lilette with a sense of foreboding.
The elephant picked up a cluster of white flowers with her incredibly long nose and tucked them in her mouth. The boy scolded the animal.
“No,” Lilette called out loudly enough to be heard over the crowd. “Let her eat them.”
He looked back at her in shock before he turned to Chen, who nodded his permission.
“What is her name?” Lilette asked.
“Jia Li,” the boy said before turning away. The elephant continued munching happily as they made a circuit around the streets.
Chen took Lilette’s hand. She had to force herself not to pull away. Even with the shade of the roof above her, she was stiflingly hot under the layers of clothing. Sweat trickled down her face, and she worried that the rice powder was running.
Finally, they turned back toward the palace. For a fleeting moment, Lilette wanted to slip from the elephant’s back and run. She closed her eyes and listened to the cadence of the marching soldiers around her, the cheers of the people. She had nowhere to go.
They finally reached the compound, where the gates stood open. A long red carpet, surrounded by the elite, led straight to the palace steps. Around the elite, hundreds of commoners filled the courtyard to overflowing. There were no cheers or cries of approval. Instead, each and every person, down to the smallest child, slipped into a kowtow. Such a sign of respect made Lilette uneasy. She’d done nothing to earn it. Not yet.
The palace compound was huge, but Jia Li’s massive strides ate up the distance. Lilette rubbed her feet on the elephant’s back, silently thanking the animal for carrying her. Jai Li flapped her ears as if she understood, and Lilette was tempted to smile.
“I’ll give her to you if you like,” Chen said. “You can take her out whenever you wish, as long as the elite go with you.”
Lilette refused to meet his gaze. “Was Jia Li her elephant?”
When Chen didn’t answer, she turned to face him. “Was she? Was she Sima’s elephant?”
His face paled. “Is that what she told you her name was?”
Suddenly uneasy, Lilette smoothed her robes. She’d forgotten that wasn’t the former princess’s name.
Chen’s gaze was far away. “‘Sima’ is Vorlayan for ‘the betrayed.’”
Chapter 15
I have come to wonder if we abuse the elements as we did that elephant. ~Jolin
Lilette fixed her gaze on the serpentine dragon statues flanking the palace steps. Her gaze traveled up the red-lined steps, to the pinnacle, where the emperor stood in front of the open palace doors. What struck her most was how ordinary he was, with his wide stomach and his expression of disapproval. He assessed her with a shrewd, calculating gaze.
She suppressed a shudder as Jia Li came to a stop at the base of the palace steps. The boy gave the elephant a bunch of bananas.
Chen called out for Jia Li to lift her leg. He held a loop attached to a harness around the elephant’s neck and chest, swung onto her leg, and dismounted.
The platform was brought out again. Taking a deep breath that sent a jolt of pain through her side, Lilette gripped the rails and stepped onto the surface. The eunuchs lowered her smoothly to the ground.
Masses of people surrounded her, all of them pressing their foreheads to the ground—all except the elite, who stood still as stone. She made her way slowly through them, hesitating at the palace steps—after all, Han had said she would be killed for merely touching them.
“You may enter my home,” the emperor said. With robes lifted, Lilette stepped between ranks of officials to stand before them. “For your dowry, you offer my son children with the power of the keepers’ songs,” the emperor continued. “In return, we offer a bride price of titles, land, silks, and jewels. I have found the bargain worthy.”
He nodded to his wife. She motioned to two eunuchs, who stepped forward, bearing a headdress between them. The monstrous thing, easily as big as Lilette’s head, was a half orb embedded with stones the color of shallow water.
“It has nine dragons and nine phoenixes. The number signifies your exalted status,” Empress Yuwen explained. The dragons were actually golden sculptures that seemed to be climbing among the flat bodies of the phoenixes. The four bobins” —the empress motioned to the couplings of wings that fanned out from the side of the crown— “signify you as wife of the crown prince.” The empress’s crown had six bobins.
Pearl strands dangled from the sides of the headdress, geometric patterns of gold giving them shape. The eunuchs placed it on Lilette’s head. It was terribly heavy, and the pearls clicked in her ears and brushed her shoulders when she moved. She could already feel a headache beginning in her forehead.