Song of the Spring Moon Waning (13 page)

In truth, he hadn't expected to sleep that night, but eventually his eyes drifted shut and his breathing slowed to match Liu Yi's.

Wen Yu got up before the sky had fully lightened the next morning. Beside him, Liu Yi shifted but slept on. He dressed and bent over the bed; he smoothed Liu Yi's hair away from his face and kissed him on the cheek before turning and leaving as quietly as he could. Mei Hua snored softly from where he was wrapped up in a blanket on the floor of the main room, but he did not stir as Wen Yu let himself out into the courtyard.

The walk back to his apartment was uneventful. The sun rose bright as he walked, the sky above him clear. It was a warm day, one of the warmest they'd had yet. All the plants around him were in bloom.

Wen Yu let himself into his room and put the kettle on for tea, then sank down at his desk. He stared down at the piles of notes and papers about Classics, politics, and tactics without really seeing them. It was strange; he kept staring, but what he'd written on those pages still didn't make sense. Behind him, the kettle whistled. The sun was now fully up, burning off any of the morning mist that may have lingered.

Liu Yi would be up by now. He and Mei Hua might even have left. Wen Yu's hands shook so badly, he had to put the kettle down. It took him several seconds to realize he was crying. He wanted to put his head on his desk and sob, but he forced himself to keep his head up and began shuffling through his papers despite the fact he was trembling.

The tears dried up eventually. Wen Yu continued to flip through notes he couldn't even read until the sun was beginning to sink in the sky. Then he curled up under his blanket and slept.

*~*~*

The line of students at the gates of the palace was long, but not anywhere close to the hundreds Wen Yu had taken his previous examinations with. Each of them carried an ink stone and brushes, all bundled together in a little pack. The guards at the palace gate searched each bundle in turn. When the guards were satisfied, they were allowed through to the huge examination hall.

Wen Yu waited while the guards searched his bundle before waving him through. The examination room was large and grand, he saw as he stepped through. There was a dais with an ornate canopy for the emperor himself to sit and be presented with the highest-scoring essays. Below the dais was the desk of the proctors, with rows and rows of desks stretching out across the room for the students themselves. Wen Yu chose a desk in the back and by a corner where he would not be distracted.

There was a nervous sort of buzz around the room as the students filed in and sat at their desks. The honored scholars who acted as proctors for the examination gathered at the front of the room, looking serious and austere in their dark-colored robes and black scholar's caps. They talked in low voices among themselves.

There was paper ready for him on the desk, and Wen Yu organized his things, mixed his ink. He stared down at the desk in front of him, ignoring everyone else. Every time he'd taken an examination, there had been a mixture of excitement and nerves at the bottom of his stomach, but today he felt nothing but a strange, melancholy calm.

When all the students had filed in, the opening ceremonies began. Wen Yu barely heard what the honored scholars said and didn't really care that he wasn't paying attention. Soon enough, he would do what he had come here months ago to do, and then it would be over.

The ceremonies and speeches came to an end, and everyone sat once more at their desks. Wen Yu waited, quiet and still as the proctors explained the first set of essays they would be writing. He already knew what he would write. Putting the brush against the page, he began to form the words, his strokes strong and simple. At other desks all around him, students bent over their papers, and the proctors walked up and down between the desks, watching as they worked.

Wen Yu let it all go and concentrated only on his writing, letting everything else fall away. He would do this, and he would be the best. Right now, nothing else mattered.

*~*~*

"Are you nervous?" one student asked Wen Yu as they all filed out of the examination hall at the end of the last day. He was taller than Wen Yu, older and beginning to bald. Wen Yu looked up at him, at the sheen of sweat across his brow. He probably had a wife and children, probably held some official position within his province already, but he was hoping to move up to a position in the palace.

"I thought the questions on the Classics were the hardest," the student went on, and Wen Yu tucked his hands into his sleeves and kept quiet.

A light rain started, more of a wet mist, making Wen Yu's robes feel damp and heavy. The sky above him was pale gray, and water dripped from the bright new leaves on the trees that lined the stone-paved streets. Turning away from the group of students still straggling out the palace gates, Wen Yu headed for his little room.

The streets surrounding the palace were filled with large houses and flowering trees; houses of the sort he and Liu Yi had met in that second time. Wen Yu stared at them as he passed, imagining himself taking Shi Fei to live there. He would work in the palace, she would run the household, and they would adopt children together, maybe. Wen Yu would live the quiet, ordered life of a scholar on imperial pay, the life his father had worked hard for him to have.

Stopping, Wen Yu stared at the street for a long moment. Then he turned, heading towards the far end of the city where his room was.

Back in his own room, Wen Yu lay on the mat he'd been sleeping on and stared at the ceiling, wondering what he was going to do. In a few days, the scores would be posted, and those who had passed would discover their rank, while those who had failed would go home or try again in a few years.

Wen Yu closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. He thought of his family: his father, his mother, his sisters and their families. He thought of Shi Fei, smarter than anyone else he'd ever known, with her sharp tongue and practicality. There was Hao Wu with his easy smile and clever wit. His entire life, they had been his best friends. What would they say to him now?

*~*~*

There were only two old men in the inn drinking tea, both of their heads bent over a xianqi board. Wen Yu sighed; it was the third inn he'd stopped at, and he was beginning to think that even on horseback, he was too far behind to catch up. None of the innkeepers he'd talked to so far had seen a scholar with a long mustache traveling in the company of a young man. All the other ways Wen Yu had described Liu Yi and Mei Hua had only been met with blank stares.

He headed back to where he'd tied the horse and turned its nose towards the road. Maybe they weren't traveling by the road, Wen Yu fretted. Maybe Mei Hua had some sort of dragon way of traveling. He tried to put those kinds of worries out of his mind. He could only search for them along the main road, so worrying about them being anywhere else was pointless.

The sky above him was becoming dark. Soon he would have to stop and make camp. He should have stayed at the last inn instead of pushing on ahead. The wind picked up, blowing straight at him, causing Wen Yu to pull his coat more tightly around himself.

"No," a voice came to him from up ahead. "I am not eating that. We should have stopped at that last inn."

Wen Yu kicked his horse into a canter.

Up ahead, two figures, obviously traveling on foot, stood by the edge of the road. Mei Hua was kneeling by the roadside, holding a handful of greens, while Liu Yi stood with his arms crossed over his chest. Both turned as Wen Yu approached. Wen Yu pulled his horse to a stop, facing them.

Liu Yi looked a little out of place in plain cotton trousers, robe, and coat with unadorned boots. His hair was hidden under a wide-brimmed bamboo hat, and a pack was settled on his back. Mei Hua looked the same as the last time Wen Yu had seen him, not that he paid him much attention. Liu Yi's mouth was open as he stared up at Wen Yu, who clambered off the horse, nearly falling in his haste.

"You came." Liu Yi voice was faint.

"I did." A wave of nerves washed over Wen Yu. He hadn't thought past finding them and seeing Liu Yi again.

"But why?" Liu Yi continued to stare at him. "The examination must have just ended, why come now?"

Wen Yu took a long, deep breath. "Because I don't want to work at the palace, I don't want to play politics and take examination after examination. I want to write and translate poetry, talk to animals, and go on journeys to places I've never been. But mostly I want to be with you."

"I …" Liu Yi's face crumpled as if he were about to cry. "You could have come from the beginning."

"I'm sorry," Wen Yu said, and Liu Yi lunged at him, pulling him close and holding him tight.

"You're here now," Liu Yi said with his face pressed against Wen Yu shoulder. "And you aren't going to leave, are you?"

"No." Wen Yu held him and kissed the curve of his ear.

"What good fortune." Mei Hua straightened up, brushing off his hands. "You brought a horse. That will surely come in handy."

"We should find somewhere to camp." Liu Yi pulled away from Wen Yu, but he kept their hands joined. "Or maybe an inn might be a better choice."

"And then tomorrow, we can begin our journey." There was a deepness, a resonance to Mei Hua's voice when he said it, that made the hair on Wen Yu's arms stand up, and he felt it all the way to his bones.

When he looked at Mei Hua, though, all he got was a wide, guileless smile.

"Yes." Liu Yi said, and in his voice, Wen Yu heard nothing but happiness.

The three of them turned and headed down the road. Where to, Wen Yu had no idea, but that didn't matter so much after all.

E.E. Ottoman is a geek and a gentleman. Zie spends zier time mostly in libraries doing research, and sometimes, when there is no one else there, dancing in the aisles. E. has always adored speculative fiction, especially paperback fantasy and science fiction. Zie loves a good ghost story and thinks every story becomes automatically better if you add tentacles. Overall, though, zie just loves a story that is fun to read. E. is especially fond of writing and reading stories with geeky, queer people doing awesome and sexy things.

When not writing, E. loves cooking, knitting, cats, coffee, and looking dapper in menswear. Zie is actively trying to change the world (and maybe the past) one novel and work of history at a time.

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