“She is my guest until this matter is resolved,” K’ing answered. “I wanted to show you how vulnerable you are, sir.” He turned his cool eyes my way. “So this is the fellow who has caused all this trouble. Did I not see you staggering out of the Inn of Double Happiness with a friend a few nights ago? You are English?”
“I am Welsh,” I said, wondering what he meant about my causing all of the trouble.
“English, Welsh, whatever you are, you are not Chinese. I can produce a dozen witnesses who saw you display certain knowledge in Limehouse you could only have obtained in China or have learned from a master, such as the great Shi Shi Ji. I believe the incident involved a dog. Several residents were injured. He is your student, is he not, Mr. Barker?”
“He is,” Barker said. “The art I have taught him is not Chinese, however. It is Japanese.”
“Oh, come,” chided the unofficial leader of Limehouse, “are you telling me a dozen people could not tell a Chinese art from the inferior styles of the Japanese?”
“I do. The two arts are similar to a layman, and the fact that Mr. Llewelyn beat them all handily is proof that they were laymen. He is not yet advanced.”
“You make a good point,” Mr. K’ing conceded. “We shall come back to that later. I have a more important question to put to you, Mr. Barker.”
“I know the question. It is why you have brought me here.”
“May I ask it, then?”
Barker nodded his head.
“Thank you, Mr. Barker- Shi Shi Ji. Are you Chinese, are you a barbarian, or are you in fact of mixed parentage?”
The Guv did not reply but waited stoically, like Christ before Pilate.
“You will not answer?”
“Certainly not,” Barker said. “Having already said I am this lad’s teacher, if I admitted to being Chinese, I would be placing a death sentence on my own head. We both know is forbidden to teach the arts to ‘foreign devils.’ However, were I to admit to being either of the other two, I would thereby dishonor those living masters who have taught me in the past and likely place a death sentence upon their heads in place of my own. That I will not do.”
“So, we are at a…Forgive me, my English sometimes fails me.”
“An impasse.”
“Precisely. Thank you. We are at an impasse. Of course, the answer is very simple to find out. I will have my servants remove your spectacles.”
“More powerful men than you have tried to do so in the past, Mr. K’ing. I would consider the attempt an extreme insult and should be forced to defend myself. If you attempt to remove my spectacles, I can promise that at least five of us shall be dead in two minutes. I shall, of course, be one of them, but you, sir, shall be the first to go.”
“I see. Another impasse. You are leaving me with few alternatives.”
“I fail to see why this matter has become your responsibility, if I am not speaking inappropriately.”
“You have good manners, sir, whatever your nationality. I am speaking not as a subject of the imperial government but as the leader of a triad. One of my associates has informed me that you displayed the triad tattoo upon your arm the same day your assistant first visited this area. You are, therefore, under my jurisdiction. Before you object on the grounds that it was not the Blue Dragon Triad, I would remind you that the triads are one when rules have been transgressed.”
Barker bowed his head formally. “I would not think of contradicting you.”
“Very well,” K’ing said, leaning forward. “You see, I am trying to be fair. I hope for your sake that you actually are British. I do not wish to take your life or to see it taken, which is the same thing. I am giving you a chance to choose, rather than forcing an answer upon you and causing bloodshed. Which shall it be, Mr. Barker? Are you Chinese or English?”
“I think you know my answer, Mr. K’ing. You’ve known it for days. I choose the third option. I choose…trial by combat.”
The Chinese criminal leader gave a wolfish smile. “How do you know that is possible?”
“Of course it is possible,” Barker insisted. “It is my right as a member of the triads. The White Lotus Triad, the Green Dragons, and all of the other organizations accept such a trial. Surely the Blue Dragon must do so as well.”
“Are you certain this is the way you wish to proceed?”
“Of course,” Barker responded. “My other options are death and dishonor. But I am Shi Shi Ji. Can you locate a man on short notice who would stand in the ring with me?”
“I believe I have such a man. Very well, the matter is settled. Trial by combat it is. I shall need time to make arrangements.”
“And I, to prepare. May I be free to move about the city?”
“Yes, but I am afraid Bok Fu Ying and your associate must stay here as my guests to ensure your return.”
Guests? I thought, looking at Barker. He meant that we were prisoners.
“Agreed,” my employer said. “What time shall the trial begin?”
“Let us say midnight.”
“Very well. I shall return at eleven thirty.”
“Yes.” Mr. K’ing paused in thought. “As I recall the rules, we are talking about a fight to the death, are we not?”
Barker gave one of his chilling smiles. “Certainly.”
“I shall, of course, release Bok Fu Ying regardless of the outcome, but what shall I do with this young fellow, should you lose the fight?”
“That would be left to your discretion, sir.”
“Ah,” K’ing said, looking at me as if I were a bug to be trod underfoot.
“Until eleven thirty, then, Mr. Barker. It has been a pleasure to meet the great Shi Shi Ji face-to-face.”
Barker stood, which set off the marmoset again. I turned in my chair with a sense of dread. Barker was going, leaving me here to languish in a cell at K’ing’s discretion. The Guv went so far as to lay a hand upon my shoulder, a rarity, indeed. No doubt he sensed my trepidation.
“I shall be back in a few hours, lad. See that they feed you properly or they shall answer to me for it.”
Then off he went. Feed me properly, indeed. As if I could eat anything. As if my heart was not in my throat. Barker by all rights should be convalescing from his injuries. Instead, he was about to have the fight of his life, of both our lives. I realized now what K’ing’s men must have been working on so secretly: it was the place in which Barker would fight. That meant that despite his protests to the contrary, K’ing already knew that Barker would choose trial by combat. It also meant that he had had days to find a worthy opponent.
I was imprisoned now in an area of London that for all intents and purposes functioned under the laws of China. If things went according to the uncrowned king of Limehouse, there would be another body floating in Limehouse Reach, where a year before Quong had been found. Possibly three more.
The Thames. It is a serpent that coils through London, and around my life. I had nearly jumped into it once, to kill myself. I had been blown into it once and rescued by Barker, and now my employer was being drawn in again because of me. The outcome of the fight would determine whether my corpse would rest there, yet. We fought not against princes, principalities, and powers, I thought. We fought against Fate itself.
27
Barker was gone, and I was left alone with one of the most powerful men in London. He sat in the chair and eyed me appraisingly. I stood and bowed in the English manner, a stiff incline of the head, trying not to show him I was afraid.
“I am your prisoner.”
“No, sir,” he corrected. “You are a guest in my humble home. Allow me to see to your comfort.”
“Ah, but a guest may leave at any time,” I pointed out.
“That is so, but then, who shall see to Miss Winter’s needs? She is my real prisoner.”
“I would like to see her, sir.”
K’ing clapped his hands and a guard appeared to lead me through K’ing’s “humble home.” It was more like an underground mansion. All the rooms were low-ceilinged but so varied that I was certain this could not be the basement of any one building. More probably, these rooms, connected by tunnels, took up much of an entire street of buildings. Most of the rooms were furnished in a manner that was spare but sumptuous. One contained little more than a chair but had an ornate Oriental rug that must have measured twenty by forty feet. Another room contained a series of piers and bridges in carved teak with a subterranean river running through it.