Return to House of Lord Jourdain (Part I)

Since their arrival in Khanbaliq roughly six months ago, both Gwinch and Beatriss have heard rumors that there are people “like them” in the city. When they heard this in Zipang, the people “like them” turned out to be simply foreigners from Zhou-dang, or even “barbarians” from the far north of the country. But Khanbaliq is cosmopolitan city. Most of the people are native to northern Zhou-dang or have emigrated from the “Horselands,” but besides the Zipang contingent, there are representatives from most every known empire, kingdom, nation between the Sea of Zipang and the Western Mountains.

When Beatriss followed the invitation to meet someone "like her", she found the priestess waiting. Myrrha was a woman of striking presence—perhaps near Beatriss’s age, but darker of complexion, with brown curly hair, a foreigner from lands much farther west. The two woman shared an awkward laughed at the idea that they resembled each other.

Myrrha greeted her in several tongues, one of them uncannily close to Cynidicean but not quite right—like a melody she half-recognized but could not sing. When words failed, they settled into Zhou-dang, speaking carefully.

Cair, the man who had offered the invitation, was there as well, standing by the door. When Beatriss asked his purpose, he explained with measured pride that he was a descendant of Lord Jourdain himself. Their common ancestor, he said, had traveled from the west to Zhou-dang and taken two wives, one whom he left behind when he returned to his homeland with  the other. The families had long diverged, but Cair had come east to pay respects at the ruin of his ancestor’s house—and perhaps to understand why it had not rested easily.

He confessed that the welcome he had found in Khanbaliq was colder than expected; he was much a foreigner here as he had been in the land of his birth. And he wasn't sure whether he was a guest or a prisoner. He wished to see the place that bound his blood to this country, and perhaps recover a token of its history.

An understanding soon followed. Beatriss, Tetsukichi, and Hatsu would accompany Myrrha and Cair on a second expedition to the House of Jourdain. Su-Laing’s relatives in the House of Mehwa arranged the necessary permissions for Myrrha and Cair to leave the Forbidden City. They made little effort to hide their own interest in the venture: the foreigner’s sense of “filial duty” might be sincere, but if treasure remained in that haunted place, it would be better found by their allies than by strangers. Askaa and Ganbold were assigned to represent the family’s claim.

By week’s end, the new party was assembled—seven travelers bound again for the southern floodplain and the ruin where the dead had not yet learned to stay buried.