The Pirate Empress Read Free

return, Captain. His Majesty is expecting you.”
    “Then I mustn’t keep him waiting.”
    Chi Quan raised his eyes from Jasmine and the steely gaze landed on Li. Li should have bowed. She should have lowered her gaze. But she didn’t. Jasmine elbowed her. Li woke from her bewitchment and dipped her eyelids. She hated to take her eyes off this beautiful man.
    “And who are you?” Quan asked her.
    No one ever addressed her directly. Only the eunuchs and Jasmine ever spoke to her like she was a person. Li opened her mouth to speak and to her horror no words emerged.
    “My niece, Captain,” her aunt said. “It seems she’s a bit tongue-tied at the moment.”
    Quan smiled provocatively. “A quiet woman is a woman of breeding.”
    Li swallowed. Jasmine bowed again. The captain nodded and steered his horse toward the palace stables. Lieutenant He Zhu rode past them, but not before Li noticed her aunt and the lieutenant exchange looks.
    “Lotus Lily,” Jasmine said when the soldiers left. “I must go and attend to things now that Captain Chi Quan and his army have returned from quelling the pirate uprising.”
    “He’s so wonderful,” Li said, her dreamy gaze focused on the grand entrance to the throne room. “How old is he?”
    Her aunt sent her an irritated frown, sighed. “He’s at least twenty-three. My age. Now go and make yourself useful. At the very least, learn to make a proper cup of tea.” She crushed Li with a glare when Li pursed her lips defiantly. “If ever anyone discovered how inept you are, no one would want you. Especially not His Majesty.” Jasmine headed indoors, throwing over her shoulder, “And that’s not the worse that would happen to you. Be good. I’ll be busy for a couple of hours.”
    Li watched her aunt’s slim, feminine figure totter back inside their quarters. Chi Quan, she sighed, and stared in the direction of the treed and flowered enclosure where Tao had forced her to learn the tea ceremony. Fox faeries. She snorted. Little did that stupid eunuch know, she didn’t dream of fox faeries but of being a mighty warrior. She jumped as a swallow sailed low over her head, and then soared above the palace walls. What was she doing wasting time, dreaming of love? Now was her chance to escape.
    Everyone had left the public square. She hurried back to her room forgetting to totter, and flung off her flowerpot shoes and her lady’s gown. She bound her chest with a girdle to flatten her breasts and covered herself with a boy’s shirt. She drew on thick cloth leggings and tied a black sash to her waist. Oh dear, her face. She couldn’t go outside all rouged and girly. She wiped off the makeup and twisted her hair into a topknot exactly like that of the boys of Master Yun’s martial arts class. Then she slipped out a back window and raced to the exercise yard.
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    On the grassy field a thousand lithe, strong boys practiced the ancient art of Kung Fu. They were graceful and powerful, and destined for careers in the Emperor’s great army. Master Yun bowed, and said nothing as Li joined the class. She took up her position in the front formation, made the Eagle Claw with her body, then the Lotus, the Sabre and finally the Dragon. Master Yun stopped her from showing off and ordered her to align herself with her classmates so that they could practice Chi . To be successful at the martial arts one must control all functions of the body, beginning with the breath.
    “Practice your form like you were sparring and spar like it was a form,” he said. “But first master your breath.”
    “When can we use weapons?” Li was always speaking out of turn.
    “Not until you master your breathing.”
    None of the students could progress to the more advanced stages of training without learning this very basic task. Without strong and flexible muscles including the management of Chi and proper body mechanics, the precise movements of the martial arts were impossible to achieve. Although Li had