But as the girl walked purposefully through the gate, her head held high, she said nothing, and neither did Sparrow. Sparrow kept her eyes down, looking at the hem of the coat of the girl in front of her. She had no idea if the guards or anyone else ever saw her.
Once the two were inside, they went around the nearest corner. The maid then stopped and turned to face Sparrow. Sparrow froze, expecting the maid to say something. But instead the maid simply gave her a tight smile, a sharp curtsey, and then dashed off in the opposite direction. Sparrow stood there, dumbfounded, as she watched the maid cross the road and enter one of the oddly designed white houses, but she knew she didn’t have much time to dwell on the maid’s actions for now. She was inside the legation, illegally, and she needed to get what she came for and then leave as quickly and sneakily as possible before she was caught. She had no idea what the punishment was for breaking into the legation, but she was sure the foreigners would be in no mood to be merciful to her.
She glanced around and saw that while things within the legation were harried, they were not as chaotic as outside. Families were piling their goods up along the street outside their homes, waiting for their servants to take them out of the legation to load into a cart bound for the port.
Sparrow decided it would be foolish to try and steal something the families were trying to take with them. Standing here out in the open was foolish enough. She needed to find out where in the legation people were tossing unwanted goods and steal from there. Though, if people were tossing the items out, it wouldn’t be stealing, just pilfering. Not that Sparrow had any qualms about stealing. But she preferred having her hands attached to her wrists. So, if there was a safer way to get items than stealing them, she was always glad to take that route instead.
She slipped between two of the houses so she could get an idea of what was going on without being seen. She had never been inside the legation before, and the style of the homes astonished her. Many of them were two and three stories high, and each home seemed to house only one family. She imaged dozens of Chinese families could fit into each one of the buildings here. She wondered just how many children each of the foreigners had to justify having so much space to live in.
Suddenly, she heard voices, and she knew that someone was coming up behind her. She started to run back to the street, but she then saw two foreign ladies walking her way along the sidewalk. She hopped a low, wrought iron fence to her right, but then she realized that the fence did not protect her from view. She looked up and saw that the door to the house she was in front of was wide open. The family must have been in the process of moving their belongings, but she didn’t see anyone. She ran up the front stairs and through the door into the house. She crouched down, hoping to slip back out unnoticed once the people outside passed, but then she heard voices inside as well, coming from the next room. In a panic, she flew up the stairs behind her. At the top of the stairs was a long hallway with several doors that were all shut except one on the very end. As she heard raised voices below, she feared the house owners were going to follow her up. She ran down the hallway and into the room, quietly shutting the door behind her. She kneeled down and listened by the crack at the floor to see if the people were coming, but she could hear nothing over her panicked breathing. She sat down and forced her heart to steady and her breaths to slow. After a moment, she licked her lips, held her breath, and listened at the crack again. She heard nothing.
Sparrow exhaled in relief and leaned her back against the door. She took a moment to steady herself and then examined the room.
It was incredibly large, probably taking up half of this level of the house. There were several dark pedestals arranged in rows of five or six. On each pedestal was a single item, but she couldn’t see what they were from her place on the floor.
Sparrow listened again to see if anyone was coming, but when she heard nothing, she forced herself to stand and crept silently around the room, examining each item in turn.
She was shocked at what she saw. Not that the items were in any way extraordinary—but in fact quite the opposite. She didn’t understand why such worthless items would be granted pride of place in this foreigner’s home.
There was a bronze disk decorated with dragons on one pedestal. Another held an old stone carving of some women in flowing gowns. On yet another was a plain earthenware bowl. There were two or three tea sets on display, a collection of horsehair brushes, and half a dozen vases. Sparrow herself was too poor to have such items in her home, but most families of even the most modest means would have any of these things. She shook her head in wonder at the silliness of foreigners and was about to try and find a way to slip back out of the house when something caught her attention.
She wasn’t sure how she knew it was there because she didn’t see it at first. In fact, it was behind her. But the hairs on the back of her neck and her arm prickled as though she wasn’t alone. When she turned around, she saw the one thing of value in the whole room staring down at her.
A monkey carved of jade with ruby eyes and golden bracelets.
Sparrow’s mouth nearly began to salivate as she took a few steps closer to it. She couldn’t begin to guess at how much something like that would be worth. Surely it would feed her family for months, if not years. She licked her lips as she considered what to do. She looked at the closed door, but the jade monkey called her attention back to it. The unfriendly face had an open maw with sharp fangs, but it wasn’t very big. She loosened the tie around her waist. She could easily slip it inside the old robe she was wearing and then cover the bulge with her shawl for good measure. The hard part would be getting back out of the house—which she had to do whether she was carrying the monkey or not.
If she were caught, the punishment would be severe. Stealing a fan or a few coins was one thing. But stealing a jeweled carving—and from a foreigner—was quite another. She should probably say goodbye to her hands now, just in case.
She heard voices waft in from the open window and knew she needed to make a decision. How long had she already been gone? She needed to get back to Dove. It wasn’t safe for a little girl like her to be left alone for long.
She took a deep breath and steeled her courage. She opened her robe and reached up. She touched the jade monkey.
Suddenly, she felt as though she were falling. She screamed and held out her hands to brace herself, but the impact never came. She fell and fell until the world went black.
Three
Sparrow heard the sound of people chanting, their voices humming like the buzzing of many bees. As she opened her eyes, she could not see much at first because the room was dim, but she knew she was not in the same room as before. There were many people present, men and women, all dressed in red robes. As she sat up, she saw that she was dressed the same way.
The people were all on their knees, facing the same direction. They held their hands in front of them, mumbling prayers, and then kowtowed before sitting upright and doing it again. The voices were low, so Sparrow couldn’t understand what they were saying.
She looked at what they were worshiping and gasped when she saw the jade monkey with the ruby eyes! It was sitting on a red silk pillow on a dais, surrounded by offerings of fresh fruit and smoldering joss sticks.
Sparrow felt a hint of panic. Where was she? How did she get here? There were no windows. The only light came from candles and braziers set throughout the room. Behind her, she saw an open doorway, but there was no light shining through it, so she had no idea where it led. But she knew she wasn’t supposed to be here—wherever here was.