On an evening about a month after Wangdan's disappearance, Subudal Dari, wife of the Deputy of the East at the banner yamen, was found travelling the road back to Mamba Rasang. She had been invited to a banquet celebrating a newborn's first full month of life and had a fair amount of drink taken. Her spirits were high and she sang as she rode.
The turtledoves call in the cypress tree,
My heart's own love making eyes at me . . .
The night sky was filled with the enchanting light of a stainless moon. The wide grasslands at the foot of mountain below Mamba Rasang shimmered into an untrammelled distance. Cool gusts were heady with the scent of dew, a scene to delight the heart and ease the soul. Tuhai Mountain above Mamba Rasang and the Alpas mountains beyond lay in deep darkness, half the heavens hidden behind their great bulk.
A number of hobbled horses were grazing below the mountain. They belonged to the monks of Mamba Rasang. Subudal Dari rode on past when her horse suddenly spooked with snort and refused to go onward. Subudal Dari reined the horse in and peered ahead. What could the matter be? She could see a dark horse wandering back and forth up ahead. Would one horse be spooked by the sight of another? It seemed most odd. On closer inspection she could see that the trammels hobbling the horse's legs had broken and were being dragged. Ah, so this horse belonged to that Wangdan who'd gone missing. The thought made the hairs on the back of her neck prick up. Imagine if Wangdan carried me off as well, what a frightening thought. By now thoroughly unsettled, Subudal Dari spurred her horse forward.
She reached the foot of the mountain where she dismounted by a boulder, took off the saddle, and tied up her horse.
A voice spoke. "Is that Lady Subudal Dari?" She could see a man also dismounting. She recognised him as Genden, the one they called Whiteface.
"Oh, it's you. Have you been out on a call?" While her greeting followed the polite formula, inside Subudal Dari cursed her luck at running into someone like Genden.
"That's right. It seems fate has decreed I should run into you tonight. Since that's so, would you care to sit and talk a while?"
"Oh no, I'm very tired."
"You could lie down while we talk."
"I can't, my husband is waiting for me."
Subudal Dari set off up the stone steps. She was keen to get home as quick as she could. She thought about her husband, the Deputy of the East, left alone in the big compound behind the lane of prayer wheels with only the young serving maid Norjmaa for company, and she became even more agitated. Who knew what that pair were getting up to? Thinking back, her husband had seemed quite pleased when she set out that morning. He had smiled and told her not to worry about hurrying back and that if it got too late she could stay away the night and come home the following day. She had noticed Norjmaa flushing red at that. Subudal Dari pretended not to have noticed anything. "I'm sure I will stay the night. It's a long way." She was fuming inside though, thinking about how she'd get back in the middle of the night and catch them at it. She'd noticed the adulterous lust between her husband and Norjmaa some time ago and knew the old man had even bought satin for the little hussy to make a robe. The thought of the two of them alone in that big compound tonight sent pains stabbing through her heart.
When she topped the hill she found Mamba Rasang still and silent. She soon made her way behind the monastery and past the lane of prayer wheels. She could see that large compound with the high tiled roofs, Ulen Tagas's compound. Pah, you rotten old hag! Your husband stole my husband's crown but that's not enough for you! Oh no, now you want a child too, children and grandchildren all on that throne is it? I bet you would love that! They say Heaven has ten thousand eyes watching this world of sin and sorrow, think it's going to let you get away with anything you want? No wonder you can't get a boy-child, that's karma paying you back! With these thoughts, Subudal Dari was able to settle down somewhat. But then her thoughts turned to her own situation and she couldn't help feeling another pang of worry and pain. It was all very well saying Ulen Tagas could get no child, but then neither could she. She was forty-two years old now and had never felt her womb quicken. If a woman didn't become pregnant by the age of forty-two could she really hope for a child after that? She certainly didn't think so. Her old man was pushing sixty. He might still go at it like a tupping ram but it couldn't be many more years until he lost the energy for it. Then a few years after that she'd be watching the ceremonial hat of the banner prince being placed on someone else's head.
She made her way onward as these thoughts raced through her mind and now she spotted someone walking up ahead. Although the moon was half hidden behind the mountaintop there was sufficient light to see a fair way into the distance. She could tell the person up ahead was a monk and it seemed he was afraid of being seen, moving furtively and glancing left and right, stepping lightly, afraid to make a sound.
The monk was heading towards Ulen Tagas's compound.
Oh ho! What have we here? Certain ideas occurred to Subudal Dari. The monk looked young, perhaps he was carrying on with Ulen Tagas's maid? Not likely, she thought, young Surji was a well-behaved girl and barely sixteen. Perhaps he was a thief, then? But who among the monks of Mamba Rasang would be so bold as to steal from the wife of the banner prince?
Subudal came to a large boulder. A crooked elm tree grew beside it. She hid between the great rock and the tree and peered forward. The monk crept up to the compound gate and gave it a gentle push. It swung open with a creak. A woman leapt out through the open gate and fell into a passionate embrace with the monk. If Subudal Dari's eyes did not deceive her, that woman was Ulen Tagas.
Subudal Dari could scarcely believe what she was seeing and she stood dumbfounded. By the Lord Buddha! What were they playing at?
Ulen Tagas and the monk kissed for what seemed the longest time before heading into the compound, still locked in a close embrace. Subudal Dari remained in her hiding place, astonished. It was some time before she recovered her senses enough to realise the compound gate was now closed. She flushed hot all over and felt quite nauseous. So Ulen Tagas was carrying on with one of the monks of Mamba Rasang!
Now fully recovered, she set off at pace on her way back to her own compound, the hem of her robe flapping in the wind. She felt both sated and sickened; part of her wanted to laugh while another part of her was saddened. Conflicting emotions seethed in her breast.
Reaching home, she beat on the gate for all she was worth.
"Norjmaa, you rotten hussy! Don't tell me you're asleep!"
She had to call for a long while before finally Norjmaa came and opened the gate. The maid's clothes were only draped on and her hair fell loose.
"I thought my lady said she would be returning tomorrow?" Norjmaa asked nervously.
"It's my own home, are you saying I shouldn't have come home today?"
Norjmaa smiled weakly. "I don't know anything about it. I was asleep."
"Oh yes?" Subudal Dari snorted.
Subudal Dari went inside to find her husband snoring away beneath the bedclothes. She whipped the covers off him, shouting, "Get up, there's no point pretending to be asleep."
He sat up, his manner seeming to say that even if he hadn't bothered pretending there was nothing Subudal Dari could do about it anyway. "Don't you go bellowing at me like some great heifer. Didn't find the bull to suit you out in the countryside is it?"
Subudal Dari snatched up pots and bowls from a sideboard and dashed them on the floor. Not to be outdone her husband ran his walking stick along the top of a chest on his side of the room, sweeping over vases and other vessels. The floor became covered in shards of broken crockery. Norjmaa took a broom and began to sweep them up.
"Heifer who won't calf," snarled the Deputy.
"I don't see that little piece of yours getting pregnant either."
"Watch what you're saying."
"And if I don't? What are you going to do?"
The old Deputy and Subudal Dari stopped bickering and lay down on the kang bed. Though they were no longer exchanging bitter words their anger had not yet subsided and both breathed in great gulps like cattle after drinking their fill.
As her temper gradually returned to normal Subudal Dari's mind quite naturally turned to the scene she had witnessed outside Ulen Tagas's compound. Who was the monk she had seen stealing kisses with Ulen Tagas? She recognised all the monks at Mamba Rasang but in the dark of night she had not been able to make out who this one had been. But I've got you now, thought Subudal Dari, and when it suits me I shall tell that husband of yours and then we'll see you in a fine mess . . .
Ulen Tagas was bound to be caught sooner or later carrying on with a monk like that. She would never have been able to hide it if she fell pregnant ...oh yes, what if she got pregnant?
Subudal Dari sat bolt upright.
These past few years Subudal Dari had tried everything to cure her barrenness. She had taken a lot of different medicines, but rather than any good effect, they had only made her wonder still more. Why was it that neither of the princes' wives could get with child? Did the problem lie with the women or with their husbands? She had suspected something of the kind for a long while now. Now it occurred to her that if the fault lay with the men, then if Ulen Tagas was going with another man she might well fall pregnant.
It was this thought that made Subudal Dari sit up. She looked at her husband. He was lying on his back not moving. In the darkness she could not see if his eyes were open or shut. All she could make out were a few wisps of his goatee.
"Are you asleep?" Subudal spoke softly.
The Deputy gave no reply.
"Wake up, there's something I want to talk to you about."
"If you have something to say, say it."
"I just saw a very strange thing."
Subudal told the Deputy all she had witnessed. When she finished he too sat up.
"What are you saying? So what if she gets pregnant?"
"If she has a boy then isn't he the young heir to the banner?"
"And her husband won't suspect it's a bastard?"
"Oh, he'll suspect all right but he won't let on. Doesn't matter who the father is, if he brings the boy up it's his son. Like the saying goes, doesn't matter who owns the bull, the calf belongs to you."
"Put it like that ..." The Deputy couldn't sit still. "What should we do?"
"I don't know."
"Should we tell him?"
"Would that brother of yours take your word on it? If he insists that there's nothing of the sort going on with Ulen Tagas then all you'll have done is made trouble for yourself."
"Maybe we should try to catch them red-handed one night."
"A brother-in-law catching his own brother's wife?"
"So what should we do then?"
At a loss, they looked at each other for a long time. This was something they never imagined in their wildest dreams.
"If this is what she's doing, looks like Ulen Tagas never got that special medicine, wouldn't you say?"
"Looks that way."
The competition between the two households had become incredibly fierce. It had begun as a tussle for the crown, now it was an unspoken battle to be first to have a son. These past two years the contest had been to find a secret formula for some special medicine to aid pregnancy. Both couples were beginning to lose faith in the efficacy of the medicine dispensed by the monks at Mamba Rasang, but everyone knew there was a great codex of secret medical formulas hidden somewhere at the monastery, and this had been the object of their increasingly frantic searches. The Deputy and Subudal Dari were well aware that Ulen Tagas and her husband were seeking the codex too and the anxiety was driving them to distraction. Now here in the dead of night they had reached two conclusions, that Ulen Tagas was carrying on with one of the monks in the hopes of getting pregnant, and that she had not found the codex since if she had she would never had embarked on such a risky and humiliating course.
Subudal Dari yawned. Outside the window the first faint glow of day was showing.
"It's getting light."
"Then we need to get to sleep. Come on, hurry up, get those clothes off."
Subudal Dari sighed and unbuttoned her tunic. They were forever at it in the hopes of having a son and Subudal had long since wearied of it, while the Deputy had almost worked himself to death.
