LITMIR.BIZ

      Bright Jade sat alone by the pool, staring at the moon’s reflection. She tried to capture the image of the Moon Lady, but the wind kept stirring the water, breaking the reflection into ripples.

      She looked up at the sky, where the moon hung like a silver coin. Although she still couldn’t see the Moon Lady, she could see the hare, pounding out the elixir of immortality at the foot of a cassia tree.

      Bright Jade sighed. Everlasting life! How could one attain it? The moon was so far away, yet here it was at her feet—a clear reflection now, not distorted by the wind. If she could just reach over, fall into the pool and land on the moon....

      She knew the time was coming. Even though the Emperor believed his reign would last ten thousand years.

      The mighty Emperor, she thought bitterly. Qin Shi Huangdi, the Son of Heaven, so obsessed with eternal life he sent six thousand boys and girls to the Eastern Sea to search for the Islands of the Immortals. Did they find the magical islands? Or the elixir that was said to grow there? No one knew, for the children were never seen or heard from again.

      Then there were the thousands buried beneath the stones of the Great Wall. Young men and old, brothers, husbands, fathers and sons whose sweat was mixed with the mortar that held the stones together; dead men denied a proper burial, whose souls were doomed to an eternity without rest; dead men whose bones were part of the Great Wall itself, the longest graveyard in the world.

      Bright Jade shivered. She was the Emperor’s favourite. All the more reason he would insist she accompany him to the Celestial Kingdom, where he would continue to reign long after his body was dead.

      The thought of that kingdom made her shudder. Hundreds of thousands of peasants had laboured a lifetime, creating a universe deep within the earth, a universe complete with rivers and ocean, moon and stars. Inside this world lay the burial chamber where the Emperor would rule, surrounded by his treasures: jewels, gold, jade, and the beautiful women who entertained him.

      To protect this Celestial Kingdom, the Emperor had created an army of life-size terra-cotta warriors. Thousands of archers, charioteers, infantry, generals, all clothed in armour, all heavily armed, keeping watch in the huge underground vaults that surrounded the Emperor’s tomb.

      Bright Jade knew that traps had been placed inside the tomb, intricately set and cunningly concealed. Crossbows were set to shoot anyone who entered. And once the tomb was closed, all the artisans who knew its secrets would be walled up inside, their lips sealed forever. She knew the time was coming.

      The moon floated on the black water of the pool, undis turbed by ripples. Bright Jade leaned over. But no sooner had she touched the surface of the water than the moon dissolved into fractures of silvery light, scattering over the pool like broken dreams.

      It was then she felt the eyes watching her. Turning slowly, she saw the figure framed by the moon gate. The Old One.

      Jasmine woke with a start. Who was this person in her dream? She knew her—her thoughts and feelings and memories. But how? And where had this dream come from? The Great Wall was in China, but what connection did she have with China, apart from tai chi?

      Suddenly she saw her mother, waving good-bye. “Be careful, it’s slippery....”

      Struggling to shut out the pain, she willed herself back to the dream. It was the only way of forgetting. The only sanctuary, in spite of the shadowy figure who lurked there.

      Startled, Bright Jade began to rise.

      “Do not be frightened,” the Old One whispered as he glided towards her. His long frayed robe hung loosely from his shoulders, and the amulets swinging from his neck and waist clattered and tinkled. Skulls of small animals, stones and bones; pieces of jade and tiny bronze bells; the shell of a tortoise, the claws of a tiger. “You know me as the gardener,” he said. “And I know you, Bright Jade.”

      She nodded. She had seen him feeding the carp, tending the peach trees. In all weathers he had drifted in and out of the garden, his amulets clattering softly. A mysterious man, the Old One. Some feared him as a sorcerer. Others sought him as a gifted fortune-teller. Some had heard him weaving magic spells and chanting incantations. It was said the Emperor himself had consulted him on the question of immortality. But Bright Jade knew him simply as the gardener, an old man with a warm smile and penetrating eyes.

      She searched those eyes now, wondering what had brought him out so late at night. And how long had he been watching her?

      “Long enough to know you seek the elixir of life,” he said, answering her unspoken question.

      Bright Jade blushed. “I am foolish to think such thoughts.”

      “But you think them all the same.” The Old One smiled. “And why not? Everyone desires eternal life. You shall have it—though not in the way you imagine. And not in this time or place.”

      He handed her a small bag. “The time is coming. Inside you will find a jade amulet, hanging on a leather thong. Its magic will protect you in this life and the next. Wear it close to your heart and do not let it leave your possession. For in the hands of another it will bring a curse—to him and to his children and to his children’s children. And it will not end until the white jade tiger sleeps again.”

      Bright Jade took the amulet from the bag. It was carved in the shape of a tiger: watchful, ready to spring. The jade was white, almost translucent. In her hands it shimmered like moonlight.

      “Why are you giving it to me?” she asked, placing it round her neck.

      “There is a light in you,” he said. “A light that will shine far.”

      She frowned, not understanding. “And the tiger, how will it protect me?”

      “You will know when the time comes.” Without another word, he slipped away.

      And now the time had come. Bright Jade and the others were ordered to accompany the dead Emperor into the tomb. One by one they stepped down the ramp beneath the earth, through the vault of warriors.

      Bright Jade passed between the long lines of archers and infantry, feeling their eyes upon her, eyes so life-like she could almost read their secrets. She trembled at the force carved within them, feeling at any moment they might spring into action—like the tiger she wore, next to her heart.

      They reached the end of the vault and began to enter the Celestial Kingdom where the Emperor would reign forever. Bright Jade paused to adjust a hairpin, while the others slipped by in a kaleidoscope of brilliant silks and brocades. As the last one passed, Bright Jade reached inside her gown

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