Ancient Shadows by Joanne Pence

Author:Joanne Pence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quail Hill Publishing

The next morning, Jianjun and Kira left the apartment to buy supplies and warm clothes for their trip to Central Asia. The first stop Jianjun made, however, was at a store that sold switchblades. He wanted to be prepared in case any more aggressive foxes showed up to attack Kira.

At the same time, Michael went to visit a woman named Renata Corbi at her home just outside of Florence along the Arno River. She was a small woman, in her mid-forties, with short, curly brown hair, and narrow black-frame glasses over dark brown eyes.

Michael had met her a few months earlier, and she gave the clear impression she would welcome more contact. She was an ethnographer, a cultural anthropologist who relied on up-close, personal experiences. Her primary area of study was the population from the eastern edge of the Pamir Mountains in what is now Uzbekistan, to the Taklamakan Desert in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang—a region that caused her to learn quite a bit about Marco Polo’s travels. After preliminary pleasantries and discussions, Michael asked if she knew any Nestorian monasteries along the Old Silk Road. He explained that a priest, now dead, claimed to have a pearl that Marco Polo stole from such a place.

“Marco, his father and uncle brought many jewels with them when they returned home from China,” Renata said. “In fact, one of the stories Marco told was that they sewed the most valuable jewels into the lining of their coats.”

“This gem is red, and most likely not a pearl at all. I suspect it’s a philosopher’s stone—assuming there are such things as philosopher’s stones, that is,” Michael quickly added.

“Well, we know there are no such things,” Renata said, her dark eyes curious as she studied him. “I’ve never heard of a red pearl stolen by Marco Polo, but there is a famous Chinese tale about one.”

“Oh? What story is that?”

“The Chinese call it Fengshen Yanyi, usually translated as Investiture of the Gods, or Creation of the Gods which isn’t as accurate but used since many people don’t know what ‘investiture’ means. Have you ever heard of it?”

“I’ve heard the name,” Michael said. “But I don’t know the story.”

“It was written down during the Ming dynasty, in the 1500s, but it is much, much older than that, perhaps from the Shang dynasty, and tells stories about gods, demons, and kings, with a lot of sex thrown in. It’s very famous in China, but not in the West, and is a horrible story filled with the most awful torture and mutilations.”

“As would be typical of a story about demons,” Michael said with a grimace, remembering his eerie encounter.

“Well, anyway, it’s not important,” Renata said, opening a map of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. “Let me tell you about the Nestorian monasteries along the Old Silk Road. We have records of where some once were, but not a single one remains.”

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