The Forbidden Lock by Liesl Shurtliff

Author:Liesl Shurtliff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Published: 2020-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

18

The Kangxi Emperor

1688

Beijing, China

The Forbidden City

Jia had never before been so nervous for any mission in all her days as a time pirate, and she had to work extra hard to hide it. She didn’t want anyone to see how scared she was, how uncertain, especially Matt. She couldn’t let him down, not after all that he’d been through, so she squared her shoulders and held her head high, even though she was a wreck inside. She was going back to China. Back home. Home. What a strange, powerful word, that it could stir so much inside of her, things that lay dormant for years. She’d almost forgotten who she really was, where she came from. She had told the story of her being just an orphan from China so many times for so long, she had almost come to believe it herself.

They landed in the moat surrounding the Forbidden City. Blossom had transformed into a junk, a small Chinese ship, flat-bottomed with two orange-red sails.

The Forbidden City was surrounded by a wide moat and closed in by high stone walls. Only a few sloped, red-tile roofs could be seen above them. Jia had never been outside the walls of the Forbidden City, save for the few moments before Captain Vincent took her on board the Vermillion. In her younger days, this had been the whole world.

“It doesn’t look like time has been disrupted here,” Matt said.

No. It looked just as she remembered.

They sailed toward the edge of the Forbidden City, where guards were posted with swords.

“They look kind of serious,” Matt said. “What if they don’t believe who you are?”

“Then we’re in trouble,” Belamie said. She kept her hands on the hilt of her sword, though Jia knew it wouldn’t do them any good, no matter how skilled and fierce a swordswoman she was. If Jia did not convince the guards, they’d be lucky to be taken prisoner. But she wasn’t going to let Matt believe for one second that they might be in any kind of danger.

“They’ll believe me,” Jia said. “When I show them the amulet.” She brought it out of her pocket. It too had almost been forgotten, pushed to the bottom of her memories.

“Let me do the talking,” Jia said. “The rest of you should remain quiet unless directly spoken to, understood?”

They all agreed, even Belamie. They were all looking to her now.

When they reached the edge of the moat, Jia greeted the guards. She had, of course, practiced her Chinese plenty with Matt, and done some studying on her own from time to time, but she had always been a little reluctant, and the words had never felt quite right coming out of her mouth. Now, as if returning to this place and time had unlocked something in her brain, the language seemed to slip off her tongue without a thought, as though she had never left. It felt oddly comfortable, and to her surprise, empowering. This was her native tongue, and she was speaking it in her native country, in her original era.

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