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whom I have not
known, by all the Gods of heaven and earth, and by Jesus Christ, Son of the
Most High God, I swear I will escape this slavery and avenge my parents’
deaths. I swear this by... by my mother’s Book of Holy Writings, and may I die
in torment if I do not fulfil this oath.’ She touched a finger to the bloody
ooze at her temple, then drew it across her lips. A life for a life, if
necessary.
    The heart pain eased a little, allowing her to
think. The man who had cut down her mother could not have lived long, with his
life-blood pumping from him like a river in spate. But he was only one. These
others, these Tai Pings or Triads, this army of butchers were just as
responsible. She knew her foster father must be dead, along with the mission
workers. Why leave any witnesses to the slaughter? And she guessed the village
would by now be a funeral pyre, with the animals and grain taken to feed the
murderous hordes rolling across the countryside.
    Where were they headed? They must have a
destination in mind, if they really planned to replace the Son of Heaven who
ruled the world, the important part of it, China. Peking itself? Was it not
many hundreds of li to the north? Her foster father had said so. Although,
whether his words could be relied upon was a difficulty, since he had not
succeeded in explaining to Pearl’s satisfaction how there could be two Sons of
Heaven, one seated at the right hand of God the Father and the other upon the
silken cushions of the Imperial throne. It was very confusing.
    Her new master summoned her and she obeyed, her
eyes glinting balefully. Her moment would come.
    ~*~
    Pearl slipped easily back into the
attitudes and responses of a slave. As long as she swiftly obeyed orders and
hid her true feelings, she was treated well enough, although kept busy foraging
for twigs and dung for the fires and for edibles for the pot. After she’d
scoured this at night, laid out her master’s bedding, prepared his opium pipe,
she was free to creep away to attend to her own toilette, with the proviso that
she stay within call to assuage any bodily urges her master might still have
after a long day’s march, or an even more tiring day of killing.
    Several more villages had fallen victim since
the mission had been overrun. The other members of the Triad company clearly
feared their leader too much to interfere with his spoil but they watched her.
And since Pearl had discovered the enormous size of the army, of which her
master’s group was an infinitesimal part, she’d given up any immediate plans
for escape. Surrounded by some eighty thousand men, women and children,
smothered in dust as she plodded along tied to the ox cart, she was lucky to
see the sun and guess at her direction.
    From the first day she had been made to wear her
braid tied up under a beaded cap, while her slight seventeen-year-old figure
remained hidden under padded jacket and pants, so that everyone except the
Triad’s men knew her as a young boy. When she dared to query the cap she was
told, ‘These Tai Ping have strange ways. They are of the Hakka tribe in
Kwangtung who wear their hair long and bound in a turban. Any man found with
queue and shaven forehead is taken for a Manchu and sent to his ancestors.’
    ‘Why must I be a man?’ At the time Pearl was
combing her master’s short locks and massaging his neck. He humoured her.
    ‘Because the leader, Hung Hsiu-ch’uan, has a new
religion which permits him to smash the old gods yet forbids rape of females. The
women and children of the camp live separately and march with us under guard. To
stay with me, you must act as a man slave.’ He shrugged. ‘We are Triad. We
march with the Tai Ping to overthrow the Manchu, but we do not follow their
ways.’
    Pearl said softly, ‘Does Hung Hsiu-ch’uan say
there shall be no violence practiced against the Red-Hair yi or innocent
villagers?’
    He twisted about and caught her arm, bending it
back painfully. Her face was inches