Shanji. Part 18

Kati extended her hand. Jin-yao seemed surprised, but shook her hand gently and bowed again.

"I am Mengnu. I bring you greetings from First Mother, and fulfill her desire that I visit Her people."

"We are honored, Lady Mengnu," said Jin-yao.

They went to another wagon of polished wood, two seats, drawn by two horses with well brushed manes and tails. Kati put out her hand to Jin-yao for balance as she climbed up, and stood until Mengmoshu was seated. The crowd was murmuring, pressing in tighter for a closer look, but suddenly the sound of shuffling feet stopped, and there was silence.

Kati was turning slowly, looking in all directions, her left hand out as if pointing to something near the wagon. The perceived power of her thought was huge for Mengmoshu, though he doubted the people could consciously sense it.

Peace. First Mother is always with you.

It could only be the sight, not the thought, that made the silence, for when Kati turned to face him he saw that her eyes were emerald green.

She sat down beside Mengmoshu. Jin-yao took the reins, sitting on a seat in front of them and the crowd parted as the wagon moved. Mengmoshu was amazed. There were no shouts, no cheers, only silence, thousands of faces looking up at the emerald eyes. Kati looked from side to side, repeating her mental greeting over and over. A focus to keep the color of her eyes? Or were the people hearing it?

They hear me. You don't need to think up a new test to prove it.

Mengmoshu chuckled, then spoke aloud. "Jin-yao is the Comptroller for Wanchou, My Lady. He's responsible for all commerce within the city limits, but also deals with the flow of goods from factories and farms."

"A great responsibility," said Kati.

"I'm not worthy of the position," said Jin-yao, "but I work very hard."

Kati questioned him all the way to the first buildings of Wanchou, wanting to know who he dealt with: factory and store managers, city planners, transportation officials, all in the employ of the n.o.bles. Jinyao answered happily, pleased by her interest. There was little traffic on the road leading to the base of the mountain, few people to stare as they pa.s.sed by, but as they reached the first buildings, the cobblestone street was suddenly packed with little carts drawn by animals and people, and others walking, stooped over beneath heavy burdens. Tengri-Khan was blocked out by tall buildings a step from either side of the street, buildings forty stories high, hundreds of windows with awnings and racks from which clothing was hanging in open air. The buildings were constructed of inferior, brownish concrete; absorbed water had created a myriad of cracks and peeling slabs of faded green, grey and yellow paint.

The stench of urine and animal droppings made their eyes water, but it was soon overpowered by something even worse.

The crowd parted for them, people scurrying to get out of the way, and Kati's greeting was again booming in his head. I come from First Mother, and bring you Her greetings.

The people who gawked at her had weathered and wrinkled faces burned brown by sunlight. All were slender, their clothes clean but worn-looking. The people stared, made way for them, and finally they stopped before a building like all the others. Jin-yao got out of the cart. "There will be a reception for you, Lady Mengnu, but I wish to show you a dwelling for our people if you're willing to climb a flight of stairs."

"Of course," said Kati. What is that horrible odor?

Raw sewage. It runs in conduits just beneath the street to settling ponds outside the city. A million forms of bacteria are breeding right beneath us.

They went into the building and up a flight of stairs. There were no elevators to be seen, and no lighting. Jin-yao knocked on a door and a tiny Hansui woman opened it, beaming at them and bowing, over and over again.

Jin-yao showed them two rooms while the woman and five children, two boys and three girls ranging in age from five to fifteen, stood shyly to one side. The total floor s.p.a.ce in their dwelling might be forty square meters, thought Mengmoshu. One window, family pictures on one wall, children's drawings displayed on the other, the rooms were dimly lit by two small ceiling panels turned on in their honor. The only furniture was a table and six chairs in one room, a few cus.h.i.+ons lining the edges of the wooden floor in the other. A small, alcohol-fueled stove was near the table.

"I'm honored to have such an apartment," said Jin-yao. And then he introduced them to his family. Kati's eyes were now amber. The woman and children hesitated to shake her hand when it was offered, but did so, and Kati held each hand a little longer than necessary. "Greetings from First Mother," she said, each time.

The woman and children did not speak, but suddenly the woman held up a greenstone amulet, pointing to herself and smiling brightly. The gesture seemed to embarra.s.s Jin-yao. He scowled at his wife, and quickly hurried his guests from the rooms without a word. An old woman came up the stairs and pa.s.sed by them without looking up, hunched over beneath a heavy pack on her back, continuing her upward climb and breathing hard.

"She is a widow, and cannot work," explained Jin-yao, "so she has a single, small room on the forty-second floor. There is a special store for those who cannot work, and she receives her food there.

Kati's eyes blazed red.

Seven people in that tiny place! My bedroom is larger!

It is the best they have, Kati.

And that stench is everywhere!

She struggled briefly to renew her serene smile, eyes quickly amber again.

They got back into the cart and drove three blocks to a low, white building, Kati's fan in constant motion as they went. Four men met them in a white room with bare walls, a table, and chairs. The windows were opaque from dust and soot. Jin-yao introduced the men as ministers: Li-ban, the mayor, Ling-de, of transportation, Lan-tsui, of housing, and Huan-bei, a secretary to Li-ban. For half an hour they talked informally of the weather, population, the growing concern about the breeding habits of the people. Kati listened silently, nodding her head at appropriate times.

When they sat down at the table, Mengmoshu was on Kati's right, the mayor on her left. All others sat across the table from them. All wore the suits of brown canvas, like many people in the streets. They were served tea by one woman, followed by a bowl of rice with some vegetables sprinkled with tiny pieces of beef.

It is a lavish meal. What little beef they produce here is sent to the n.o.bles for their consumption.

Kati ate with the delicacy and elegance of the court, but when she put down her sticks, Mengmoshu held his breath, for her eyes were now the yellow of Tengri-Khan. Perhaps she'd seen what he'd seen in the minds of the men around her. All thought she was a spy from the Emperor's court.

She began to quiz those who sat across from her. She asked about production and transport rates in per-capita terms, and they refereed her to managers in the field. She asked about per-capita protein consumption, and again they could not answer. They fidgeted uneasily in their chairs.

Careful! We're not here to threaten, but to learn.

These people are functionaries! They know nothing! Huomeng has taught me more in a year than they've learned in a lifetime!

Yes, but do not show the impatience of your teacher. You will meet the people who can answer your questions soon enough.

Kati sighed, and changed the subject, asking about the lengths of their working weeks, the size of their staffs. The hours were long, staff inadequate, but all men were dedicated to their work and humbly honored by their positions. They relaxed again.

Mengmoshu was grateful when the meal was over, and they were ready to leave. Kati shook each hand, and said, "I will tell First Mother about your hards.h.i.+ps, and the vigor with which you pursue your responsibilities."

All hosts were smiling when the meeting ended.

They are puppets of the n.o.bles. Is Jin-yao this inept?

He coordinates them as best he can. You see what he has to work with. The n.o.bles choose their ministers without consulting him, and prefer intellects that will not be too independent.

Puppets!

Kati's mental murmurings continued for the next few minutes, but outwardly she was calm and somehow kept her eyes amber. They toured shops where staples of flour and rice were dispensed to long lines of women and children in exchange for chits given to their men for labor. There was no hard currency in copper, silver or gold, only the chits for exchange in the stores of the n.o.bles. Outwardly, the people seemed fed, and their simple clothing of brown canvas was not tattered. They did not have the look of people who owned nothing of their own.

As evening drew near there was another place Mengmoshu had to show her, a place unknown to the n.o.bles. Their puppet ministers knew about it, but said nothing to their absentee masters and so Jin-yao took them there, an unmarked building without windows on a dark side street in the center of the city.

Kati was tired from the day and stifled a yawn as he whispered, "This will not be pleasant for you."

It was a hospital.

The place had been a warehouse, but now the floor was covered with beds of straw in many rows, a sea of beds dimly lit by rows of lanterns beneath a high ceiling with wooden rafters. The stench of burning oil, alcohol, and diseased flesh struck like a hammer as the door closed behind them. Mengmoshu breathed through his mouth.

Kati's composure wavered. She gasped at the sight, eyes wide, and hid a retching cough with her fan.

This is one of three hospitals in the city, and there are several smaller clinics for lesser problems. None of them are sanctioned by the n.o.bles or the Emperor, and the physicians here could be imprisoned for their work.

There are Moshuguang here!

Several white-frocked doctors walked the isles, checking on their patients. All were Moshuguang, with high-domed foreheads.

They are the only doctors we have so far, but there will be more. We train city people first as nurses, then as doctors. It is a slow process, because the people are not prepared.

Was she listening? Kati started down one isle, looking right and left, pausing at each bed. What was she seeing? The sight of auras was a power of First Mother, a gift pa.s.sed only to Tumatsin women and not through the lineage of her second son, from whom the Moshuguang had come. Kati had tried to explain it to him once, but he could only imagine a pattern of colors in the human energy field, a pattern that changed with mood, or physical condition. She was looking at that pattern now, at every bed.

Disorders of the stomach and bowels, and I see many skin infections here. You have medicines to cure these conditions.

Yes, but not enough. Our pharmaceutical production is higher than we report to the Emperor and much of it is used here, but it is still inadequate. We cannot keep up with the population growth.

A young woman lay on a bed, eyes closed, and Kati knelt down, pa.s.sing a hand over the woman's groin.

She has a tumor, and it's growing rapidly.

We only have two surgeons. She will have to wait.

She cannot wait. She could die within days.

A doctor was walking towards Kati, looking concerned, but Mengmoshu stopped him with a wave of his hand. She comes from First Mother, and brings Her power to us. Do not interfere.

Kati looked at him, and her eyes were emerald green. I can shrink it now, but the residual must be removed as soon as possible if we don't return here.

Then do what you can now.

Kati moved her hand over the woman's groin, not touching it, a circular motion, then rising, falling again and finally touching. The woman's eyes snapped open, and she gasped, her hands reaching to Kati's, then sliding away. She looked at Kati's face, and lay there staring while the hand pressed firmly on her groin for several minutes. Kati's mind was totally masked from him, in a place he could not go, her eyes closed.

Finally, Kati raised her hand, and opened her eyes. For an instant, there was a flash of green light that illuminated the sickened woman on her bed. The woman gasped again, and rubbed her groin tenderly, as if knowing that something important had just happened there.

Kati smiled beautifully. I have drawn upon the gong-s.h.i.+-jie. The tumor is shriveled, but I need two more treatments to kill it. She should have surgery within a month.

The doctor nodded, then shook his head in wonderment. Kati put her hand on the woman's forehead. You will be well again.

The woman closed her eyes, and slept.

There was no meal for any of them that evening. Kati refused to leave, despite his protests which diminished as he saw what she did for the people. Her eyes remained emerald green the entire time she was with the ill, and he suddenly realized that the color was a manifestation of the love and compa.s.sion within her. As he watched her work, tears came to his eyes. He could not dare a prayer to First Mother, for Kati would hear it.

Why must I continue to hide from my own daughter?

What were her limits? She had already surpa.s.sed the powers of First Mother. Had he fathered The One: Mei-lai-gong, the G.o.ddess of Light they had sought to breed for over a thousand years?

Now she walked as if floating between the beds, kneeling, healing, a cl.u.s.ter of doctors and nurses following her. She burst boils, healed burned flesh and removed a constriction in a bowel with a few short waves of her hand, and always there was a hand on the forehead of the patient. You will be well again.

It was well after midnight when she was finally finished. Kati was delighted, her face radiant when she came to him, this sixteen-year-old who could pa.s.s for thirty, and they went outside to awaken Jin-yao, who was sleeping in the wagon. Jin-yao drove a few blocks to a building where a room had been prepared for them, and carried their luggage inside before hurrying home, for he would pick them up again early the next day.

There were two beds with thick mattresses of straw, a screen behind which they changed clothes for sleeping. A bowl of fruit left on a table for them was quickly consumed. As he was ready for bed and about to collapse into it, Kati came up to him, eyes green, and said, "Now I know what Mandughai wants me to do. I have never felt so content or satisfied in all my life. Oh, Mengmoshu, thank you for bringing me here!"

She threw her arms around him, her cheek against his chest, and he hugged her to him for a long time.

"What you did tonight is a marvel, but there is much more to see, and perhaps First Mother has even greater tasks for you."

"What could be greater than healing?" she asked, looking at him.

Mengmoshu smiled. "We shall see." He released her then, and crawled into bed. And as sleep neared, he was aware of Kati still pacing the room in excitement, thinking she had discovered the purpose of her life at last.

There were three more days and nights for them in Wanchou. There were visits to countless stores, where Kati's questions were answered frankly and honestly by those who faced the people each day, those who took the brunt of their anger during the frequent shortages. It was not a problem of production, but transportation and accounting, they told her.

Two more hospitals hosted them, but Mengmoshu made sure the visits were scheduled after a meal, for once inside Kati would not leave until she'd done what she could for everyone. She healed, and diagnosed, the doctors following her everywhere, wondering at her and often feeling helpless. But even Kati could not bring back life. The internal bleeding of a child had proceeded too far before Kati reached her, and the child, aged three, died in her arms. Her grief was horrible for Mengmoshu and the other Moshuguang present, for she held nothing back, crying, rocking the child's dead body until a doctor took it from her. Mengmoshu wanted her to sleep, but she would not, and they had an appointment with a Moshuguang social worker named Xie. When they met him outside the hospital, the workers had gone home to their families and the streets were dark, but people were there, quiet, shadowy creatures who looked fearfully at them as they pa.s.sed by. Some scrubbed the streets clean of garbage and dung with stiff brooms, while others searched refuse containers for something of use.

"The night people," explained Xie. "Many have come in from the countryside after layoffs in the factories. Most are unskilled, some physically or mentally ill. All the human refuse of Shanji comes here. I try to find them a room and give them chits for food, but they sicken and starve faster than I can get to them."

They followed Xie on his rounds, down cobblestone side streets, alleys rank with garbage and open sewers to visit the bas.e.m.e.nt warrens of the city, rooms with up to twenty people, beds stacked like cordwood, no stoves, no heat. Many were small children with huge, staring eyes, faces emaciated. Xie gave the adults chits for food, and the names of doctors to see, and the people stared only at Kati. Her eyes glowed green as she went from person to person with a word, a touch, a caress of a tiny face, a child's hands grabbing softly at her robe.

Mengmoshu bit his lip to hold back the tears, for he felt his daughter's loving compa.s.sion at the sight of such misery. "How many like these?" Kati croaked.

"Perhaps a million," said Xie, giving his last chit to a father of two. "They come in faster than I can find them."

In two hours the chits were gone, and they were mercifully back on the streets, but people followed them, begging for food, chits, anything, and they had nothing to give except Kati's warm touch and the sight of her glowing eyes, which amazed them to the point of reverence.

When Mengmoshu finally got her to bed, Kati was exhausted and stricken with sorrow. He tried to comfort her, reminding her she was not a G.o.d, but an exceptional person who could not magically change a world of such misery without the help of many who shared her compa.s.sion. That night, she sobbed in her sleep.

The final day in Wanchou lightened Kati's mood, but only a little. All of it was spent touring three of the schools established secretly by the Moshuguang, the students chosen for their intelligence and drive through a slow and exhausting interview process run by the young apprentices in charge. It was then that Mengmoshu told her about Huomeng, and what he'd accomplished in the city.

"Huomeng started this school a year ago for the select few who had progressed far enough to learn mathematics and physics. Now he teaches them mechanical engineering during the winter months."

"Huomeng? He's been here?" asked Kati.

The room was small, and smelled like sewage. A young Moshuguang instructor had used chalk to fill a blackboard with equations and was pointing to them as he talked. Behind a long table sat six students, all males in their late teens. Each had a small computer before him, scrolling through a lesson as the instructor talked.

"Many months, and even more hours," said Mengmoshu. "He set up all the advanced cla.s.ses here, and a cla.s.s in reading for gifted young children. He's quite dedicated to the people."

Kati seemed surprised. "He showed me where his office is. I thought his dream was to fly in s.p.a.ce."

"It is," he said, "but he also makes the time for this. He has dreams, Kati, but spends most of his time helping others to make their lives better. When you see past his impatient mind there is an honorable and unselfish person there."

Kati nodded. "Now I understand the pa.s.sion in his voice when he talks about the people. He has lived with them."

"Yes. Come, now, it's time to leave."

They slipped un.o.btrusively out the door to where Jin-yao waited with his wagon, but found a crowd silently surrounding it. There were a few men, but mostly women and children. The jostling crowd made a path for them to the wagon, some bowing, a few kneeling and reaching out to touch Kati's robe. People murmured as Kati got into the wagon, and around her many hands were raised to show small, green stones dangling from leather thongs.

"They know you are leaving. The stones are a sign of belief in First Mother. The few who believe are mostly women," said Jin-yao.