Naamah's Kiss - Jacqueline Carey [108]
I pointed to three lines of strange characters. "And this? This is writing in your alphabet?"
"It's a poem." Master Lo Feng said in a tranquil tone.
I searched his face. "Will you tell it to me?"
He inclined his head. "Leaves like green spears seek to pierce the glass dome of Heaven; leaves seek and fail. The air breathes in a quiet hush. Beneath the bamboo, I am melancholy."
"That's very beautiful," I said.
"It is a poor translation," he said modestly. "But I would be honored if you would accept this painting as a gift."
"Ah, no!" I protested. "You're too kind."
"Not at all." After determining that the ink was sufficiently dry, Master Lo Feng took the scroll from its easel and rolled it. He presented it to me with a bow. "The other day, you gave me the gift of wonder. This is a small gift to give in return."
I accepted it. "Thank you. I will treasure it."
"May I ask how you got through the entry past Bao just now?" he inquired. "No one gets past Bao."
Bao, leaning on his staff, muttered darkly.
"Oh." I flushed. "I'm sorry. He did say you weren't to be bothered."
"Bao is rude and overprotective," Master Lo Feng said calmly. "I am not angered. I wish to know."
I told him.
"Hmm." His expression was thoughtful. "You draw yin energy from the earth itself in the spirit world. Is this what you used to heal the young man's broken bone the other day?"
"Aye," I said. "Only I didn't use it, Raphael did."
"You cannot do it on your own?" he asked.
I shook my head. "Only with plants."
Lo Feng's eyes shone. "Will you show me?"
I glanced around. "Everything here is healthy. I could quicken it. Coax it to flower."
Bao snickered.
"This species flowers but once every hundred years," Master Lo Feng said apologetically. "It is a rare event. Perhaps we should—"
I closed my eyes and breathed in the twilight.
Laid my hand on the nearest stalk and breathed it out.
Coaxing.
Although it was quiet, it felt like a shout. The energy passed through me, passed into the slender stalk, leaving me drained in a pleasant way. It raced upward and downward. Travelled beneath our feet through an intricate series of connected roots and rhizomes. A little breeze sprang up. The spear-shaped leaves rustled.
All at once, the bamboo flowered.
All at once.
I sank to my knees, happy.
"Lady Moirin?" Master Lo Feng stooped before me. Concern was written on his face. Over his shoulder, I could see Bao scowling. Inside my breast, my diadh-anam pulsed. "Are you well?"
"Yes." I smiled at him. "Would you take me on as a student?"
His eyes crinkled. "Of what?"
"Whatever you deem fit."
He smiled back at me. "Of course."
* * *
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
"I will begin by teaching you to breathe," Master Lo Feng said the following day when we met in the Academy's gardens.
I blinked at him. "What?"
"It is the essential process by which we draw energy into ourselves— for you, even more than most. It lies at the heart of your gift. And although this magic of yours is foreign to me, I believe I may help you hone your ability to wield it." He gestured to Bao, who whipped his staff off his shoulder and twirled it. Three mats of woven palm fronds unfurled. Bao arranged them on the grass. Master Lo Feng sat cross-legged on one. "Sit."
I sat.
Bao followed suit, his back upright, his staff across his knees.
"Does he ever let go of that thing?" I asked.
"Do not concern yourself with Bao," Lo Feng said. "Now. The Five Styles of Breathing correspond to the Five Elements. We will begin with the one that is near to your own essence, the Breath of the Pulse of the Earth."
He told me to concentrate on the earth beneath me, to inhale and exhale through the mouth. To draw the breath into the deepest part of my belly, to the very pit of my groin. To listen for the slow pulse of the earth and match the rhythm of my breath to it.
"That's all?" I asked.
"Yes," he said simply. "For now."
For such a simple thing, it was surprisingly difficult. I found myself distracted by passing scholars shaking their heads, by a bell ringing in a tower