July 05, 2016

PodCastle 423: The Gold Silkworm

* Author : Tony Pi

* Narrator : S. Qiouyi Lu

* Host : Graeme Dunlop

* Audio Producer : Peter Wood

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First published in Fantasy Magazine.

Rated PG-13

The Gold Silkworm

by Tony Pi

When I first became keeper of the Spirit of Grass, she and I made a pact to never turn away one in need, whether they be rich or poor. Madame Ke was one of the rich.

She had heard of my skills in medicine from her sister, and asked if I would come to the Garden of Timely Rains. I accepted the invitation and arrived in the early afternoon, when the high sun gave glow to the garden pond and terraces. A servant escorted me to the Pavilion for Tasting Autumn Pears where a woman in her thirties awaited me.

Madame Ke, radiant in a dress printed with gold hibiscuses, bade me to join her at the tea table. Though eager to consult a woman doctor, she asked first for proof that I wasn’t a wandering healer. “Are you from the famed medical families of Feng, Mao, or Wu? What training did you have? Can you recite classical poetry to prove your education?”

I understood her caution, but knew I couldn’t answer to her satisfaction if I kept to the truth. What healing skills I had came by way of Cao Shen, the Spirit of Grass. Madame Ke might think me a charlatan for that, but medicine was medicine: it should matter not that I consulted a spirit like the wu sorcerer-physicians of old.

Thus, in small things I lied. In matters of lore and etiquette, I repeated what Cao Shen said in my mind. We might have bent the truth, the spirit and I, but what harm was there if we meant only to help?

Our answers satisfied Madame Ke. She confided she had miscarried years ago, but by the grace of Guan Yin was again with child. Her voice rose an octave higher. “Have you any medicine to protect against another heartbreak, Doctor Yan?”

Do we, Cao Shen? I asked with my mind’s voice.

A medicinal tea might help, she replied. May I take hold, Yan Xue?

I allowed it.

As Cao possessed me, I became a seed of consciousness lodged behind my eyes, sensing but without control. Phantom vines burgeoned inside me, their tendrils curling along every bone and tickling my skin from within. Near and distant fragrances of flora in the garden grew distinct: bamboo, persimmon, water-lily, peony, and many others. Before I became Cao’s keeper, I could not name more than a few; now, I knew every plant by scent.

Cao ran our right hand over our left sleeve, smoothing the silk gauze above the tattooed words that bound us together. She always did when she took hold. “Be at ease, Madame Ke. I know the exact brew for it.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” Madame Ke’s voice returned to its normal pitch.

Cao smiled and raised a teacup with our left hand, whereas I would have favoured my right. She savoured it. “Dragonwell tea from Lin’an, picked from the first spring shoots?”

Madame Ke smiled. “You know your tea.”

“I know my leaves.”

“My husband’s a high-ranking scholar-official in the capital, and often brings back such delights from Lin’an.” She glanced out the pavilion window. “There’s my sweet fool now. What’s he doing?”

Upon a crooked bridge on the far side of the garden pond, a stout middle-aged man clutched at his belly and stumbled against a stone balustrade. He cried out in pain.

Madame Ke gasped and began to stand, but Cao touched her arm. “Rest, Madame, keep calm for the good of the child. I will go to him.”

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