Chapter 15
Khan galloped past the gates of Qui Gong, Mulan astride his back. Mulan didn't want Kim and Ron to follow. Ron picked up Kim and used his Mystical Monkey Power to travel at Khan's speed. Finally Mulan gave up and reined in Khan.
"You shouldn't follow." Mulan's shoulders and back were set like steel rods, but Kim could see the tension. "What you're about to see will probably break our hearts…" She dropped her volume to barely a whisper, "not that heart matters anymore."
"Mulan, I heard that." Kim's hair swirled around her like a fiery cloak as she turned to face Mulan. "Heart does matter."
Mulan's posture drooped like a magnolia tree without sunlight. Shang was her sunlight, her one love, her everything. This marriage would be loveless. But now, duty came first.
"Ron, do you have any insight as to what happens next?" asked Kim. Ron stood completely still, not responding "Ron?" Kim waved her hand in front of Ron's face. "Earth to Ron?"
That was when something strange happened. Ron's eyes glowed sky blue, then blinding white. A white aura with gold beams surrounded his hands. Then his hands jerked outward and upward to chest height as if he had been in cardiac death and shocked back to life. A bolt of white-gold brilliance shot from his hands, expanding into an image framed by light. It showed Shang's stallion Baojia - then a scene filled in. Baojia was sniffing the air alongside a riverbank, his ears swiveling about for any sounds.
"He's trying to find Shang." Mulan realized, hope reflecting in her eyes. But that hope dimmed as soon as it came. "I don't think he'll find anything though… he'll be lucky if he finds a dead body…" Her eyes welled up with tears again, but she forced them away from her eyes. "Ron, stop it… stop projecting that image..."
Ron's eyes went back to normal, and the image began to disappear. Mulan kicked Khan's side - "HYAH!" - and rode the rest of the way to the palace.
But before the image fully dissolved, Kim saw a familiar hand grabbing Baojia's reins.
Mulan entered the throne room, her fighter's instinct at an all-time high. Galyn Khaan could be anywhere. If he found out the truth, he'd tell Lord Chin to break the alliance, and China would be torn with war yet again… she shook the thought from her head. If fate had it that she would go down, she would go down fighting.
A thick cloud of incense attacked her senses, especially her eyes. She had just been crying and now this. She rubbed her eyes, hoping this was all a nightmare and she'd wake up in Shang's arms. She opened them again… no, not a nightmare. This was real. Her heart didn't matter now.
"Fa Mulan!" an advisor breathed in awe. "It's Fa Mulan, the Hero of China!" Soon the court audience parted, but none too quietly - they were all gossiping in hushed tones why she had come, and alone at that!
But the audience didn't see two pairs of eyes - one pair chocolate-brown, one pair shining-emerald - watching everything from a ledge outside.
Kim strained her ears to hear what Mulan was saying to Lord Chin. Lord Chin was definitely angry that the princesses weren't there as promised.
"There was an accident," said Mulan, "they didn't make it."
"A grave loss…" Lord Chin bowed his head, but it was clear to Kim he didn't really care about the princesses outside of the treaty. Kim wanted to descend from her spot and drop-kick that misogynistic nobleman, but Ron held her back.
Some advisors shook their heads, discouraging Lord Chin from caving.
"A marriage was promised!" bellowed Lord Chin.
"And a marriage there shall be!" Mulan practically yelled back.
This put the court into a confused silence. Mulan bowed low and spoke more humbly, "I would be honored - to marry a prince of a fine kingdom such as Qui Gong." She hadn't bowed out of respect, but to hide her face, which had contorted into a frown. This was no honor for her. This was a last-ditch option that she would never have taken earlier… but too late now.
Lord Chin considered for a bit, then one of the advisors slid up. "Fa Mulan is the Hero of China! She'd be a jewel in your crown!"
Mulan felt tears forming in her eyes. She was worth more than a crown jewel... at least to the one who had truly loved her...
"You will make a fine bride for my eldest son, Prince Jeeki!"
A gong rang, and two guards stepped aside from a round doorway. Out walked a short, scrawny, slumped-over man, his hair in a thin queue tied with a bow and his eyes focused on a finger cuffs toy. No, this prince was not a man, he was barely an adolescent.
"This is her?!" exclaimed Prince Jeeki, pointing to Mulan with his bony hand still stuck in the finger cuffs. "She's so old!" The immature prince cringed and shuddered in disgust, and Mulan had to bow her head again to hide her own cringe.
Six handmaidens ushered Mulan away from her future husband - ugh, she could taste the bitter stinging acid rising up in her throat at that word - and took her to a wash room.
"How did you get all this dirt on you?" commented one handmaiden as she reached for Mulan's riding outfit.
"I can undress myself, thank you." Mulan snapped. The handmaidens made scolding noises in the back of their throats and practically tore Mulan's clothes off. Mulan found herself unceremoniously dumped in a tub. It was colder than new snowmelt and infused with spice-scented oils. Mulan much preferred her baths hot and floral-scented, maybe with some nice bubbles instead of oils... but her preferences apparently didn't matter anymore...
"Oh no," muttered Mulan as another approached with a bottle of shampoo. She prayed that this one would at least make an attempt to be gentle - nope. Nope. Mulan winced and whimpered as the handmaiden practically raked her scalp as if it were a field. "Hush, will you?" demanded the handmaiden. "And hold still."
"Her hair is disgracefully short…" lamented another handmaiden as she yanked Mulan's callused left foot out of the frigid water and started to exfoliate with a rough stone. "How am I supposed to do anything with it?"
"Ow! Ow!" Mulan was not enjoying this at all. "You're hurting me!" There, she had said it. Maybe they'd listen...
"You'll be finished with the bath in a few minutes," groaned the handmaiden who had since moved to Mulan's right foot, "then I need to find something to do with that hair of yours."
"I'll have to powder her face too. A lot of powder. She's much too dark!"
"Good thing we infused the bath with oils, her skin is so rough!"
"Hopefully she can put some weight on, she's too skinny!"
Mulan frowned about the comments on her hair. And her skin. And her weight. Tears came to her eyes again. None of this had mattered to Shang…
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TO BE CONTINUED...
