Kindred

Chapter Eight

Mulan

…..

Mulan's favourite thing about staying in the castle was that there was no official time to get up in the morning.

There was an unspoken assumption that everyone should be present and accounted for before ten o clock, but only the natural early risers stuck to that rule (Tiana, Pocahontas, Belle, Aurora and Rapunzel). The others fitted loosely into 'sometimes rise early but never on weekends' (Elsa, Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White) and 'would sleep through the castle burning down if allowed' (Merida, Jasmine and Anna, as well as Mulan herself.) Breakfast was always left on the stove, even if it was eaten closer to noon, and there was no judgment if anyone missed it entirely.

Castle life lacked any kind of urgency, and that in itself was a novelty. Chores were done at whatever pace the princess doing them felt like, and if things didn't get done it wasn't the end of the world. Even so, they could hardly be called idle. Belle had her books, Anna and Rapunzel their hijinks, Tiana her many bubbling pots and Merida and Pocahontas the call of the wilderness.

True, Jasmine often looked idle, but she was only behaving in the manner she was accustomed to.

"Tiana is looking a bit flushed," she said one morning while pouring tea for herself and Mulan. "She'll be coming down with something in...oh, I'd say, a week. Maybe three days."

Indeed, she was right. She always spotted these things before they happened, because her hobby was watching the other girls. It never ceased to amaze Mulan what she could tell from just looking at someone.

"You'd be so useful back home," she groaned. "I can't even begin to guess what the concubines are thinking most of the time."

"Well, your imperial harem is rather different from ours, isn't it?" Jasmine retorted with an elegant shrug.

…..

"I don't understand," Mulan had said, when the emperor finished his proposal. "With greatest respect, I am not a member of the royal household..."

"The royal household is of my choosing," the emperor told her, quietly but firmly. "I can claim you as an adopted daughter if I so choose."

It terrified her to even think of it. She had barely managed to hold onto her dignity after the matchmaker incident, and that was only one afternoon. Six months, surrounded by the highest nobility of several different nations? She would rather fight a hundred more Huns in the snow. Single-handed.

I will say the wrong thing and start a war. He can't send me.

She looked to Li for backup, but his gaze was firmly directed at the floor. He would not speak against the emperor. Nobody would.

"Forgive me, great father," she began, lowering herself to the floor once again. "The missive states that they want a royal maiden who represents the grace and grandeur of her country. I am not suited to such a honour, my speech is inelegant and I have no grace to speak of. Perhaps Consort Pearl or Consort Dove would be better suited..."

She was cut off by some oddly bitter laughter from the emperor. All around them, the eunuches of the court muttered and whispered.

"Tell me truthfully, Fa Mulan," he said. "If you wanted to build bridges with the women of another nation, would you send Consort Pearl or Consort Dove?"

She thought about it for a moment, but a moment was all that was needed. There could only be one answer.

"No," she whispered.

…..

When she eventually got up and made her way down to the kitchen, it was suffused with a most pungent smell coming from a large pot Aurora was diligently stirring on the stove.

"What's that?" Mulan asked, rescuing her rice porridge from the back burner of the stove.

"It's a tisane," Aurora told her, wiping sweat from her brow. "Tiana's cough has gotten worse overnight."

"How are you going to get her to drink that?" Mulan asked.

"Oh, it smells dreadful now, but I'm waiting on some pennycress and blackberries," Aurora explained. "It won't be nearly as bad once it's finished."

Cinderella bustled in a moment later with a basket full of linen. A scarf was tied around her mouth and as she pulled it down, her delicate nose wrinkled with distaste.

"Shouldn't Snow be back by now?" she asked, dumping the basket by the door.

"Probably," Aurora shrugged. "I sent Merida after her."

"Oh good."

"How's our patient?" Aurora asked.

"Crabby," Ella gently laughed. "I think if we could move her bed to the kitchen so she could keep cooking she'd be much happier."

Mulan laughed along with Aurora, but she still felt a little internal squirm. Some people were territorial over their cooking pots for good reason...

"The break will do her good," Aurora said. "All this steam probably gave her the cough in the first place."

"Belle is up there reading to her," Ella told her.

"Then I'd better finish this soon," Aurora sighed. "I daresay Belle has forgotten she's there...what is she reading?"

"Les Liaisons Dangeureuses."

"Scandalous!"

The back door swung open and Merida escorted a red-faced Snow White inside. She stopped long enough to chug back a glass of water, shoved an apple in her mouth and was gone again. Snow called a very bashful apology after her.

"Did you get the blackberries?" Aurora asked, gently taking the basket from her.

"Oh yes," Snow replied, sinking into a chair beside Ella. "Most of the ground level ones were gone already, so I had to climb awfully high to get the best...and..."

"You got stuck?"

Sheepishly, she nodded. The girls in the kitchen had the good grace not to laugh openly at her, beyond a fond giggle.

…..

Consort Dove was possibly the most beautiful of the emperor's concubines, and at all times exquisitely dressed in many layers of diaphanous silk. Her hair was always intricately knotted and braided, festooned with shining hairpins studded with jade and amber. She was a splendid figure, lovely as a rare butterfly.

And yet, when introduced to Mulan for the first time, it was not awe of her beauty that Mulan felt, but a creeping unease.

Perhaps it was because that gracious smile was just a little too wide to be genuine, and her beautifully spoken words of praise did not ring true. There was laughter in her eyes, she shot sideways looks to her ladies as she spoke, and they hid their giggles behind their painted fans. All of this was designed to intimidate a fellow concubine, but Mulan was no concubine.

They were forced to spend time together by the obligations they shared towards the emperor, but Mulan treated Consort Dove as she would a poisonous snake. She kept her distance, as much as she could, and observed her for signs that she would strike out.

And indeed, Consort Dove did strike out, many times, at other concubines. She paid eunuchs to spread rumours about them that often reached the emperor's ears, and she had spies in many of the palaces that warned her of what the newer concubines were wearing, or eating, or who they were seeing. It was noted that a particularly beautiful new girl had suffered a terrible rash on her face not long after being gifted some scented lotion by Consort Dove, but she was never even questioned about it.

All because she had the emperor's one and only living child. A girl child, Liu, but a living child nonetheless. The emperor's adult son had died three years before Mulan's birth, taking too much opium and hitting his head in the bath, and his other three sons had died in infancy. The emperor would never hear a bad word spoken against her, as long as her child was living.

They had high hopes when the emperor's other favourite, Consort Pearl, became pregnant. Notably, Consort Pearl went into isolation in her palace when the happy news was announced, would not entertain visitors nor accept gifts.

With her most gracious and beautiful smile, Consort Dove gave her best wishes.

…..

Pocahontas sauntered into the kitchen shortly before lunch, carrying a bundle of greens wrapped in cloth. She handed it to Aurora and stretched languidly in front of the fire.

"Will that be enough?" she asked.

"That's plenty, thank you," Aurora replied, washing and tearing them to add to the tisane. "Were they hard to find?"

"Not too hard," Pocahontas assured her. "It's still quite warm in the east, the cliff-side had plenty."

Once again, Snow White blushed and stared down into her tea. Steam billowed from the tisane pot but it no longer smelled so rank, instead filling the kitchen with a sweet floral aroma.

"Is it almost finished?" Ella asked. "I want to get started on lunch."

"Not long now," Aurora assured her. "Just a few more minutes to steep."

Mulan volunteered to bring the tisane to her, because she'd woken up late and was still full from breakfast. She met Elsa on the way up the stairs, who handed her a cold compress freshly refilled with ice.

"Don't take anything she says too personally," Elsa muttered. "She's really grouchy...and see if you can kick Belle out. She's been there for hours."

"Will do," Mulan agreed.

When she cracked open the door, Belle seemed oblivious to the murderous look on Tiana's face, so absorbed in the story she was reading that as always she forgot where she was and what she was supposed to be doing.

"When one woman strikes at the heart of another, she seldom misses, and the wound is invariably fatal," she quoted, missing Mulan clearing her throat.

"Belle!" Mulan called loudly. "They need you in the kitchen."

"Oh," she replied with a slow blink. "Oh well, I can come back after..."

"Don't worry about it," Tiana groaned with a harsh croak from her sickbed.

Belle shrugged, and left the room with her book.

"Thank you," Tiana hissed and sniffed. "I was this close to throwing something at her..."

"That's okay," Mulan said. "Aurora made this for you. How are you feeling?"

"Annoyed," she replied. "I hate being stuck in bed."

Mulan poured a cup of the tisane and handed it to Tiana. She tried hard to stamp down on that uneasy feeling she got, watching Tiana drink it down.

…..

It was Consort Pearl's mistake to have taken visitors in her palace so soon, but being near the end of her pregnancy with no complications had made her foolhardy. There was also that little spiteful urge to rub her good fortune in her rival's face; the physician was sure that the child would be a boy, and Consort Dove still had only a girl to her name.

Mulan was not there to see, but she could piece together what had happened from what she heard. Consort Dove had brought gifts, as had many of the other concubines. Someone had brought a special blend of tea supposed to help with labour pains, and as Consort Dove was the only concubine present who had brought a pregnancy to term one had to imagine this gift came from her.

Mulan could picture the beautiful, gracious smile Consort Dove gave, watching Consort Pearl drink the tea. She could picture the shocked expression she feigned when news was brought of Consort Pearl's sudden illness, and the death of her child so soon before it could be born. She could even guess what the condolence letter would read, eloquent and insincere.

Within a week, Princess Liu received new silks to make a gown from and shortly after contracted smallpox. When she died, the last of the Emperor's blood died with her.

…..

"Urgh," Tiana muttered, sticking out her tongue. "Strange aftertaste."

"Aurora used a full basket of blackberries to cover it up," Mulan told her.

"We were out of blackberries last time I checked."

"She sent Snow out to collect more."

"Bet that went well."

They allowed themselves a slightly mean chuckle, since Snow wasn't around to have her feelings hurt by it.

"So what's in this besides blackberries?" Tiana asked. "I think I tasted cinnamon..."

"I have no idea," Mulan shrugged. "Pennycress, molasses, some other things. I didn't see her make all of it."

"Oh well," Tiana shrugged, pouring herself another cup. "It's not poison. Probably."

Mulan laughed at the joke, though truthfully she didn't find it funny at all.