The Last Honor

3. In the shadow of the mountains

North China, near the border with the Hun Empire, Mendong City, Xiang's hometown

She looked around shyly. The great vestibule was just as she remembered it. The walls were all painted blue, decorated with golden flower-like patterns. And the columns were also adorned with beautifully patterned dragon-like figures. Had she not known where she was, she might have felt comfortable in this environment. But no matter where she looked, every corner held bad memories. Even when she first entered this place, raised all of her feathers. For her, it had been a prison in a gold cage from day one. And that was it always for her, Mendong City, her ex-husband's city.
The palace stood on a mountain, or more precisely halfway up the mountain. Even before it was built, the area on the mountain slope was ideal for building a large house there. The city itself lay at the foot of the mountain where the main river stretched not far away, with which ships could deliver goods. And for everyone who got there, the palace was an eye-catcher. Maybe because it couldn't escape from everybody's notice. The building was a single complex. The walls were mostly white, while the roofs were dark blue. The towers, barely a few stories high, were built close together so that it would have been easy for a peacock to sail from one tower to another. The lower floors formed step-by-step roofs that resembled a staircase and looked mighty like halls stacked on top of each other, with one room being larger and the other smaller. It was just a stark contrast to the single palace tower in Gongmen City. To this day, Yin-Yu could not explain why a palace needed so many rooms. There might even have been room for all the city's residents, although it would have been no pleasure to have to run up and down the long stairs all the time. It was nowhere near as long as the one to the Jade Palace, but you still had better things to do with your time than to use it to climb stairs.
Yin-Yu's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a figure came up to her from one of the hallways.
"Welcome!" a slender old bull in a black coat greeted her. "I'm delighted to be able to welcome the former co-regent here."
The peahen bowed. "Thank you very much. And your name was...?"
"Huan. I'm the manager of this facility. What exactly do I get the honor of your visit?"
"Actually, I just wanted to pick up a few things," she explained. "As long as my husband is in Gongmen City with the children."
"What kind of things?" the bull asked.
"Some of Xia and Sheng's toys that I once kept. Maybe the little children want to play with them."
"Aren't they four years old already?"
She smiled. "Even four-year-olds like toys. Maybe I could have fetched them earlier, but I just didn't dare come here all these years. There are too many dark memories in these walls."
"I'm not surprised at all."
Lady Yin-Yu turned around in surprise when a second deep voice spoke to her from behind. The familiar figure of King Wang emerged from one of the corridors.
"King Wang?" The peahen bowed to the king of the Huns. "I didn't expect you here."
"I was just in the area," the big ox covered in sheep's wool said, even though it was summer long ago. "How is the Dragon Warrior?"
"After everything that I read in his last letter, he seemed to be fine."
"That's nice to hear. It's a shame that he didn't come with you."
"I could send your greetings to him from you, if you want."
She let her gaze wander. The last time she was here, some things had been destroyed because of the war.
"I see a lot has been renovated," she said after a while.
King Wang nodded proudly. "Yes, even the garden is in full bloom again, even though it was set on fire a long time ago."
"Oh yes, I can still see it in my mind's eyes," Yin-Yu said wistfully. She had not forgotten the attack by the Huns on the city yet. Especially because Xiang had deliberately provoked the attack to get to the Hun Castle, where he allied himself with accomplices to overthrow the Hun King. It was fortunate that Xia soon after began to search for Shen and, with the help of the Dragon Warrior, was able to thwart Xiang's plan.
At that moment, manager Huan also volunteered to discuss the renovation.
"Yes, we repaired everything. We only had a little difficulty in two rooms at first."
"Which rooms?" King Wang asked.
"The ones on the east side."
Yin-Yu froze briefly in her posture. "Oh yes, I remember. Xiang had completely locked these two rooms. As far as I know, he never went in there either."
Wang scratched his furry head thoughtfully. "Is there anything special?"
Huan shrugged. "Nope. I was in there for a moment. It wasn't easy, we had to break in to get in there. But there was nothing noticeable inside. Two bedrooms only. One with a double bed. The other with only one bed. Otherwise, the usual furnishings: table, chairs, wardrobes. But nothing from that I would say it would be conspicuous."
"And what have you done after that?"
"We closed them again. Who knows. Maybe it's contaminated."
The king and lady looked at him in consternation. The manager twitched his axes indifferently. "What? Everything can be possible. When someone locks a room so extremely. Even the windows were boarded up. Then the person will already have had a good reason, or not?"

They talked for a while until Yin-Yu said goodbye without further ado and strolled aimlessly through the palace. She had become thoughtful. She couldn't get the conversation about the locked rooms out of her head so quickly. She had once asked Xiang what was hidden behind the doors. The only thing she had gotten for it was a hard slap in the face and a resounding reprimand. "As long as you live, never ask me that again!" He had yelled at her. After that, she had never dared speak to him about it again.
Lost in thought, she stroked the marble banister that led down to the garden.
The morning sun shone gently on the mountains and yet the thought of her ex-husband cast a deep shadow on her mind.
She sighed deeply and asked herself, how he was now.