Read Online The Chinese Alchemist by Lyn Hamilton - Free Book Online

painting, studying it from a distance. Then another man, equally well dressed, came in. I couldn’t see his face, but he had spiky hair, and there was something in his stance that made me recognize him as the third bidder in New York, the man in fake Hugo Boss, the person I called Mr. Knockoff. This time the man was wearing ersatz Armani.
    As I watched in dismay, Mr. Knockoff took several swift steps farther into the room, grabbed the silver box, and headed for the door. I yelped, and all of us turned, including the man at the desk who finally stood up. Dr. Xie, who was closest, made an attempt to stop the man by tripping him with his cane, but to no avail. David, who was a lot faster than the rest of us, sprinted toward the doors, with the man in black right behind him. Mr. Knockoff ran down the escalator, David in hot pursuit.
    Near the front door of the building, Mr. Knockoff stumbled slightly, and David, who had been steadily gaining on the thief, reached out to grab him. The man in black shouted something. The doorman rushed over and grabbed, not the thief, but David. The man in black shouted again, the doorman released David, but it was too late. Mr. Knock-off and the silver box had both disappeared.
    Three
    Wu Peng, the eunuch to whom I was sent, held a position of some importance in the Service for Palace Attendants. It was quickly apparent to me that this position was not due to his abilities
—
the man could neither read nor write, nor did he demonstrate any particular affinity for leadership. No, his position was due almost entirely to the fact that he was a distant cousin of the powerful Wu family in the palace, a clan that had produced numerous royal consorts, and most extraordinarily, an empress, Wu Zetian, ruler in her own right rather than just by virtue of marriage to an emperor. Wu Peng may not have been able to read and write, but he had amassed a fortune in a manner he would later explain to me. He had a rather lavish home outside the palace, a wife, in name only obviously, and two adopted sons. I too was adopted by Wu Peng and his wife, and took his surname, becoming known as Wu Yuan. I did not reside with Wu and his family, however. My place was in the Imperial Palace, serving the Son of Heaven.
    Once the pain and trauma of the procedure that determined my life’s course as a eunuch had abated, I was brought to the Imperial Palace. That I, the son of a low-level mandarin, although certainly a mandarin with aspirations, should find himself in such a place never failed to amaze me. The beauty of the palace was simply astonishing. One could wander the passageways and courtyards, gardens and residences forever, it was so large, and every detail was exquisite. There were arches of jade and pearl, carpets of the finest silk, and furnishings of a noble craftsmanship of which I had seen no equal. There were parks of unparalleled beauty, gardens bursting with glorious scent both night and day, forests filled with animals, glorious pavilions, polo fields, archery ranges, many lakes stocked with fish, still other ponds where people of the court could drift in elegant boats, orchards of pears and plums and peaches. It was heady indeed for the boy that I was.
    We eunuchs essentially have the run of the Imperial Palace. Not the inner chambers, to be sure, with a few exceptions, but in the course of our duties we see and hear much of what is going on. And we do like to gossip. As a newcomer I merely listened, but I learned much. At first, I was given many menial tasks, being sent to the markets to choose birdcages or musical instruments for the royal concubines, or to the silk market for special bolts of fabric for these same women. I was allowed to walk among the emperor’s women at will, given there was no opportunity for my seed to mingle with that of the emperor’s chosen ones.
    It was on these errands in the city that I began to look for Number One Sister. I was particularly happy when sent to the Western