Huang's Prank

An encounter between a local young patriarch and one of his many rivals, a foreign businessman who was wed to his one true love.

Letting his long black cloak billow in the stale air of the passageway, Selab walked quickly beside the Lin Servant who was leading him to the master of the house. As the large ornate doors to the Great Room were both opened the servant announced his arrival.

“Master Selab the Foreigner, husband of Shamsi Yi!”

The dimly lit room that stretched out before Selab housed a very odd feature. Instead of rising on a pedestal or being seated at the head of a long table Master Lin Huang was found in an alcove positioned below floor level. The stairs leading to him ran downward and the mosaics on the walls appeared to depict an ocean scene.

Not letting the unusual setting deter him, Selab stepped forward quickly, his heavy traveling boots thudding over the wooden floor. He descended the stairs in a flourish, ending up on a small platform before the alcove.

Ahead of him Lin Huang sat unmoving in the darkness. A thin silk veil was drawn across the mouth of the recess and the man appeared to be facing away from his guest.

Seeing that he could not pierce the veil, Selab did not extend his hand in greeting, but introduced himself. “I am Selab. We have not had business before, but now we do.”

A young girl descended into the depression with the two men and pressed her face to the floor before sitting up. “You may speak your mother tongue.” The woman said quietly in Persian.

Unimpressed and frustrated by his target’s rude greeting, or lack thereof, Selab began speaking quickly in the particular Pashtun dialect of his home, wedged between two sister mountains far outside the influence, or even knowledge of the Empire. “Your self-importance is overbearing. I hate the décor and your servants are nothing but mindless slaves that you have bought to make you feel better when you sleep alone.”

The girl panicked for a moment and Selab relented, realizing that he was probably only hurting her, a mere pawn of Huang’s. He switched to Persian and enunciated carefully. “Tell this boy that one of his spies has been discovered in my place of business.”

The girl whispered a barely audible translation into the sheer veil. Not even a single dangling bead on the man’s headdress moved in reaction.

“Though industrial espionage is expected in my business I know that you are not interested in how many benches the Magistrate has bought in Liang. You have a grudge or you are simply meddling, but it is foolishness in either case.” Selab stood in rigid defiance of the local etiquette of humility.

Again the translation was passed along and the dark figure did not move.

“I will not tolerate this sort of thing. This time you are being sued. I will bring you before your own Chinese courts even though I know I will lose. But next time you will not be so lucky, I will have to take things into my own hands.” Selab stood to leave, but just as he did a row of lanterns puffed to life above his head, causing him to duck from the flames. Craning his neck far upward he saw through the wavering air and smoke that there was a second alcove directly above the first, and in it there was a man sitting in the most gigantic and ostentatious robe Selab had ever seen.

The man spoke in a clear an high-pitched voice, announcing each word carefully. “What will you do, oh Selab the Foreigner?”

Selab backed up the stairs, infuriated by the great lengths Master Lin had gone to humiliate his guests. “Kill your slave.” He responded in Chinese. “Then let lose a wild dragon on your house. You know her name.”

“Yi has been conquered by me before.” Huang’s lips rose in a wry smile.

His face growing hot with rage, Selab shrugged off his overcoat revealing a brilliant blue salwar kameez with a thick belt holding up his curved sword. He fingered the brass eagle’s head on its hilt and jabbed a finger up at Huang. “I know more who wish you dead than you have bodyguards.” In his anger Selab had switched back to Persian, “For every impure thought you have ever had of my wife I will place an ember on your eye until even your vast head is reduced to a pile of ash.”

Without waiting for translation or response he spit on the stairs ahead of him and then turned and stormed out of the room. As servants cowered in his presence he could faintly hear laughter dancing through the hall after him.

Author's Note

Thank you for reviewing this piece!

Reviews

[Craig2591]

Cool! I liked it. You described their personalities well. I really got a sense of what sort of person each was with just this chapter. I am sure there is more character development to come, but this was a good start.

The only error I found was "The man spoke in a clear an high-pitched voice"... 'an' should be 'and'. A minor thing for sure.

[Taylorgwebb]

Thanks for your comments! This is actually a sort of sideline off of the main story, both of the characters here are supporting roles. I also caught another error just now, Selab 'stands' without ever having sat. I'll log both of those corrections for future edits. Thanks again!

[Esther J. Doucet]

Love the intensity of the exchange. You successfully strike a delicate balance between a focus on the broader physical actions of the characters and their subtler expressions of mood and body language (or lack thereof) taking place in the scene.

[nostal]

This is an honest, critical review.

[Xerclipse]

What an excellent start. It was an uncomfortable setting between the verbal fight between Selab and Master Lin. Trading as a foreigner doesn't seem like a safe job (realistically it was never safe back then) but I would love to see how this goes later on. Keep up the work!