Chapter One 一 The Dreamweaver Many moons ago there was a small village in the mountains of southern China During the day the village was like any other scattered across the country But sometimes at night just past bedtime a remarkable thing would happen there It would happen after the firewood cooled beneath kitchen stoves after oil lamps winked out behind windows one by one after conversations in each house dwindled to drowsy whispers and a breath of quiet swept across the sleepy village It was a time when even the rowdiest children gave up their struggle to stay awake In the sky above soft clouds would nestle the bright moon as its white light smeared the glassy waters of the Pearl River nearby where schools of colorful fish slept beneath the smooth surface 1
None of the villagers would be awake by the time a mysterious mysterious figure emerged on one of the drifting clouds But if any of them happened to sit up and glance outside they’d see the hunched figure carried what looked like a fishing fishing rod Yet this was no ordinary fisherman The man would sit cross legged on the edge of the cloud his silhouette illuminated by the bloated moon behind him He’d dangle the rod in the air and then cast a line as easily as if he were fishing from a rowboat on the river For the next few hours he’d quietly reel in his invisible catches and place them carefully into a porcelain jar Then as silently as he had appeared he’d vanish into the shadows None of the villagers ever laid eyes on him or on the mysterious mysterious things that he placed in his jar But I have from my quiet home on the moon above And I’ve seen two children with him on those clouds One boy and one girl 2
Chapter Two 二 The Duel Ming Dynasty 1500s A D Mei pointed her weapon upward like an umbrella With her strong pose and steady concentration the twelve year old could almost pass as a warrior from the Imperial Imperial City that is if the warriors wore tunics used knobby branches as swords and were forced to wait an eternity for their dueling partners to present themselves Hurry up Yun she sighed Wait replied Mei’s twin brother who approached slowly holding a similar wooden branch He fumbled with the stick trying to find the best way to grip it between his fingers There’s a proper way to hold this in combat in order to maximize the length of the blade Well the imaginary 3
