Dragon Bones (Red Princess 3)

“It’s humbling,” he corrected.

He rested his back against the rock and spoke out into the gorge. “‘In deep, fog-filled gorges, dragons and tigers sleep.’”

She supposed that he was quoting Du Fu, but she wasn’t sure, and she was surprised that Quon, a Chinese American, could recite those words as though he’d known them his entire life.

“Can you imagine what this must have been like in the old days?” he asked. “Men stripped down to loincloths with ropes slung over their shoulders and their bodies bent down so far with the effort of pulling boats upriver through the rapids that their noses nearly touched this stone floor. Imagine it, Inspector, the immense human effort.” He turned to her and smiled again. “For millennia the people followed Yu the Great’s approach to the river. He adhered to nature’s laws and had great respect for the inherent aspects of water. Then Mao came along and dynamited. Both understood that controlling floods was central to their success. But the results weren’t always for the best, were they?”

“Well….”

His laugh floated out into the gorge, and he ran a hand through his straight black hair, ruffling it up from his scalp.

“How do you look at the world, Inspector? I bet you like facts—like how the river has its source in the Tibetan Plateau and how it crashes down through the Himalayas. Or how the river should drain into the Gulf of Tonkin but abruptly changes its course in Yunnan so that it washes through the width of China and empties into the South China Sea. Those are facts, but the legends are so much more romantic.”

“I’m not from this area, so I don’t know them,” she admitted.

“Every child knows the story of Yu the Great—”

“I don’t. Tell me.”

“At dinner,” he said, turning so that their arms touched.

“I have to work.”

“You still have to eat,” he countered.

“It wouldn’t be proper.”

“We won’t be alone. We’ll be in a room with scholars and waitresses. We all know who you are and that you’re a married woman.”

“I meant it wouldn’t be proper for me to have dinner with you while I’m conducting an investigation.”

He turned away from her, laughing again. “And I thought you thought I was making a pass.”

Why did Americans always have to say everything that crossed their minds?

“You’re not afraid, are you?” he asked.

“Of course not.”

“Then have dinner with me. I can hardly be one of your suspects, so your integrity will be safe with me.”

She knew he was daring her, and the only thing she could think of was to call his bluff. “All right. I’ll have dinner with you.”

She knew a lot about human nature, but she couldn’t read his look except that it wasn’t the nervousness she’d hoped for.

“You said you wanted to be gone for only an hour,” he reminded her.

She suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to hold her ground. “If you’d told me the story of Da Yu when I first asked, it would already be over.”

Quon gave in at last. He turned back to look out into the gorge and lifted a hand to take in the sweep of the river. “There was a time of great flooding. Yu used dragons to sculpt China’s hills and valleys and chase away the waters. He worked so hard that the hair fell from his shins.”

“That’s it?”

“The short form.”

“There are no such thing as dragons.”

“Then what about dragon bones?”