just feed us for nothing. Who will share the herd with you now? Only singing will feed you. The people there are wild, you know it better than me.
In such cases, Lacius would wave his hand and lie down in a corner to rest his tired legs. Zeno would stay with the blind singer, and they used to discuss the words of the imperial concubine until late at night.
One day she asked Lacius what he would like more than anything in the world.
– Go back home, – he answered immediately. – It’s just a pity that the gods don’t want to help me.
– Don’t the gods give you happiness? You’re alive, so you can easily find what you can enjoy, – she was surprised.
– Maybe they give it to him, – Lacius nodded towards Paul. – He lives by his songs. He is always happy when people listen to him. But I have no life here. I can’t sing. There are only pain and torment here. It hurts…
– And you, young man? – she turned to Zeno.
– I don’t know, – he hesitated. – It’s hard for me to judge, I’m still young. When I sing here, I feel good. But when I go back to the room, it’s bad, – he lowered his gaze and blushed again. Lacius sighed with understanding and, grimacing his face, turned away. The teenager clearly liked the beauty, but that didn’t make it any easier for him.
Time passed, and the new Xiongnu Chanyu, named Huhanye, Zhi Zhi’s brother, was soon to arrive. Therefore, Lacius wanted this time to either fly by faster and he could finally understand how to live further, or something would happen that would change his fate again.
– You have never seen the harmony of the stars. Today you can return here in the evening, and I will show you their beauty, – said the concubine one day. Zeno and Paul were beside themselves with happiness. Only Lacius remained dissatisfied.
Soon they were brought some food. Having swallowed his portion and washed it down with water, he smoothly slid under the tree and immediately fell into a deep sleep, not listening to the concubine’s conversations with his comrades. Noticing this, the next day Mingfei invited him to stay in the room where they were kept at night. Lacius was pleased with this offer and sincerely thanked her.
A few days later, literally on the eve of the arrival of the Chanyu’s ambassadors, an incident occurred that Lacius did not tell his friends about, but which made him wary. When the three of them were in the wash room, his knife suddenly disappeared. He was so used to having it always tied under his shirt on his belt that he even forgot about it. Only after getting dressed, he suddenly realised that he did not feel the usual heaviness on his side. He rushed to look for it under the bench and behind barrels of water, but the knife was nowhere to be found. Nobody said anything, the eunuchs didn’t ask any questions – everything was as usual. Only there was no knife.
All day Lacius puzzled over this, but he could not remember whether he had the knife before they came to wash or not. And in the morning, when it was just dawn in the sky and the sleep was so sweet that he didn’t even want to move, Paul unexpectedly woke him up.
– What are you doing? – Lacius asked displeasedly, blinking in bewilderment and trying to understand what happened. A streak of light was not yet visible on the wall, which meant that the sun had not even risen yet.
– Hush, hush, – whispered the blind singer in a pleading voice. His words reminded Lacius of yesterday’s disappearance. The sleep suddenly vanished, and his chest immediately began to ache with an unpleasant feeling.
– Found it? – he asked in a whisper.
– What? – Paul was taken aback. It was clear that this was not what he was going to talk about.
– Did you find the knife?
– The knife? Ah, that’s it! – he raised his eyebrows and shook his head thoughtfully. – Now it’s clear.
– What’s clear?! Speak quickly! What’s happened? – Lacius looked at Zeno, but the young man spread his arms to the sides in confusion.
– We sang in the garden. I fell asleep. Then he woke me up and told me to go back. That’s it.
– Be quiet, – Paul interrupted him and told Lacius what happened. The two of them stayed with concubine Mingfei to listen to the night harmony and poems about the beauty of the night. She read to them for a long time until she got tired. The eunuchs escorted her to the inner rooms. And Paul and Zeno approached the very edge of the stone fence, waiting for the guards. The young man wanted to look at the stars not through tree branches. Usually the warriors and eunuchs returned immediately, so they calmly waited for them at the fence.
However, time passed and no one was there. Zeno sat down on the ground and fell asleep. When the voices were heard, Paul first wanted to wake him up so that he could rush to meet them, but something in their intonation alarmed him. The men were acting too nervous. They were a senior eunuch and two women. Shi Xian showed them where the concubine sits, where the slaves stand, what they sing when they leave, and who takes them away. They talked about Concubine Mingfei and the big slave with a scar on his face. The two women constantly reminded the senior eunuch that the concubine should be given the same scars as Lacius in order to spoil her beauty. He told them that he had a knife that could do this. And there is a person who will do it. In the end, the slave with the scar will be to blame, as he said.
The senior eunuch had his own scores to settle with Mingfei. She never paid him and his servants, so he wanted to punish her. The two women were glad to hear such words. They wanted to know where they could hide to see what would happen. But the senior eunuch Shi Xian said that this was impossible at night. It will be dark and they won’t see anything. But the main thing is that they may be missed by the female half, and then troubles will not be avoided.
Lacius sat, staring blankly at the spot of light that appeared on the wall. His face did not express anything, but his thoughts were already there, in the garden, where at night Mingfei’s face was to be cut with his knife. Everything was clear and understandable. People were the same everywhere. He told Paul about his suspicions and the missing knife. The blind singer immediately understood everything.
– Maybe it’s better to tell her? – Zeno asked with pity in his voice.
– Wait, let me think, – Lacius muttered without looking at him. Paul only sighed, realising that the young man was driven by his love for his beautiful concubine. But now they had to think about their salvation, and not her beauty.
The next day, they were not taken out anywhere. Towards evening, everything got clear – the ambassador of the Chanyu Xiongnu arrived in the capital and announced that Huhanye himself should arrive the next day. For half a day this news was reported throughout the palace until it was brought to Mingfei. This required words of gratitude and appreciation from her, which were to be written down and conveyed to the Emperor. On that day, she was supposed to spend her last evening “in the quiet harmony of souls” with two singers.
– Look, how can you blame me if I’m there? – Lacius asked.
– Only if they kill you, – Paul answered thoughtfully. – Or give you some wine to make you fall asleep, and then put the knife in your hand. – Well, how else? I don’t even know…
– It turns out that I need to stay here so that they don’t hit me on the head or poison me, – Lacius lamented. – But they could kill me here, and then drag my body out into the garden.
– Yes, the gods have confused our paths in an impossible way, – the blind singer remarked philosophically.
– You can tell her to hide, and Paul will sit in her place. His voice sounds like hers. No one will notice. Especially if you sing to the strings, – Zeno suggested.
– Well, you exaggerate! Mine doesn’t! A little like that… I just imitate, – the flattered singer became