‘Jiang,’ said Robin, forcing herself to laugh, though sweat had broken out on her neck and chest, ‘you really made me jump.’
‘What’re you doing?’ he asked suspiciously.
‘Looking for Mazu’s pendant,’ said Robin. At least she’d been found bending over, staring at the ground.
‘Why would it be in here?’ said Jiang. His right eye had begun to flicker. He rubbed it to disguise the tic.
‘I just had a funny feeling it might be,’ said Robin, her voice high and unnatural in her own ears, ‘so I thought I’d check.’
‘You playing at being Daiyu?’ said Jiang with a sneer, and Robin remembered that one of the Drowned Prophet’s supposed gifts was that she could find lost objects, no matter how far away they were.
‘No,’ said Robin. ‘No, I don’t know why, but I just felt this pull to the woods. I thought maybe one of the children could have picked up the fish and brought it in here, then dropped it.’
The story sounded extremely thin, even to Robin.
‘This place is odd, isn’t it?’ she added, gesturing at the stumps of posts in their circle. ‘What d’you think this ring was for? It looks like a miniature Stonehenge.’
‘Like what?’ said Jiang irritably.
‘It’s a prehistoric monument,’ said Robin. ‘In Wiltshire.’
‘I know what you’re up to,’ said Jiang, advancing on her.
‘What?’ said Robin.
‘You were gonna meet Emily here.’
‘Wh—no, I wasn’t. Why would—?’
‘Friends, aren’t you?’
‘I barely know her.’
‘When we were up on the vegetable patch, you came interfering—’
‘I know. I thought you were going to hit her, with the hoe.’
Jiang advanced a few steps, dragging his feet through the overgrown weeds. The dense canopy overhead made dappled shadows move across his face. His eye was winking frantically. He raised his hand to hide it again.
‘Emily sneaks off, to fuck,’ he said.
It was the first time Robin had heard sex described as anything other than spirit bonding in the church.
‘I… don’t know anything about that.’
‘Were you a lesbian, outside?’
‘No,’ said Robin.
‘So how come you knew where Emily was, in Norwich?’
‘I didn’t,’ said Robin. ‘I just checked all the bathrooms I could find, and she was in one of them.’
‘Were you doing it with her, in that bathroom?’
‘No,’ said Robin.
‘Why’s she looking at you so much since Norwich, then?’
‘I haven’t noticed her looking at me,’ lied Robin.
She couldn’t tell whether Jiang’s grubby accusation was made to shock and offend, or because he really believed it: he’d never given her the impression of much intelligence, although he’d certainly just proved himself to be surprisingly observant. As though he’d read her thoughts, Jiang said,
‘I see more than the rest of ’em with my eyes shut.’
‘Can I ask you something?’ Robin said. She needed to placate him: he was potentially violent, and her interference on the vegetable patch, and her association with Emily, whose disappearance had caused him to be harangued by his brother on the way back from Norwich, had clearly left him with considerable animus towards her.
‘What?’
‘You’re obviously very high up in the church.’
She knew this wasn’t true; Jiang had no real position of authority, though he displayed a definite liking for exerting power within the limited scope he was given. He now lowered the hand concealing his flickering eye and said,
‘Yeah.’
‘Well,’ said Robin, ‘how come you seem to work harder than anyone else in…’ She deliberately let the words ‘your family’ hang in the air before finishing, ‘you know – in your position?’
‘I ain’t got no false self,’ said Jiang. ‘Don’t need any of that other crap.’
As she’d hoped, he seemed subtly flattered by her question, and she sensed a slight diminution of aggression.
‘I just noticed you kind of… live what we’re all supposed to do. You don’t just preach it.’
She was momentarily afraid she’d overdone it, but Jiang squared his shoulders, with the beginnings of a smirk on his grubby face.
‘That why you won’t fuck Taio? ’Cause he don’t live it?’
‘I didn’t mean Taio doesn’t—’
‘’Cause you’re right,’ said Jiang, aggressive again. ‘He’s full of fucking EM, him and that Becca. Both of ’em. I work harder than anyone.’
‘I know,’ said Robin. ‘I’ve seen it. You never stop. You’re out in all weathers, helping run the farm, and it’s not like you don’t know doctrine. What you told me about the kids, and materialist possession – you know, that day Will was fussing over that little blonde girl? – that really stuck with me. It actually opened my eyes to how weird and abusive the materialist parent-child thing is.’
‘That’s good,’ said Jiang. He gave the bottoms of his tracksuit an unnecessary tug upwards. His tic had subsided and he was almost smiling. ‘That’s good you remembered that.’
‘You’ve got a way of putting things really clearly. Don’t get me wrong,’ Robin added, careful to sound nervous, ‘Taio and Becca are good at it, too, but they…’
‘Taio wanted to fuck her,’ said Jiang, smirking, reverting to what seemed to be his favourite subject. ‘Did you know that?’
‘No,’ said Robin.
‘But then Papa J went with her, so Taio wasn’t allowed any more.’
‘Oh,’ said Robin, eyebrows raised, and she lied, ‘I thought I kind of sensed something between Becca and Taio…’
‘Got your eyes open too, then, haven’t you?’
Perhaps because he was so rarely praised or appreciated, Jiang now seemed almost friendly.
‘Know what I was always good at, better’n Taio when we were kids?’ he asked Robin.
‘No,’ said Robin, ‘what?’
‘There’s a game, with cards, and you’ve got to make pairs, and remember where the pictures are,’ said Jiang, with a pathetic pride. ‘I remember stuff,’ he said, tapping his temple with a filthy fingernail. ‘And I see stuff. More’n they do.’
‘I can tell,’ said Robin, her sole objective now to get out of the woods while Jiang was in this friendlier state of mind. ‘So… d’you think I should keep looking for the fish in here, or d’you think it’s pointless?’
Jiang looked pleased to be asked for his opinion.
‘Nobody’s gonna find it here,’ he said, surveying the many fallen leaves and branches, twisted roots and patches of nettles.
‘No, you’re right,’ said Robin. ‘This is my first time in the woods. I didn’t realise they were so overgrown.’
She took a step towards Jiang and to her immense relief, he simply turned to walk with her, back the way he’d come.
‘There’s a tree over there,’ said Jiang, pointing to an aged ash, visible through the younger growth, ‘with a hollow in it and there’s an axe hidden in it.’
‘Wow,’ said Robin, taking careful note of the tree’s position.
‘I found it in here, when I was a kid. Nobody else knows,’ said Jiang complacently.
‘Wonder what an axe is doing in a tree?’
‘Ha,’ said Jiang, smirking again, ‘’cause Daiyu hid it in there. But don’t go telling anyone that.’
‘Seriously?’ said Robin. ‘The Drowned Prophet hid it?’
‘Yeah,’ said Jiang.
‘How d’you know?’
‘I just do,’ said Jiang, with precisely the kind of smugness Shawna always displayed when given the chance. ‘I know stuff. I told you. I keep my eyes open.’
They emerged from the woods and began to cross the field, Robin careful to pause every now and then and poke at bits of grass, pretending she was still searching for Mazu’s mother-of-pearl fish, but also trying to think of a way of leading the conversation back to Daiyu without raising Jiang’s suspicions. The rain had gone off; the grass sparkled, buttercups and clover shining enamel bright in the watery sunshine.
‘Wanna know something else?’ Jiang said, halfway back to the five-bar gate.
‘Yes,’ said Robin, with complete sincerity.
‘There’s somebody here, right now, who was here a long time ago. They’ve come back again – and I’m the only one who realises.’
He cast a sly sidelong look at Robin out of his dark, narrow eyes.
‘Really?’ said Robin. ‘Who is it?’
‘Ha. I’m not telling,’ said Jiang. ‘I’m just keeping an eye on them.’
‘Can’t you even tell me, male or female?’ said Robin.
‘Nosy, aren’t you?’ said Jiang, his grin widening. ‘Nah, that’s for me to know. Funny how Taio and Becca are so clever and they haven’t realised. I’m gonna go to Papa J, when I’ve finished my investigations,’ he added importantly.
They climbed over the five-bar gate, Robin now burning with curiosity.
The curtains of the nearest Retreat Room were closed, meaning it was in use. Robin anticipated a ribald comment from Jiang, but his good humour seemed to fade somewhat as they passed the cabin.
‘Know why I’m not allowed in them?’ he asked her, pointing a dirty thumb behind him.
‘No,’ said Robin. It was welcome news that Jiang wasn’t permitted to spirit bond; she’d been worried her flattery of him might be taken as a sexual overture.
‘Nobody’s told you?’ said Jiang, suspicious again. ‘Not Taio?’
‘No,’ said Robin. ‘Nobody’s said anything.’
‘It’s ’cause of Jacob,’ said Jiang sourly. ‘But that wasn’t my fault, it was Louise’s, Dr Zhou says so. It won’t happen again.’
‘How is Jacob?’ Robin asked, hoping once and for all to resolve this mystery.
‘I dunno, I never see him,’ said Jiang. ‘It wasn’t my bloody fault.’
The courtyard was still full of people, all of them combing the ground for some sign of Mazu’s fallen fish, and to Robin’s relief, her reappearance with Jiang occasioned neither look nor comment.
‘Need the loo,’ Robin told Jiang, smiling at him to prove she wasn’t trying to get away from him, which she had no intention of doing, because he was proving an unexpected source of interesting possible leads. ‘Then we can look more.’
‘Yeah, all right,’ said Jiang, pleased.