It’s poetry day, with another Chinese fantasy piece by Mary Soon Lee!
As well as previously sharing a poem in the INSTINCTS series, Mary is also a contributor in Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry, and the newly released Insignia 2020: Best Asian Speculative Fiction.
Please enjoy 🙂
BEDTIME
Lie still and listen well.
“Yes, Mama, I know,” said Prince Keng.
Before the dragons flew to King Nariz,
before the time of demons,
Batar was the greatest horse lord
who ever rode the eastern plains,
yet he thirsted for more power.
So Batar fell upon the towns.
The lines of his horse archers
stretched a mile wide, six men deep,
and the towns bowed down to Batar
and gave him grain and gold and women,
but that did not content Batar,
so he rode north to Jian-Jian.
“That’s where Papa’s gone.
Because it had an earthquake.”
Shazia nodded. Unbidden,
she thought of Xau waking Keng
before dawn to say goodbye.
Jian-Jian, city of a thousand bells,
and each of the thousand bells rang
as Batar rode up, as the city rulers
prepared to surrender their treasure.
But a sewing-girl, ten years old,
ran up onto the ramparts
and shouted, “Leave us alone!”
Batar laughed and his men laughed.
He fitted an arrow to his bowstring
to silence the sewing-girl,
but his horse turned under him
and galloped away from Jian-Jian.
And all the horses in Batar’s army
turned likewise and galloped away.
(Xau hadn’t woken their baby daughter,
but he had lifted the blanket
and kissed her toes.)
Next morning Batar returned
with the full might of his army.
Before the city rulers could surrender,
the sewing-girl ran onto the ramparts
and shouted at Batar, “Leave us alone!”
And Batar’s horse lay down under him
so suddenly that Batar fell off,
and all the horses of his army
lay down likewise.
“Like Papa in the battle
when the enemy horses stopped.”
Shazia nodded.
Batar was the greatest horse lord
who ever rode the eastern plains,
great enough to recognize an equal.
He stood up, bowed to the girl,
led his army away,
and never again troubled Jian-Jian.
Keng yawned. “When will Papa be back?”
“I don’t know. Close your eyes.”
Shazia didn’t finish the story,
didn’t tell Keng how the rulers
of Jian-Jian waited a month
in case Batar should return,
then drove the girl from the city.
She kissed Keng on the forehead,
tucked the blanket about him,
and tried not to think of Xau.
-End-
‘Bedtime’ first appeared in ‘Crowned: The Sign of the Dragon, Book 1’, Dark Renaissance Books, 2015. Currently available in ‘The Sign of the Dragon’, JABberwocky Literary Agency, April 2020. (Several of Mary’s poems in Insignia 2020 are also in this edition).
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Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for over twenty years. Her two latest books are from opposite ends of the poetry spectrum: “Elemental Haiku,” containing haiku for each element of the periodic table, was published by Ten Speed Press in 2019, and “The Sign of the Dragon,” an epic fantasy with Chinese and Mongolian elements, has just been published as an ebook.
Mary’s blog: http://www.marysoonlee.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarySoonLee
Links to Mary’s books:
“Elemental Haiku”: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605873/elemental-haiku-by-mary-soon-lee/9781984856630/
“The Sign of the Dragon”: http://awfulagent.com/ebooks/mary-soon-lee#POE
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Insignia 2020: Best Asian Speculative Fiction is now available at Amazon.com. FREE for Kindle Unlimited members!
Amazon US – Amazon UK – Amazon AUS – Amazon JP
Amazon CA – Amazon IN – Amazon DE
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Interested in submitting to INSTINCTS? Check out our Poetry Submission Page for details.
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INSIGNIA STORIES 