"Do you love her?" Jilda asked, nodding toward the closed door of Mah-Li's house.
"I think so. I thought I did. Seeing you here again has me all confused. I thought we'd never meet again. And now this."
"I, too, feel mixed emotions. Seeing you about to wed was like a sword sliding into my belly. I hold you to no promises, Remo, for we made none to each other. Your life is your own. As is mine."
"It's different now. I don't work for America. I'm planning on settling here."
"Then perhaps it is time that we face the hard choices we fled from when last we were together," said Jilda, smiling tentatively.
Impulsively Remo took her in his strong arms and kissed her. Freya broke out in bubbly laughter. "Mommy and Daddy like each other!" she said, clapping her hands with glee.
"Let's go for a walk," Remo suggested. "The three of us."
"What about her?" asked Jilda.
Remo shot a guilty glance at the house of Mah-Li. "One insurmountable problem at a time," he said, reaching out to take Jilda by one hand and Freya with the other. It felt right somehow.
Chapter 26
The Master of Sinanju sat amid the splendor of his treasure. His parchment face was strained. Before him the scrolls of Sinanju stood upright in glazed celadon holders. Chiun went from one to another, searching for guidance.
There was no precedent in all the history of Sinanju for such a thing. Never before had a Master failed to produce a male on the first try. Masters of Sinanju, being absolute masters of their bodies, possessed the ability to produce males at will. Remo had been taught the exercises that built up the male seed so that there was no chance for error. But of course, Remo, being lazy, had complained about the exercises.
And now this. Chiun hoped to discover guidance in the writings of his ancestors. Perhaps the child should be sacrificed to the sea, as was done in past times when the village was without sufficient food. The infants were drowned in the cold waters of Sinanju harbor.
But there was no record of that ever being done with the offspring of the Masters. Perhaps, Chiun thought, that meant that he was free to create his own solution. It had been a rare thing, these last five centuries, for a reigning Master to inaugurate new traditions, and a faint smile tugged at his dry lips at the thought of entering another first in the records of the Master Chiun.
But that still left the problem.
Chiun heard Remo's approach before the knocking started.
"That door is thousands of years old," Chiun said. "If you break it with your ridiculous knocking, I will hold you personally responsible."
The door opened with a splintering crash. Wood chips flew everywhere.
"Are you mad?" cried Chiun, horror wrinkling his face. "This is a desecration!"
"Look, don't give me any of that crap," Remo shouted back. He had changed out of his makeshift wedding costume. "It's all your fault I'm in this mess."
"I am the one who is in a mess. I have to decide what is to be done about the daughter you have inflicted upon me."
"Inflicted? What kind of talk is that?"
"Sinanju talk. Men are born into the world. Women are inflicted upon it."
"Not in my book," Remo said.
"No, but in my scrolls. How could you sire a female? Had I taught you nothing? You knew the exercises."
"Those weren't exercises. They were torture."
"A minor sacrifice to ensure a male is produced."
"I don't call drinking fish oil for a week before I do it, holding a pomegranate in my right hand and poppy seeds in my mouth while I'm doing it, and plucking my eyebrows afterward minor sacrifices."
"The eyebrow plucking can be dispensed with," Chiun said dismissively. "It is only for luck."
"Look, Jilda and I have been talking. There's a chance we can come to an understanding about our future."
"I might agree to that."
"Might?"
"On one condition. She sells the baby."
"No chance. How could you even ask that?"
"According to Sinanju tradition, the firstborn is trained in Sinanju. But never women. She must be trained, but she cannot be trained because she is female. It is a conundrum I cannot resolve."
"Solve it later. I've got a problem too. What about Mah-Li? I love her, but after what's happened, she probably hates me. "
"I will speak with her."
"I think I should be the one. But I don't know what to say to her. I need your help."
"Help?" muttered Chiun, picking through his scrolls. "Ah, this one covers that eventuality," he said, unrolling it. "Listen, 'In the event that the Master must break off his betrothal to one woman because he has stupidly sired a female first born by another, matters can be brought to a balance by offering said child to the jilted one and trying for a boy with the other.' "
"What? Let me see that," demanded Remo, snatching up the scroll. He ran his eyes down the parchment. "It says no such thing. This is all about lineage."
Chiun shrugged. "It was worth a try," he said.
"I really like the way you play fast and loose with my life."
"I was not the one who got one woman with child and tried to marry another one."
"I hadn't seen Jilda in over four years. I didn't even know where to find her. And she didn't want to be found. What was I to do? It took me long enough to get over her the first time. "
The Master of Sinanju replaced the scroll thoughtfully. "We must deal with this one unpleasant step at a time," he announced. "Come, we will visit Mah-Li."
"Fine," said Remo. But as he followed Chiun along the shore road, his heart beat high in his throat. He forced his breathing lower in his stomach, trying to get a grip on his emotions.
The decorated courtyard was deserted when they arrived. Wind plucked at the good-luck streamers forlornly. A loon flew up from the tipped bowl of jujubes, and the wine had been spilled.
Remo knocked at the door. There was no answer. "Maybe we'd better come back," he suggested nervously. "It might be too soon."
"It will only be harder tomorrow," said Chiun, pushing on the door. Remo followed him in.