THE EMPEROR'S FAN



IN THE FIFTEENTH year of his reign, Tsotuga the Fourth, Emperor of
Kuromon, sat in the Forbidden Chamber of his Proscribed Palace, in
his imperial city of Chingun. He played a game of Sachi with his
crony, Reiro the beggar.
      The pieces on one side were carved from single emeralds; those
on the other, from single rubies. The board was of squares of onyx
and gold. The many shelves and taborets in the room were crowded with
small art objects. There were knickknacks of gold and silver, of
ivory and ebony, of porcelain and pewter, of jasper and jade, of
chrysoprase and chalcedony.
      In a silken robe embroidered with lilies in silver thread and
lotuses in golden thread, Tsotuga sat on a semithrone-a chair of
gilded mahogany, the arms of which were carved in the form of
diamond-eyed dragons. The Emperor was plainly well fed, and within
the hour he had been bathed and perfumed. Yet, although he had just
won a game, Emperor Tsotuga was not happy.
      "The trouble with you, chum," said Reiro the beggar, "is that,
not having enough real dangers to worry about, you make up imaginary
ones."
      The Emperor took no offense. The purpose of the Forbidden
Chamber was to afford him a place where he could treat and be treated
by his crony as if they were ordinary human beings, without the
court's stifling formality.
      Nor was it an accident that Reiro was a beggar. As such, he
would never try to intrigue against or murder his imperial friend in
order to seize the throne.
      Although a fairly competent ruler, Tsotuga was not a man of
much personal charm. He was in fact rather dull save when, as some-
times happened, he lost his temper. Then he might visit dire dooms on
those about him. After he had calmed down, Tsotuga would regret his
injustice and might even pension the victim's dependents. He honestly
tried to be just but lacked the self-control and objectivity to do
so.
      Reiro got along with the Emperor well enough. While the beggar
cared nothing for art, save when he could filch and sell a piece of
it, he was glad to listen to the Emperor's endless tales of his
collection in return for the sumptuous repasts he enjoyed. Reiro had
gained twenty pounds since he had become intimate with the Emperor.
      "Oh, yes?" said Tsotuga. "That is easy for you to say. You are
not nightly haunted by your father's ghost, threatening dreadful
doom."
      Reiro shrugged. "You knew the risk when you had the old man
poisoned. It is all in the game, pal. For your pay, I would
cheerfully submit to any number of nightmares. How does old Haryo
look in these dreams?"
      "The same old tyrant. I had to slay him-you know that-crc he
ruined the Empire. But have a care with that flapping tongue."
      "Nought I hear here goes beyond these walls. Anyway, if you
think Haryo's fate be not widely known, you do but befool yourself."
      "I daresay it is suspected. But then, foul play is always
suspected when an emperor dies. As said Dauhai to the timorous bird,
every twig is a serpent.
      "Still," continued the Emperor, "that solves not my problem. I
wear mail beneath my robe. I sleep on a mattress floating in a pool
of quicksilver. I have given up futtering my women, lest whilst I lie
in their arms, some conspirator steal up and dagger me. The Empress,
I can tell you, mislikes this abstinence. But still Haryo threatens
and prophesies, and the warnings of a ghost are not to be flouted. I
need some impregnable magical defense. That idiot Koxima does nought
but frimigate and exorcise, which may drive out the demons but fails
to blunt the steel of human foes. Have you any counsel, Ragbag?"
      Reiro scratched. "There is a dark, beak-nosed, round-eyed old
hewitch, hight Ajendra, lately come to Chingun from Mulvari. He gains
a scanty living by selling love potions and finding lost bangles in
trances. He claims to have a magical weapon of such power that none
can stand against it."
      "What is its nature?"
      "He will not say."
      "If he have so puissant a device, why is he not a king?"
      "How could he make himself ruler? He is too old to lead an army
in battle. Besides, he says that the holy order to which he belongs-
all Mulvanian wizards call themselves holy men, be they never such
rascals-forbids the use of this armament save in self-defense."
      "Has anybody seen it?"
      "Nay, chum, but rumor whispers that Ajendra has used it."
      "Yes? And then what?"
      "Know you a police spy named Nanka?"
      The Emperor frowned. "Meseems-there was something about such a
man who disappeared. It is supposed that the low company he kept at
last learnt of his occupation and did him in."
      The beggar chuckled. "Close, but not in the gold. This Nanka
was a scoundrel of deepest dye, who supplemented his earnings as an
informer by robbery and extortion. He skated into Ajendra's hut with
the simple, wholesome intention of breaking the old man's neck and
seizing Ajendra's rumored weapon."
      "Hm. Well?"
      "Well, Nanka never came out. A patrolman of the regular police
found Ajendra sitting cross-legged in meditation and no sign of the
erstwhile spy. Since Nanka was large and the hovel small, the corpse
could not have been hidden. As it is said, the digger of pitfalls
shall at last fall into one of his own."
      "Hm," said Tsotuga. "I must look into this. Enough Sachi for
the nonce. You must let me show you my latest acquisition!"
      Reiro groaned inside and braced himself for an hour's lecture
on the history and beauty of some antique bibelot. The thought of the
palatial cookery, however, stiffened his resolve.
      "Now, where did I put that little widget?" said Tsotuga,
tapping his forehead with his folded fan.
      "V/hat is it, chum?" asked the beggar.
      "A topaz statuette of the goddess Amarasupi, from the Jumbon
Dynasty. Oh, curse my bowels with ulcers! I grow more absentminded
day by day."
      "Good thing your head is permanently affixed to the rest of
you! As the wise Ashuziri said, hope is a charlatan, sense a bungler,
and memory a traitor."
      "I distinctly remember," muttered the Emperor, "telling myself
to put it in a special place where I should be sure to remember it.
But now I cannot recall the special place."
      "The Proscribed Palace must have ten thousand special places,"
said Reiro. "That is the advantage of being poor. One has so few
possessions that one need never wonder where they are."
      "Almost you tempt me to change places with you, but my duty
forbids. Damn, damn, what did I with that silly thing? Oh, well, let
us play another game instead. You take the red this time, I the
green."
      Two days later, Emperor Tsotuga sat on his throne of audience,
wearing his towering crown of state. This plumed and winged headgear,
bedight with peacock feathers and precious stones, weighed over ten
pounds. It even had a secret compartment. Because of its weight,
Tsotuga avoided wearing it whenever he felt that he decently could.
      The usher led in Ajendra. The Mulvanian magician was a tall,
gaunt, bent old man, who supported himself on a stick. Save for the
long white beard flowing down from his wrinkled, mahogany-hued face,
he was brown all over, from dirty brown bulbous turban and dirty
brown robe to dirty brown bare feet. His monotone contrasted with the
golds and vermilions and greens and blues and purples of the Chamber
of Audience.
      In a cracked voice, speaking Kuromonian with an accent, Ajendra
went through the formal greeting: "This wretched worm humbly abases
himself before Thine Ineffable Majesty!" The wizard began, slowly and
painfully, to get down on hands and knees.
      The Emperor motioned him up, saying, "In respect for your
years, old man, we will omit the prostration. Simply tell us about
this invincible weapon of yours."
      "Your Imperial Majesty is too kind to this unworthy wretch.
Sees Your Majesty this?"
      From his ragged sleeve, the Mulvanian produced a large painted
fan. Like the others present, Ajendra kept his gaze averted from the
Emperor's face, on the pretense that one who looked the ruler full in
the face would be blinded by his awful glory.
      "This," continued Ajendra, "was made for the king of the
Gwoling Islands by the noted wizard Tsunjing. By a series of chances
too long to bore Your Imperial Majesty with, it came into the
unworthy hands of this inferior person."
      At least, thought Tsotuga, the fellow had learnt the polite
forms of Kuromonian address. Many Mulvanians were informal to the
point of rudeness. Aloud he said, "It looks like any other fan. What
is its power?"
      "Simple, 0 Superior One. Any living thing tha~t you fan with it
disappears."
      "Oho!" exclaimed the Emperor. "So that is what befell the
missing Nanka!"
      Ajendra looked innocent. "This loathsome reptile does not
understand Your Divine Majesty."
      "Never mind. Whither go the victims!"
      "One theory of my school is that they are translated to a
higher dimension, coexistent with this one. Another holds that they
are dispersed into constituent atoms, which, however, retain such
mutual affinities that they can be reassembled when the signal for
recall is-"
      "Mean you that you can reverse the effect and fetch back the
vanished beings?"
      "Aye, Superhuman Sire. One folds the fan and taps one's wrists
and forehead according to a simple code, and presto! there is the
evanished one. Would Your Majesty see a demonstration? There is no
danger to the demonstratee since this humble person can bring him
back instanter."
      "Very well, good wizard. Just be careful not to wave that thing
at us. On whom propose you to try it?"
      Ajendra looked about the Chamber of Audience. There was a stir
amongst ushers, guardsmen, and officials. Light winked on gilded
armor and glowed on silken robes as each tried to make himself
inconspicuous behind a pillar or another courtier.
      "Who will volunteer?" asked the Emperor. "You, Dzakusan?"
      The Prime Minister prostrated himself. "Great Emperor, live
forever! This lump of iniquity has not been well lately. Moreover, he
has nine children to support. He humbly begs Your Supremacy to excuse
him."
      Similar questions to other functionaries produced similar
responses. At length Ajendra said, "If this lowly one may make a
suggestion to Your Magnificence, it might be better to try it fist on
a beast-say, a dog or a cat."
      "Aha!" said Tsotuga. "Just the thing. We know the animal, too.
Surakai, fetch that cursed dog belonging to the Empress-you know,
that yapping little monstrosity."
      The messenger departed on his roller skates. Soon he was back,
leading on a leash a small woolly white dog, which barked
incessantly.
      "Go ahead," said the Emperor.
      "This negligible persOn hears and obeys," said Ajendra, opening
the fan.
      The dog's yelp was cut off as the draft from the fan struck it.
Surakai trailed an empty leash. The courtiers started and murmured.
      "By the Heavenly Bureaucrats!" exclaimed the Emperor. "That is
impressive. Now bring the creature back. Fear not if you fail. The
thing has bitten us twice, so the Empire will not fall if it remain
in that other dimension."
      Ajendra produced from his other sleeve a small codex, whose
pages he thumbed. Then he held a reading glass to his eye. "Here it
is," he said. " 'Dog. Two left, three right, one to head.'"
      Having folded the fan, Ajendra, holding it in his right hand,
rapped his left wrist twice. Transferring the fan to his left hand,
he then tapped his right wrist thrice and his forehead once.
Instantly the dog reappeared. Yapping, it fled under the throne.
      "Very good," said the Emperor. "Leave the creature where it is.
What is that, a code book?"
      "Aye, supreme sire. It lists all the categories of organic
beings subject to the fan's power."
      "Well, let us try it on a human being-an expendable one.
Mishuho, have we a condemned criminal handy?"
      "Live forever, Incomparable One!" said the Minister of Justice.
"We have a murderer due to lose his head tomorrow. Shall this
miserable creature fetch him?"
      The murderer was fetched. Ajendra fanned him out of existence
and tapped him back again.
      "Whew!" said the murderer. "This contemptible one must have
suffered a dizzy spell."
      "Where were you whilst you were vanished?" said the Emperor. "I
knew not that I was vanished, great Emperor!" said the murderer. "I
felt dizzy and seemed to lose my wits for an instant-and then here I
was, back in the Proscribed Palace."
      "Well, you disappeared, all right. In consideration of his
services to the state, Mishuho, commute his sentence to twenty-five
lashes and turn him loose. Now, Doctor Ajendra!"
      "Aye, Ruler of the World?"
      "What are the limitations of your fan? Does it run out of
charge and have to be resorceled?"
      "Nay, Exalted One. At least, its power has not weakened in the
centuries since Tsunjing made it."
      "Does it work on a large animal, say, a horse or an elephant.'"
      "It does better than that. When the grandson of the Gwoling
king for whom it was made, Prince Wangerr, met a dragon on Banshou
Island, he swept the monster out of existence with three mighty
strokes of the fan."
      "Hm. Quite powerful enough, it seems. Now, good Ajendra,
suppose you bring back that police spy, Nanka, on whom you employed
your arts a few days ago!"
      The Mulvanian shot a glance at the Emperor's face. Some
courtiers murmured at this breach of decorum, but Tsotuga seemed not
to notice. The wizard evidently satisfied himself that the ruler knew
whereof he spoke. Ajendra thumbed through his book until he came to
"Spy." Then he tapped his left wrist four times and his forehead
twice.
      A big, burly man in beggar's rags materialized. Nanka was still
wearing the roller skates on which he had entered Ajendra's hut.
Unprepared as he was for this appearance, his feet flew out from
under him. He fell heavily on his back, cracking his head on the
redwhite-and-black tessellated marble floor. The Emperor laughed
heartily, and the courtiers allowed themselves discreet smiles.
      As the informer, red with rage and astonishment, climbed to his
feet, Tsotuga said, "Mishuho, give him ten lashes for trying to rob a
subject. Tell him that next time it will be his head-if not the
boiling oil. Take him away. Well now, worthy wizard, what would you
have for your device and its code book?"
      "Ten thousand golden dragons," said Ajendra, "and an escort to
my own country."
      "Hm. Is that not a lot for a holy ascetic?"
      "It is not for myself that this humble being asks," said the
Mulvanian. "I would build and endow a temple to my favorite gods in
my native village. There I shall pass my remaining days in meditalion
on the Thatness of the All."
      "A meritorious project," said Tsotuga. "Let it be done.
Chingitu, see that Doctor Ajendra has a trustworthy escort to Mulvan.
Have them get a letter from the King of Kings testifying that they
deliv
ered Ajendra safely and did not murder him for his gold along the
way."
      "This despicable one hears and obeys," said the Minister of
War. For the next month, things went smoothly at court. The Emperor
kept his temper. No one, knowing of the magical fan that the testy
monarch carried, cared to provoke him. Even Empress Nasako, although
furious at her husband's callous use of her dog, kept her sharp
tongue sheathed. Tsotuga remembered where he had hidden the statuette
of Amarasupi and so for a time was almost happy.
      But, as said the philosopher Dauhai back in the Jumbon Dynasty,
everything passes away. The day came when, in the Emperor's study,
Minister of Finance Yaebu tried to explain the workings of that
marvelous new invention, paper money. The Emperor demanded to know
why he could not simply abolish all taxes, thus pleasing the people,
and pay the government's bills with newly printed currency notes.
Tsotuga was irascible as a result of having mislaid another of his
prized antique gimcracks.
      "But, Your Divine Majesty!" wailed Yaebu. "That was tried in
Gwoling half a century ago! The value of the notes dropped to nought.
None would offer aught for sale, since none wished to accept
worthless paper. They had to go back to barter."
      "We should think a few heads on poles would have fixed that,"
growled Tsotuga.
      "The then king of Gwoling tried that, too," said Yaebu. "It
accomplished nought; the markets remained empty of goods. City folk
starved. . . ."
      The argument continued while the Emperor, who had little head
for economics, became more and more restless, bored, and impatient.
Ignoring these signs, Yaebu persisted in his arguments.
      At last the Emperor exploded, "Curse your arse with boils,
Yaebu! We will show you how to keep saying 'nay' and 'however' and
'impossible' to your sovran! Begone, sirrahl"
      Tsotuga whipped out his fan, snapped it open, and fanned a
blast of air at Yaebu. The minister vanished.
      Hm, mused Tsotuga, it really does work. Now I must fetch Yaebu
back, for I did not really mean to destroy the faithful fellow. It is
just that he irritates me so with his everlasting "if's" and "but's"
and "can't's." Let me see, where did I put that code book? I remember
hiding it in a special place where I could be sure of finding it
again. But where?
      The Emperor looked first in the deep, baggy sleeves of his
embroidered silken robe, which in Kuromon served the Qffice of
pockets. It was not there.
      Then the Emperor rose from his business throne and went to the
imperial wardrobe, where a hundred-odd robes hung from pegs. There
were silken robes for official use, thin for summer and quilted for
winter. There were woolen robes for outdoor winter use and cotton
robes for outdoor summer use. They were dyed scarlet and emerald,
saffron and azure, cream and violet, and all the other colors in the
dyers' armory.
      Tsotuga went down the line, feeling in the sleeves of each
robe. A tireman hurried in, saying, "0 Divine Autocrat, permit this
filthy beggar to relieve you of this menial chore!"
      Tsotuga: "Nay, good Shakatabi; we entrust this task to none but
ourselves."
      Laboriously, Tsotuga continued down the line until he had
examined all the robes. Then he began the rounds of the Proscribed
Palace, pulling out the drawers of desks and dressers, poking into
cubbyholes, and shouting for the keys to chests and strongboxes.
      After several hours, exhaustion forced the Emperor to desist.
Falling into the semithrone of the Forbidden Chamber, he struck the
gong. When the room was jam-packed with servants, he said, "We,
Tsotuga the Fourth, offer a reward of a hundred golden dragons to him
who finds the missing code book that goes with our miraculous fan!"
      That day, the Proscribed Palace saw a great scurrying and
searching. Scores of felt-slippered servants shuffled about, opening,
poking, prying, and peering. When night fell, the book had not been
found.
      Beshrew me! said Tsotuga to himself. Poor Yaebu is lost unless
we find the accursed book. I must be more careful with that fan.
      Again, as spring advanced, things went smoothly for a while.
But the day came when Tsotuga was rollerskating about the paths of
the palace gardens with Minister of War Chingitu. Questioned sharply
about the recent defeat of the Kuromonian army by the nomads of the
steppes, Chingitu offered excuses that Tsotuga knew to be mendacious.
Away went Tsotuga's temper. "The real reason," roared the Emperor,
"is that your cousin, the Quartermaster-General, has been grafting
and filling posts with his worthless relatives, so that our soldiers
were ill armed! And you know it! Take that!"
      A wave of the fan, and no more Chingitu. In like manner,
shortly thereafter, perished Prime Minister Dzakusan.
      The want of properly appointed ministers soon made itself felt.
Tsotuga could not personally supervise all the hundreds of
bureaucrats in the now-headless departments. These civil servants
devoted themselves more and more to feuding, loafing, nepotism, and
peculation. Conditions were bad in Kuromon anyway, because of the
inflation brought about by Tsotuga's paper-money scheme. The
government was fast becoming a shambles.
      "You must pull yourself together, lord," said Empress Nasako,
"ere the pirates of the Gwoling Archipelago and the brigands from the
steppes divide Kuromon between them, as a man divides an orange."
      "But what in the name of the fifty-seven major deities shall I
do?" cried Tsotuga. "Curse it, if I had that code boolç I could bring
back Yaebu, who would straighten out this financial mess."
      "Oh, forget the book. If I were you, I should burn that magical
fan ere it got me into more trouble."
      "You are out of your mind, woman! Never!"
      Nasako sighed. "As the sage Zuiku said: Who would use a tiger
for a watchdog to guard his wealth will soon need neither wealth nor
watchdog. At least appoint a new prime minister to bring order out of
this chaos."
      "I have gone over the list of possible candidates, but every
one has a black mark against him. One was connected with that faction
that conspired my assassination nine years ago. Another was accused
of grafting, although it was never proved. Still another is ailing-"
      "Is Zamben of Jompei on your list?"
      "I have never heard of him. Who is he?"
      "The supervisor of roads and bridges in Jade Mountain Province.
They say he has made an excellent record there."
      "How know you about him?" snapped the Emperor suspiciously. "He
is a cousin of my first lady-in-waiting. She has long urged his
virtues upon me. I brushed her suit aside, knowing my lord's dislike
of letting my ladies exploit their position by abetting their
kinsmen's interests. In your present predicament, though, you could
do worse than look the fellow over."
      "Very well, I will."
      Thus it happened that Zamben of Jompei became prime minister.
The former supervisor of roads and bridges was younger by a decade
than the Emperor. He was a handsome, cheerful, charming, rollicking
person who made himself popular with the court, save for those
determined to hate the favorite of the momenf. Tsotuga thought Zamben
was rather too lighthearted and lacking in respect for the
labyrinthine etiquette. But Zamben proved an able administrator who
soon had the vast governmental machine running smoothly.
      But it is said that the thatcher's roof is the leakiest in the
village.
What the Emperor did not know was that Zamben and Empress
Nasako were secret lovers. They had been before Zamben's elevation.
Circumstances made it hard to consummate their passion, save rarely
in one of Nasako's summer pavilions in the hills.
      In the Proscribed Palace, it was even harder. The palace
swarmed with menials who would be glad to carry tales. The amorous
pair had to resort to stratagems. Nasako announced that she had to be
left entirely alone in a summer house to compose a poem. The
versatile Zamben wrote the poem for her as evidence before he hid
himself in the summer house in advance of her arrival.
      "That was worth waiting for," said the Empress, donning her
garments. "That fat old fool Tsotuga has not touched me in a year,
and a full-blooded woman like me needs frequent stoking. He has not
even futtered his pretty young concubines, albeit he is not yet
fifty."
      "Why? Is he prematurely senile?"
      "Nay, it is his fear of assassination. For a while, he tried
doing it in the seated position, so that he could keep looking about
for possible assailants. But since he insisted on wearing his armor,
it proved too awkward to please anyone. So he gave it up altogether."
      "Well, the thought of a stab in the back is depressing to more
than just a man's spirit. If-which the gods forfend-an accident
should befall His Divine Majesty-"
      "How?" said Nasako. "No assassin dares approach him whilst he
has that fan."
      "Where does he put it at night?"
      "Under his pillow, and he sleeps clutching it. It would take a
winged demon to get at him anyway, floating in that pooi of
quicksilver."
      "A hard-driven crossbow bolt, shot from beyond the fan's
range-"
      "Nay, he is too well guarded to let an arbalester get within
range, and he even sleeps in his mail."
      "Well, we shall see," said Zamben. "Meanwhile, Nako, how would
my love like another?"
      "What a man you are!" cried Nasako, beginning to cast off her
just-donned garments.
      During the next two months, the court noted that Zamben, not
content with being the second most powerful man in the Empire, had
also ingratiated himself with the Emperor. He did so well as to oust
Reiro the beggar from his position as Emperor's crony. Zamben even
became an expert on the history of art, the better to admire
Tsotuga's prized gewgaws.
      The favorite-haters at court muttered that for an emperor to
make a personal friend of a minister was a violation of sound method.
Not only was the mystical balance among the Five Elements upset, but
also Zamben might entertain usurpatory notions, which his friendship
might enable him to put into effect. But none dared to broach the
subject to the explosive-tempered Tsotuga. They shrugged, saying,
"After all, it is the Empress's duty to warn him. If she cannot, what
chance have we?"
      Zamben went his smiling way, smoothly running the government by
day and fraternizing with the Emperor by night.
      At last came his opportunity. The Emperor was toying with his
fan over a game of Sachi. Zamben dropped a piece-an elephant-on the
floor so that it rolled under the table.
      "Let me get it," said Tsotuga. "It is on my side."
      As he bent to fumble for the piece, he dropped his fan. He
straightened up holding the piece, to find Zamben holding the fan out
to him. Tsotuga snatched it back. "Excuse my discourtesy," said the
Emperor, "but I am fain not to let that thing out of my hands. It was
stupid of me not to have put it away ere reaching for your elephant.
It is still your move."
      Days later, in the summer house, Empress Nasako asked, "Did you
get it?"
      "Aye," replied Zamben. "It was no trick to hand him the
duplicate."
      "Then what are you waiting for? Fan the old fool away!"
      "Tut, tut, my sweet. I must assure the loyalty of my partisans.
It is said that he who would swallow a pumpkin with one bite shall
reap the reward of his gluttony. Besides, I have scruples."
      "Oh, pish-tush! Are you just a pillow-warrior, strong in the
yard but weak in the sword arm?"
      "Nay, but I am a careful man who avoids offending the gods or
biting off more than he can chew. Hence I would fan away only one
who tried to do me ill. Knowing your imperial spouse, madam, I am
sure he will soon force me to defend myself."
      The evening came when Zamben, whose skill at Sachi had never
seemed remarkable, suddenly beat the Emperor five games in a row.
      "Curse you!" bawled Tsotuga as he lost his fifth king. "Have
you been taking lessons? Or were you more skilled all along than you
seemed?"
      Zamben grinned and spread his hands. "The Divine Bureaucrats
must have guided my moves."
      "You-you-" Tsotuga choked with rage. "We will show you how to
mock your emperor! Begone from the world!"
      The Emperor whipped out his fan and fanned, but Zamben failed
to disappear. Tsotuga fanned some more. "Curse it, has this thing
lost its charge?" said Tsotuga. "Unless it be not the real-"
      His sentence was cut off as Zamben, opening the true magical
fan, swept the Emperor out of existence. Later, Zamben explained to
the Empress, "I knew that when he found that his fan did not work, he
would suspect a substitution. So there was nought to do but use the
real one."
      "What shall we tell the court and the people?"
      "I have thought all that out. We will give out that, plagued by
the summer's heat, in an absentminded moment he fanned himself."
      "Would it work that way?"
      "I know not; who were so rash as to try it? In any case, after
a decent interval of mourning, I shall expect you to carry out your
end of the bargain."
      "Right willingly, my love."
      Thus it came to pass that the widowed Empress wedded Zamben of
Jompei, after the latter had, at her demand, put away his two
previous wives. The minister acquired the courtesy title of
"Emperor" but not the full powers of that office. Technically he was
the consort of the Dowager Empress and guardian of and regent for the
heir.
      As to what would happen when the fourteen-year-old Prince
Wakumba reached his majority, Zamben did not worry. He was sure that,
whatever betid, he could charm the young Emperor into continuing his
power and perquisites.
      He thought of having the Prince murdered but quickly put that
plan aside. For one thing, he feared that Nasako would have him
killed in turn, for her supporters far outnumbered his. He had a hard
enough task just keeping on good terms with her. She was disillu
sioned to find that in her new husband she had obtained, not an ever-
panting satyr, but merely an ambitious politician so immersed in
political maneuvers, administrative details, and religious rituals
that he had little time and strength left over for stoking her fires.
When she complained, he spoke of his "essential new project."
      "What is that?" she demanded.
      "I will not," he said, "waste more time in searching for that
code book. Instead, I shall reconstruct the code by trial and error."
      "How?"
      "I shall try combinations of raps and note what I get each
lime. In the centuries that the fan has existed, hundreds of beings
must have been fanned away."
      The next day Zamben, flanked by six heavily armed palace
guards, sat in the Chamber of Audience, which had been cleared of all
others save two secretaries. Zamben tapped his left wrist once. A
beggar appeared on the floor before him.
      The beggar screamed with terror and fainted. When the man had
been revived, it was found that he had been fanned out of existence
more than a century before, in a fishing village on the shore of the
ocean. He was astounded suddenly to find himself in a palace.
      Zamben commanded, "Write: one tap on left wrist, beggar. Give
him one golden dragon and show him out."
      Two taps on the left wrist produced a swineherd, and so it was
recorded. During the day, persons of all sorts were rapped into
existence. Once a leopard appeared, snarling. Two guardsmen rushed
upon it, but it sprang out the open window and vanished.
      Some combinations of raps failed to bring results. Either they
were not connected with victims of any definite kind, or no beings of
that kind had ever been fanned away and not recalled.
      "All right so far," said Zamben to the Empress that night.
      "What if your experiments bring back Tsotuga?"
      "By the fifty-seven major deities, I had not thought of that!
An emperor, I suppose, needs a combination of many taps to bring him
back. The instant I see him, I will fan him back to limbo."
      "Have a care! I am sure that fan will sooner or later bring
evil upon him who uses it."
      "Fear not; I shall be cautious."
      The next day, the experiments continued and the secretaries'
lists of formulae lengthened. Three taps each on left wrist, right
wrist,
and forehead produced the missing Finance Minister Yaebu, much
shaken.
      Following Yaebu came an ass and a fuller. When the ass had been
captured and led out, and the fuller had been soothed and sent away
with his fee, Zamben tapped his left and right wrists each three
times and his forehead four times.
      There was a rush of displaced air. Filling most of the Chamber
of Audience was a dragon. Zamben, his jaw sagging, started to rise.
The dragon roared and roared, and the guards fled clattering.
      Through Zamben's mind flashed a tale he had heard about the
fan. Centuries before, it had saved the Gwoling prince, Wangerr, from
a dragon on Banshou Island. This must be the same.
      Zamben began to open the fan, but astonishment and terror had
paralyzed him a few seconds too long. The great, scaly head swooped;
the jaws slammed shut.
      The only person left in the chamber was one of the secretaries,
cowering behind the throne. This man heard a single scream. Then the
dragon hunched itself out the window with a crashing of broken window
frame and-since the aperture was still too small for it-of a goodly
part of the wall. The scribe peeked around the throne to see the
scaly tail vanishing through the jagged gap that yawned where the
window had been, and a cloud of brick and plaster dust filling the
Chamber of Audience.
      Yaebu and Nasako became co-regents. Lacking a man, the lusty
Dowager Empress took up with a handsome groom from the imperial
stables, half her age but well equipped to pleasure her, having no
thoughts to distract him from his lectual duties. Yaebu, a
conservative family man with no lust for exalted adultery, became
prime minister. He ran the Empire in a somewhat hesitant, bumbling
way but not unsuccessfully.
      Since there was no emperor, even a nominal one, young Prince
Wakumba had to be enthroned forthwith. After the day-long ceremony,
the lad slowly pulled off the plumed and winged crown of state. He
complained, "This thing seems even heavier than usual." He poked
about inside it.
      Yaebu hovered anxiously, murmuring, "Have a care, my liege!
Watch out that you harm not that holy headgear!"
      Something went spung, and a metal flap snapped up inside the
crown.
      "Here is that secret compartment," said Wakumba, "with a-what
is this?-a book in it. By the fifty-seven divinities, this must be
that code book that Dad was hunting!"
      "Let me see!" cried Yaebu and Nasako together.
      "That is it, all right. But since the dragon ate the fan along
with my stepfather, the book is of no use. Let it be put in the
archives with other curios."
      Nasako said, "We must ask Kozima to make another magical fan,
so that the book shall again be useful."
      It is not, however, recorded that the court wizard of Kuromon
ever succeeded in this endeavor. For aught I know, the code book
still reposes peacefully in the Kuromonian archives in Chingun, and
those who, like Tsotuga and Dzakusan, were fanned away and never
brought back, still await their deliverance.