Dragon Seed Page #13

I cannot...

For a cloud covers my mind.

What will you do now, my son?

We will join our brothers in the hills

where at least we can fight on.

We will leave this house during

the last hours of the darkness before dawn.

Here is food for your journey.

We are glad you have come.

It would have been a bitter thing

if you had not.

If you can wait, we will go with you.

Go with us?

Yes, I will burn my fields and my house

and go with you.

Do my ears hear what you are saying,

old man?

They hear what we must do,

for the cloud is now gone from my mind.

I have spoken to all our kinsmen

in the village...

...and told them the things you told me.

I gave them the hour

that I would fire my house...

...and asked them to do the same thing.

- But will they?

- I do not know.

It is a great deal to ask of them,

and against their natures.

But what will become of me

and my children?

You will go and take your children

to where my sons are in the hills.

- The son of Neighbor Shen can guide her.

- Yes. We will meet you there.

And you will take our son too.

These things will mark our land...

...so when we come back

we can prove it is ours and claim it.

What nonsense is this?

In a while, these things will be ashes,

so, what matter how they look now?

Would you bury a friend

without first arranging him decently?

In these rooms, your father

and his father before him died.

And our children were born here

and should die here.

I helped you dig once, now you help me.

- A worry has struck me.

- What now, woman?

What if the stranger who walks

on the other side of your land...

...finds these things and steals them?

- He will not steal from us.

- How can you know that?

I see clearly now, and for the first time.

Third cousin once said that there

is one sun and one moon for all.

If that is true,

all share the sun and moon...

...why should we not also

all share the earth?

This valley is not the world

but only part of the world.

And there are others like me

whose faces I have never seen.

Elsewhere,

there are men who love peace...

...and long for good and who will fight

to get these things.

So the stranger is no longer

a stranger to me but a man like me.

If I could but know him.

If I could but see him.

What good to see him

if you could not speak?

You would not need speech.

If what you wish is the same,

there would be understanding between you.

Yes, that is true.

Somehow tonight, I feel that there

is a power sweeping around the world...

...bringing us all together

with that stranger.

- And I, too, feel it, my father.

- So do I.

- Why am I left out of this?

- It is time now, my father.

- Shall I fire the house?

- No.

Your mother and I will do this.

We will fire the east field first, then.

Leave the north fields for the last,

so that we may escape that way.

Look back once, old woman.

Then look back no more.

Keep to the hill road.

My father, look.

Can it be even one of our kinsmen

is with us?

It is only a lantern.

No. No, it is a fire.

- And there's another.

- And another.

- Can it be? The whole village?

- It is, old woman. We are not alone.

- I'm weary, my lord.

- But you are not bruised as yet.

Why can you not come with us?

No, my mother.

My place is here with my brothers.

The enemy fears to come here.

My sister will be safe and have food.

I think it best. Our road ahead will be hard,

old woman. And our daughter...

My father, I have seen what you have done,

and the others also.

I am ashamed.

No more than I, my son.

Well, then, I would have you

take your place of command...

...as head of our family once more.

I think there is now another command,

even above that.

We have each been told what we must do,

and we will do it.

- You that our young will stay here and fight.

- And you, Father?

I would be where these hands

can be used.

I and my old woman

will go into free China...

...and raise food to fill your bellies

while you fight.

Let us go, then,

while the strength is still in us.

There is a thing.

If one of us lives, he must go back one day

to claim the land.

I so charge you all.

If you live, you must do this.

My wife and I will walk

a little way with you.

We would see you out of sight.

At this moment we part,

we are closer than ever before.

When will this one begin to read?

As soon as he can be taught.

He will learn quickly,

for he is the hope of us all.

His eyes are open.

Make sure that the one who teaches him

has his eyes open also.

We will do that. We do it now.

Take your grandchild with you.

Yes, my father, take him with you.

Care for him and teach him.

He will be as our own.

What else? For that is what he is.

So it came about that while Ling Tan

left the land behind him...

...he did not leave hope.

For he carried it with him in Jade's child.

That child so truly,

the seed of the dragon.

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