The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water - Zen Cho Page 0,20

through the undergrowth, dizzy and sick, the journey had taken on a nightmare quality.

Guet Imm’s fists were clenched. So much for peace and quiet.

“You didn’t say anything!” she said accusingly.

“It’s just a graze,” said Tet Sang.

Without quite knowing how it happened, he found himself sitting down. Guet Imm got his makeshift bandage off, her deft hands light against his skin. Her forehead smoothed out as she inspected the wound, but she still looked annoyed.

“No wonder you looked so bad,” she murmured. “I thought you were angry.”

“I washed the wound,” said Tet Sang. “There’s nothing more to do.”

He might as well have stayed silent for all the notice Guet Imm took of him.

“I can make herbal soup for you. It’ll help the healing,” she said. “I’ll call Ah Boon to dress the wound. He has some medicine.”

She got up, but Tet Sang grabbed her. “No!”

Guet Imm paused, looking down at him. Her face was in shadow, so he couldn’t see her expression. She said, with uncharacteristic hesitancy, “You don’t want him to know?”

“Fuss, fuss, fuss,” said Tet Sang irritably. “Ah Lau is like an old woman about this kind of thing. He’ll act like I’m halfway dead. What’s the point of making a big hoo-ha? It’s stopped bleeding already.”

It was only when Guet Imm did not answer that he realised she had not been talking about the injury.

She dropped into a squat, looking into his eyes as though she could see through to the back of his head.

Panic bubbled inside him. She knew. Perhaps she’d known all along. He’d taken pains to hide it, but he should’ve tried harder. And if she hadn’t already known, she would’ve realised when he talked about Permatang Timbul. Idiot that he was …

“Brother,” said Guet Imm. “Does everyone know you’re a woman?”

Tet Sang blinked.

“Ah Lau, yes,” he said. “The rest, maybe. We haven’t talked about it. Why?”

“I didn’t realise at first,” said Guet Imm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t ask also.” Hope flickered to life within Tet Sang. If this was all it was…! He said cautiously, “What made you realise?”

“When you knew about kacip fatimah, I should have wondered,” said Guet Imm. “But it was when you tied my sarong. You really knew how to do it. The ikat didn’t budge. If I did it myself, I would have lost the sarong by the time we were on the main street.”

She rose.

“If you don’t want Ah Boon to see it,” she said, “let me put the dressing, then.”

Tet Sang reached out to detain her. “There’s no need…”

But Guet Imm had already left.

* * *

Tet Sang got his peace and quiet after all. Guet Imm came back with supplies and set to work without saying anything, cleaning and re-dressing the wound in blessed silence.

Her work was certainly neater than Tet Sang’s had been. It was a task well within his abilities, but he hadn’t been at his best when he’d first bandaged himself up, and it had had to be done quickly.

He started to relax despite himself. There was something soothing in Guet Imm’s closeness. She smelt right. He tried not to think about what that meant.

At least the injury was distracting her. She hadn’t asked about Permatang Timbul again. Maybe she wouldn’t ask. He’d rather be interrogated about what lay beneath his robes.

Tet Sang had never discussed the matter with Fung Cheung in so many words, not even to ask him to refrain from telling the others. After all, it was Fung Cheung’s group. It was for him to decide what the men should know.

But there had never been any sign that Fung Cheung had told. As for Tet Sang, it came naturally to say nothing about himself, to remain slightly apart from the rest of the group. It was less that he minded the brothers knowing what he was than that he feared what that might lead to—other questions, about who he was. Those he had no wish to answer.

Guet Imm was being more respectful than the men would probably have been, but then, people like Tet Sang were not unheard-of in the monastic orders. Attitudes varied, but the Pure Moon was a fairly relaxed deity in this regard. Though it was controversial in certain tokong to say so, she had historically been worshipped in male incarnations; even now, there were countries where the deity was chiefly known as a male god. As the Pure Moon, she only accepted women as her votaries, but her doctrine allowed her followers to decide for