A princess of Chang’an (page 4)
Janosch A. Prufrock looked from the peony embroidered on Wilhelmina Wang’s knapsack, to the string of heavy gold Startalers, separated every ten by a silken knot, strung through their square holes particular to the Tang Empire Startalers, to her proud, beautiful face, and said, using the Cathayan formality, “May I ask your honored family name?”
She answered, because she did not want to lie.
“Wang means könig, which is cognate with king,” said Janosch A. Prufrock thoughtfully.
He continued, seemingly on a different topic, “I was in Histria once. In the port of Pula, where I was securing a procurement of olive oil, at the arena, I watched twenty gladiators fight to the death, until one man emerged, for the prize of a single Startaler. Because with it, the winner could have lived in ease for the rest of his life.”
He was no longer looking at the thickly strung silk cord of Startalers so lightly held in her hand, from which she had taken one and placed on the reception table before Emil Hering, but into her black eyes, as he finished speaking, “Welcome, a princess of Chang’an.”