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She sat comfortably in a gilded chair while her ladies powderedher skin with fragrant rose-gold dust, making her gleam in the light like an ancient goddess. They attended to her hands, placing long, lethal-looking nail guards of pure gold on each finger, and pinned her inky hair into an elaborate display. She chose a dozen priceless ornaments to complete her ensemble: combs of glinting gold, fresh yellow flowers twisted around jeweled hairpins, forest-green jade brooches, and a few pieces of enameled ivory, which had been in Lihua’s family for generations.

Her wardrobe was equally resplendent: the finest woven silks in every shade of crimson and saffron, rich hues befitting the most powerful woman on the continent. The materials draped beautifully over her body and trailed after her in a shimmering wake, ensuring no lady-in-waiting would be able to walk closer than ten feet behind her.

Today, Xifeng would walk alone.

Kang and two court officials came when she was fully dressed. They led her and her cluster of ladies and eunuchs across the Empress’s walkway to the center of the Imperial Palace. Her hair ornaments made a lovely, bell-like sound as she moved, the swishing of her silks like a river flowing to its destination. The procession arrived at the gates of the throne room, from which Xifeng could hear a low hush of voices.

One of the officials handed her a stick of sandalwood with a flame on one end. Pots of fragrant incense had been laid in a long line, starting from the door and leading all the way to the throne that would be hers. Beside each pot was a relic or likeness of one of the Dragon Lords. Xifeng bowed to each one, murmuring a short prayer she had learned in the weeks leading up to this ceremony, then lit the incense. This took some time, as there were dozens of pots lining the luscious crimson carpet that stretched deep inside the throne room.

Emperor Jun awaited her there, sitting on the larger of two goldthrones that shimmered in the sunlight. Xifeng finished lighting the last of the incense and handed the stick back to a court official. She lifted the hem of her robes and carefully ascended three of the nine steps leading up to the thrones, kneeling on the scarlet pillow. She lowered her forehead to the step above hers, hearing the Emperor’s gold robes rustle as he rose from his seat. The entire court fell silent as he intoned a solemn prayer to the Dragon Lords.

“We swear to serve you by the rising of the sun, by the gleaming of the moon. We are your children and your heart, and you are our lifeblood and the very air we breathe,” Jun said gravely, ending the prayer. “In your wisdom and magnificence, we hold faith.”

“In your wisdom and magnificence, we hold faith,” the court murmured.

Xifeng rose, and an official moved the pillow up three steps, at which she knelt once more. This time, the Emperor’s chief adviser recited a prayer. When he had finished his oration, Xifeng ascended to the top of the platform, where she knelt directly in front of the Emperor.

“I give Feng Lu and the Kingdom of the Great Forest an Empress who will serve with all she has.” He lifted the elaborate crown that rested on the throne beside his. It consisted of a thick ring of pure gold, with five jagged points topped with priceless jewels. “I give Feng Lu and the Kingdom of the Great Forest a queen who is a daughter of the trees and the wind.” The weight of the gold touched her head, then rested heavily upon it. “Rise, my Empress, and rule at my side.”

The eunuchs, ministers, and courtiers sang in a low chant as she rose, and one of the officials murmured a fervent prayer as he and several others scattered jasmine buds over her.

The Emperor and Empress each knelt and bowed nine times to the thrones.

Xifeng caught Jun’s eye as they both rose once more, and saw the corner of his mouth lift. They sat side by side upon the golden thrones as the court continued chanting and the official continued praying.

The ceremony lasted for hours more, with music and speeches and a procession given by the noble children of the court. But Xifeng felt as if she could have sat on that throne at the Emperor’s side forever. She felt the weight of the crown upon her head and the cool gold of the throne beneath her, and as she surveyed the court around them, she felt a lightness in her, a certainty that she had never belonged anywhere more.

At last, at last,the wind seemed to sing in the trees outside.

The court moved to the banquet hall for the great meal. After all of the solemn prayers and speeches, the mood was much lighter, more joyous.

Xifeng felt that when people bowed and made respectful speeches to her that they might have actually meant them. She smiled at Jun, who grinned broadly back at her, and she could have cried for the girl she had once been.

That girl had feared, above all, a life of imprisonment in Guma’s dreary town, a life in which the fortune of the cards had gone to waste. That girl had once crossed the Great Forest and met atengaruqueen who had seen her as more than she was. That girl had once loved a poor boy as much as she could love anyone, and dreamed of a life in the sun somewhere far away.

Now she wore the crown of the Imperial Empress upon her brow.

Now she slipped her hand into the hand of the most powerful man on the continent.

Now she watched as the court ate and drank, danced and sang, in her honor. Hers alone.

The Emperor’s last remaining stepson had been sent to his death in a faraway land. The Emperor’s daughter had been exiled to lead an existence for which Xifeng cared nothing. And as for the two favored concubines, she had destroyed them both. Jun had sent away every last concubine belonging to Lihua’s first husband and vowed never to take another, for there was nothing he wouldn’t do for his beautiful new Empress.

She reigned supreme, and there was no one, absolutely no one, left to challenge her.

Was it any wonder that after the festivities, Xifeng retired to the Emperor’s chambers with a heart as light as she had ever known? Jun waited for her in the vast, magnificent room lit by a hundred red candles, on the mammoth bed draped with fresh peonies. She enjoyed his eyes on her in these moments before, taking her time in letting down her hair and pulling each rich ornament from it, like jewels adrift from a black river. She ran her fingers through the strands, humming as she slipped on a robe the color of desert sand, so fine it was almost transparent. In the full-length bronze mirror, her soft, bare body looked like a gold-and-peach fruit wrapped delicately in a webbed skin.

On her way to Jun, she paused at the windows to enjoy the sight of the forest kingdom—herforest kingdom. Her first night as the Empress of all these lands, as the mistress of every twig, leaf, and branch, and every singing stream and cave and mountain.

But it was not the cool, clean night air of an early spring that greeted her. It was not the whispering treetops of a peaceful dark wood settling into sleep. It was not a placid midnight sky dusted over with the stars, the eyes of the heavens.

It was not just those.

For the Great Forest was ablaze with a strange and fearsome light.In the courtyard below, she heard the hum of people rushing outside to look at the trees. They pointed and shouted to each other at the mystical, extraordinary sight, their voices filled with confusion and awe as they swiveled their heads.

Xifeng held a hand to her heart as she stared, and the lanterns seemed to stare back at her: one thousand glittering, dazzling white lanterns that had somehow found themselves hanging in the trees of the Great Forest. They clung to the topmost branches, too high for any human to ever climb, and swung joyfully in the breeze, their light reflecting infinitely off the leaves, turning each tree into an enormous lantern in its own right.

And she knew, as surely as if Empress Lihua’s spirit had appeared before her and spoken to her, that these were the thousand lanterns that vowed to a lonely princess that love and justice still awaited her. These were the thousand lanterns hung by one whose love endured even in death, in loss, and in defeat, whose unwavering devotion would lead the way. These were the thousand lanterns of a mere fable, a story told by a sad-eyed queen whose time to die had come.

The lanterns glowed in Xifeng’s eyes, and they shone in all their ominousbeauty.