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“Are we losing the war?”

“Notyet,” Siwang replied, voice low. As if he spoke the words quietly, it would not ring true. “However, as the men of our First and Second Armies keep dying, things might change, fast….”

“Isn’t that the only thing we can count on in times of war? People dying?”

“Not us. Not normally, at least. Rong’s soldiers are the best on the continent, and we haven’t lost a war in decades. I can’t lose this war, Fei. I won’t let our people return to the life of our ancestors. Ants at the southerners’ feet. Their so-called savages, to be trampled and abused as they wish. If we are not conquerors and emperors, then we are nothing.”

Rong’s soldierswerethe best on the continent.

My eyes dropped to his fist, curled on the table. I wanted to cover his hand with mine, let my flesh warm his, and tell him everything would be okay.

I didn’t.

Fate might have blessed me, but I couldn’t see the futures she didn’t want to show me. And Siwang didn’t want syrupy lies. He had put my father’s name on the conscription list because he wanted someone honest at his side.

I would listen to Siwang’s worries, I would not pour salt over his wounds, and I would not lie.

“I begged my father to send me here,” Siwang continued, his voice smaller than before. “So that I could dosomethingas my people continue to die by the hundreds and the thousands. As this land that is soaked with our ancestors’ blood, laden with their bones, is stolen from under our feet. Inch by inch, mile by mile, city by city. All of it is my fault, because I let Lan Yexue escape. I am the crown prince, the heir of heaven’s mandate. I have a responsibility to stop this madness before it consumes Rong.”

You are not the reason Lan Yexue escaped,I wanted to tell him. I was the one who had tended his wounds, saved him from the Beiying tiger’s jaws, warned him that Siwang and his men were close, and when I had the chance to end him, I did not.

If anyone was responsible for this carnage, it was me.

“Are these lands really worth the bloodshed?” I asked.

“This is the land our ancestors gave their lives to claim. Of course it is worth it. To relinquish our land is to dishonor everything that’s come before us.”

My lips thinned; a protest rose into my mouth.

Empires rose, and empires fell. Life bloomed, then life withered. Nothing was eternal. Not even the greatest dynasties the continent had ever seen. The Huang, the Qin, the southern Chu. All had tried to unite the Warring States. And all had failed.

One day, Rong would decline, just like all the great empires that had come before it.

This was the cycle of life. We would be replaced, erased, and perhaps forgotten by future generations until we were nothing but the ruins and dust of a crumbling legacy.

“This chaos, a war here and a war there, when will it end? Today Lan wants a city. Tomorrow Wei wants a village. One enemy falls and two rise in its place. All men who amass power are greedy. Will the people of these borderlands ever know peace?”

Will the bloodshed ever end?

“They will know peace when I become the emperor of all emperors. One day, Rong will become so powerful that no one will dare to rebel or wage war. When I rule over a united An’Lu, the continent will finally be free of wars, and know only prosperity.”

I exhaled. Absentmindedly, I toyed with the spoon on the table, not knowing what to say.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I don’t think uniting An’Lu is going to be as easy as you imagine it to be.”

“If it were easy, someone would have done it by now.” He leaned a little closer, his golden eyes glistening with want. “I’m going to do it, Fei. No matter the cost, I will unite the continent. Or die trying.”

“Don’t say that,” I protested.

“There is another reason why we can’t let Lan win,” Siwang continued.

I thought of Yexue’s glittering crimson blood, its sweetness as it filled my mouth. “Your pride?” A moment of lingering childhood courage, which I regretted as soon as it was out of my mouth.

Thankfully, Siwang gave me a half laugh. Tolerant, though the warning was there. “Were you angry when I put your father’s name on the conscription list?”

“Angry?” The word felt too small, too gentle to describe how I hadfelt.