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“Do you have any questions?” the Empress said.

“Can we have any other materials besides stones, Your Highness?” one alchemist said.

“No,” she said, a sharp frown creasing her face. “You are supposedly the greatest alchemists in this kingdom. Don’t tell me that all the stones in the world are too limiting for you?”

The alchemist paled and shook his head, bowing in apology.

“Any other questions?” the Empress said, even though her tone made it clear they would not be welcome. At the resounding silence, the Empress crossed her arms and sat back.

“You may begin.”

Not a single alchemist moved, staring in stunned silence at the stones before us. I had never had such an immense library of stones at my disposal, yet I had no idea what to do with any of them.

Where could I even begin? What sort of stone could create life? I closed my eyes and thought of my father’s notes on all the minerals in the human body. I could hear the low, wordless rumble of his voice in my head.Calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chloride...But I doubted that simply putting all those things in a bowl and fusing them together would actually create life. There was no way the final exam could be so straightforward. Life wasn’t just a bunch of rocks—it was qi. If it wasn’t too far gone, qi could be called back, but how could it be created where none existed?

Some of the other alchemists had started assembling piles of stones with trembling hands. The one next to me had molded a bunch of iron into the shape of a small person and stared at it like it would tell him the answers.

“Quit copying me,hùnxie,” he said, glaring at me and shielding his stones from view.

I rolled my eyes. As if he was doing anything worth copying. But it wasn’t like I had any better ideas.

I took a steadying breath.Just think of a theory and test it,I told myself.Anything is better than gaping like a fish at your rocks while the other alchemists actually try things.

The key to eternal youth was derived from gold, so surely gold had something to do with creating life. I grabbed a handful of gold nuggets and brought them to the center of the table. Maybe, if I could somehow create qi and meld it with the gold, I could create life. ?, the character for qi, could also be read asairorbreath, and the Empress had specified that she wanted a “breathing creature,” so surely that was an essential part of it. Air came from the plants and oceans, so I chose a woodstone and waterstone along with a piece of gold and closed them into a fist.

It wasn’t a good idea to do alchemy without a clear intention, but I needed to trysomethingand see what happened.

The reaction was instantaneous—the stones burst into blue light, singeing my palm. I yelped and dropped them to the ground, where the grass flashed into flames. I quickly stomped them out, daring to glance back at the Empress, who was watching me coldly, lips pressed into a tight line.

“I’ve got it!” one of the alchemists said.

I whirled toward the sound, where a man in the front row was bouncing on his heels. He held some sort of catlike figure made of blue cobalt and placed it on a flat sheet of iron. The creature lifted a stiff paw and began to crawl forward, raising its tail. The other alchemists stifled gasps, peering around me to get a closer look.

The Empress leaned forward, squinting at the creation, and I cursed myself for not watching him more closely to see what he’d done. Surely he hadn’t made life so easily and quickly? Fear clamped around my rib cage, choking my breath away. After all this time, had I already lost?

“Oh, please,” Zheng Sili said, rolling his eyes. “That’s not life, it’s magnets. He’s using lodestone.”

He fished through one of his own jars and waved a grayed stone over the cobalt cat, which jumped toward the stone and stuck there as if nailed in place.

The Empress’s eyes darkened. “Were you trying to deceive me?” she said, her voice like low thunder.

The alchemist shook his head frantically. “No, Your Highness, I was just experimenting, I thought magnets were allowed, I—”

“You have lost your chance,” the Empress said evenly. “You are disqualified. Guards?” She gestured to the alchemist cowering at the front. Without a word, a guard stepped forward, drew his sword, and plunged it into the alchemist’s stomach.

The others gasped and stumbled back as the man crashed into the dirt, red spilling quickly from his stomach, soaking the ground beneath our feet. He cried out for help, but no one moved toward him, not with the armed guard still hovering nearby.

One alchemist backed up into another’s table, stumbling as if heading toward the door.

The guard moved faster, leveling his sword with the alchemist’s face.

“You already had an opportunity to forfeit,” the Empress said, resting her chin on one hand. “You will complete the task now, one way or another.”

More guards arrived, dragging the bleeding alchemist’s body somewhere deeper into the palace, a trail of blood staining the dirt behind him. My hands trembled and sweat pooled under my palms as I slowly raised my gaze to the Empress’s face.

Those of you who do not succeed today will not be leaving my palace, the Empress had said. This was why no one knew what the final round entailed. Either you won and served her, or you died to keep her secrets.

The other alchemists had already resumed their experiments with shaking hands, averting their eyes from the trail of blood. With a flash of light to my left, another alchemist’s miniature human statue took a few faltering steps forward before bursting into a choking cloud of copper dust. The alchemist let out a panicked sob, sweeping the remains off the table.