Page 12 of The Dragon Wakes with Thunder (The Dragon Spirit Duology #2)
The last command, the costliest, stole my breath from me.
I cursed as my knees buckled, and I nearly collapsed against the stairs.
Wei Xu had already turned in the direction of her mistress’s rooms. I followed at a distance, dizzy and lightheaded, as she disappeared through a door at the end of the stairway.
In the back of my mind, I could sense my roiling qi—impossibly fragile, as thin as a spider’s web.
Why did my qi feel so weak, when I had not used it in months?
I called upon my lixia to strengthen it, but that only highlighted the stark disparity between the two.
They were meant to exist in harmony, reflecting each other as mirror images, but now my lixia felt more and more like a hungry shadow, swallowing up the light.
I waited a few beats before climbing up to the stairwell, now cast in total darkness. Then, when I heard voices on the other end, I peered through the door.
A tapestry obscured most of the opening, but I could make out several nobles in the sitting room, in various states of repose.
“His standing among the people comes from that girl,” Princess Yifeng was saying. “They know she is bound to him.”
“He is popular in his own right. They see him as the great hero of the war,” said Prince Yuchen mockingly. “Because he waved his sword around a few times and shouted ‘Charge,’ now they regard him as fit to rule the kingdom.”
“Father will appoint whomever he deems suitable.” I didn’t recognize this speaker, but I thought it might be the fourth prince, a quiet man who rarely emerged in public.
“Your filial nature is a guiding light for us all,” said Princess Ruihua, though I detected a note of scorn in her voice.
“If only our dear brother Sky could be half as filial,” said Princess Yifeng. “He seems to believe he is the heir apparent already, with his flagrant disregard for His Majesty’s edicts.”
“The consequences of his disobedience will fall upon him,” said Yuchen knowingly, “sooner than he thinks.”
It was an unmistakable threat. I wanted Princess Yifeng to ask him what he meant, but her attention was diverted as she read the letter from her maidservant.
“It’s late,” she said abruptly, pocketing the scroll. “I must retire for the evening.”
“Apologies for overstaying our welcome,” said Princess Ruihua, rising. “We only wished to congratulate you on the appointment of your brother to the magistrate’s seat. You must be overjoyed.”
“Pity he couldn’t secure it on his own,” said Yuchen wickedly.
“Some of us rely on cleverness,” said Yifeng. “Others rely on who they know.”
Princess Yifeng waited until they all filed out. Then she burned the letter over a candle.
“Any other news?” asked Yifeng, watching the devouring flame.
“Your brother is asking for extra funds dedicated to Weiyang. The storehouses are empty and the famine is particularly bad this winter.”
Yifeng examined the remains of the letter, now turned to ash. “Tell him I can’t help right now.”
“Your sister also requests assistance. She says her eldest is struggling to pass the jinshi exam and may require—”
“Tell them they’re on their own right now!” Yifeng snapped. “I need to think. Leave me.”
I did not envy her. In that moment, she reminded me of my stepmother, shouldering the brunt of her family’s survival alone. No wonder even Prince Keyan had turned to her with his problems. She might have a penchant for brewing trouble, but she was equally skilled at resolving it.
I hurried back to my rooms, climbing up the yinhua tree. I winced as several branches broke and dropped into the pond with a splash, but no one came to investigate the commotion. Back in my chambers, I knocked on Lily’s door.
Despite the late hour, she was fully dressed, her cheeks red with cold. “My lady?”
“Where were you?” I asked suspiciously.
“I went for a walk.”
I eyed her, but she did not shrink from my gaze. It was a lie, I suspected, but not one that betrayed her loyalty to me. “Can you send a message to Winter?”
“At this hour?” she asked. I nodded.
I regretted disturbing her rest, but the Imperial Commander would soon be returning, and I had a feeling Prince Yuchen would not wait. “ The consequences of his disobedience will fall upon him ,” he’d promised, “ sooner than he thinks. ”
“After you deliver the note, I want two bracelets fashioned to look like my irons.” I used a paper fan to slide my manacles out from under the bed, careful not to touch them. “The shape and heft of them should be the same, and the color ideally. But they cannot be made of genuine iron.”
Lily shot me a piercing look. I held her gaze, daring her to ask for an explanation. You want to bet on the winning team. It had not occurred to me before tonight to use mental manipulation on my own maids. Even the idea of it left me uneasy, and yet I was not above such ruthlessness.
“Yes, my lady.”
Once she’d departed, I wrote a letter. I would have to return the iron key to Zibei, I thought, or face Sky’s questioning. But before I could determine my next move, a knock sounded at the door.
“The sixth prince,” announced Lily.
“That was quick,” I said, rising as Winter crossed the threshold to my quarters.
He had changed clothes and now wore a shimmering emerald silk that caught the firelight as he moved. He looked as if he were going out to the theater, rather than to bed.
“Is this appropriate?” he asked, eyeing the interior of my rooms as he met me on the raised kang platform. “The servants will talk.”
“If I were trying to make Sky jealous I would’ve chosen a different prince,” I said impatiently, as Lily set a tea tray on the kang table.
Winter raised a brow. “What is it?”
I relayed the contents of Keyan’s letter.
He swept back his robes and took a seat in the rosewood armchair across from me. “You certainly work fast,” he remarked, as I poured him a cup of steaming tea.
“I thought you knew how I worked.”
Winter raised his cup to me in a silent toast. “So when does my brother depart for the mines?”
“The day after tomorrow,” I replied. “Where are they located?”
“There are several, but the most prominent ones are in Jitang, Yenwu, and Saiya.”
Saiya. The lakeside town we’d passed on the way back from Mount Fuxi.
I set my tea down, looking up at Winter. “I think Yuchen is the one stealing from the gold mines and shifting the blame to Keyan.” I told him of the indigo dust I’d seen on his shoes the day he’d returned.
Winter blew on his tea. “He certainly wasn’t supposed to be in Saiya,” he said thoughtfully.
“But what would he need the funds for? The discrepancy would have to be substantial to catch my father’s attention.
Yuchen already commands the influence of the General Counsel—he does not require additional resources for any of his charges. ”
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “Monitor him, will you?”
“Whatever you wish,” he said, rising with a mocking bow. “Now, if you’ll excuse me—I have a real date I cannot be late for.”
I glanced out the darkened window. “At this hour?”
“The night is still young.”
“With whom?”
Winter smirked. “A gentleman never tells.”
I shot him a sidelong look. “Does this have anything to do with Captain Tong?”
Winter blinked, the first semblance of a reaction I’d gotten out of him.
“You two look good together,” I said, smiling. I’d first encountered Captain Tong during the bandits’ ambush near Ji Zong. Winter had nearly been taken captive that day, but Captain Tong had guarded him fiercely. “I’m glad at least some good came from the war,” I remarked.
“Oh?” Winter raised a brow. “I can think of a few other good things.” From his arch tone, I knew whatever he said next would be at my expense.
Before he could tease me relentlessly, I bid him good night and ushered him out the door. Exhausted, I prepared for bed, telling myself I’d sleep in tomorrow—I’d earned it.
Unfortunately, the morning had other plans for me.
“My lady,” said Lotus. “Sorry to wake you—but you must rise.”
“What time is it?” I asked groggily. “I thought I asked Lily to cancel today’s training session.”
“It’s not that,” she said. “The crown prince has returned early on an imperial mission. No one knows why! The third prince requested a private audience with him—and now the crown prince is issuing a summons for you! It’s an official summons”—she worried her lower lip—“under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Commander.”
Which meant it was either a punishment or a promotion. Given my previous track record, I knew not to expect the latter.
With mounting unease, I let Lotus and Lily dress me as we waited. Lily discreetly handed me the custom-made bracelets, crafted to mimic iron—a simple task, she remarked, given the current fashion for wearing iron.
Within the hour, the imperial guards arrived, summoning me to Prince Keyan’s palace. Though they did not bind my hands, I noted the way they surrounded me, as if they thought I might try to escape. But I was not so foolish as to think running could get me anywhere.
When Lotus tried to follow, the head guard shook his head. “He requested only the lady.”
“Lady Hai is prone to nausea and vomiting,” explained Lotus. She shot me a wink as the head guard allowed her to accompany me.
The throne room of the crown prince was smaller than the Imperial Commander’s, but no less extravagant.
Prince Liu Keyan sat on a raised dais made of rosewood and cedar, the steps intricately carved to resemble a swaying bamboo forest. In front of him Princess Yifeng poured him a medicinal-smelling tea, before placing the porcelain teapot on the table and retreating to the back.
Prince Yuchen stood before the dais, vibrating with a nervous, uncontainable energy. As my presence was announced and I entered the room, I watched him watch me, tracking my every step like a cat before a mouse. But who was the cat, I wondered, and who was the mouse?
“There she is,” said Yuchen, “the demon girl.”