So she did not know about the imperial summons, I thought. Her husband must already be home, if the Imperial Commander had called for all his sons.
“Peony asks for him every day now. He spoils her rotten, of course.”
Caihong smiled at this. “He does dote on his daughter, no?”
“If only he’d give me half the attention!” Ruihua laughed, to show she was joking, but I caught the note of bitterness in her voice. “The number of women he keeps…” Caihong made a hemming noise of sympathy as she continued, “But he loves the children, and for that I can’t complain. Just wait”—she turned to me—“the seventh prince may be besotted with you now, but as soon as your body changes with childbearing—”
A knock on the door interrupted the princess. “Your Highness,” a harried manservant began, “the third prince has just—”
“Yuchen!” Ruihua cried out, rising as a tall man climbed across the threshold. I followed their lead, bowing, then watched withsurprise as Prince Yuchen took hold of his wife in front of us and kissed her on the lips.
“My dear,” he said. “You look rather unwell. Have the children been tormenting you?”
“They said you wouldn’t be back until tomorrow!” she said, breathless from the kiss. “How good it is to see you.”
“I came to find you as soon as I was dismissed. Please forgive the intrusion,” he said to Caihong, bowing. He appeared oblivious to my presence, and I did not know how to introduce myself.
His eyes drifted to the table, and Ruihua laughed. “Please, sit,” she said. “You must be famished.”
Prince Yuchen gulped down a bowl of bone broth in response.
“Real food,” he groaned, biting into a crispy bamboo shoot. “I’ve been subsisting on dried pork floss for weeks.”
Ruihua clucked with concern. “Was the weather rough along the western coast?”
As he sat back, my eyes dropped to his shoes, momentarily exposed beneath the hem of his traveling robes. He certainly had come straight from the saddle, for his shoes were caked with grime. Curiously, the dirt was tinged indigo, reminding me of the lakeside town of Saiya, which we had passed on our journey back from Mount Fuxi after the war. Saiya was a day’s ride away, yet entirely off course from the western coast.
“The weather was fine,” he said, “but the journey fruitless. No leads, still. Black magic is all over the countryside, yet nobody seems to know where the cursed practitioners have gone. Father is bent on eradicating them. He wants a party to set out as soon as tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Ruihua screeched. “How inhumane—you only just got back!”
He said something to comfort her, which I did not hear.Blackmagic is all over the countryside.How was that possible? I had watched Chancellor Sima take his own life. I had watched him wither into ashes. He had been the last spirit summoner, apart from me.
But I recalled the poem my mother had taught me, long ago.
One buried.
One drowned.
One stolen.
But none so pitiful—
as one forgotten.
Four jade seals. Four directions, four seasons, and four Cardinal Spirits. I carried the seal of Qinglong, the Azure Dragon. Zhuque, the Vermillion Bird, had lost hers for now and was biding her time in the spirit realm. But what of Baihu, the Ivory Tiger? What of Xuanwu, the Onyx Tortoise? And what of Qinglong—who surely was not resting, just because I was?
His goal is far more ambitious than anyone could have known. It is long-drawn-out, and yet, what is time to an immortal?
How foolish I was to believe this could end so easily.
My vision was tunneling, like it always did before a panic attack. I clawed helplessly at the iron bands on my wrists, knowing full well they could not come off. Cold sweat coated my skin as my need for lixia surged within me. The craving was ever present, yet especially unbearable when acknowledged.
“Meilin!” exclaimed Ruihua, rousing me from my thoughts. “What are you doing in the corner? Please sit.”
“Who is this?” Prince Yuchen asked, studying me as I took the open seat beside him. His face, rather flat and round, reminded me of a polished copper coin. Like his wife, he was gilded from head to toe, with long flowing robes embroidered with gold. Moststrikingly, he wore a diadem of perfectly symmetrical ruby beads across his forehead, the color so brilliant they reminded me of living flames. “I haven’t seen you before.”
“This is Lady Hai Meilin,” said Princess Ruihua. “Aspecialfriend of the seventh prince.”
