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 askfor 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.
