I make sure the protective talismans I’ve set on my chambers are undisturbed as I slide the door shut behind me.
A silhouette lunges at me from behind a willow, but I’ve prepared for this.
I lash out with Poison, feel the satisfying push of resistance as my trusty blade bites into flesh. There’s a hiss of pain, and my assailant stumbles, his hand over the gash in his chest.
No slaughter on temple grounds,the Precepts state. That doesn’t mean I can’t wound.
My assailant looks up and glares at me, blood dribblingfrom the corners of his mouth. In the dim moonlight filtering out from behind clouds, I make out his face: one of Yán’lù’s cronies.
Alarm bells go off in my head as I turn to another approaching figure and strike with my other hand. Fleet draws blood from the second attacker, but then a third lunges at me from behind, and I don’t reach him in time.
My shout is cut off by a meaty hand clamping over my mouth. I spin Poison and Fleet and jab them backward, yet a fourth pair of hands catches them in a firm grip; a fifth person grabs my legs, lifting me bodily from the ground. There’s a jab to my wrists, and my crescent blades drop to the ground in two light clinks.
“He said to meet by the waterfall,” hisses the assailant holding my arms.
I can’t twist out of their grasp, but I don’t stop struggling as they carry me through the moongate and past the bridge to the Celestial Gardens. We’re heading for the back of the gardens, where the forest grows thick and wild. By now, there’s an edge of panic to my anger. They’re taking me far from the Clear Skies Pavilion, from the dorms and the training temples, to a place where no one can hear me scream.
Willows and dove trees obscure the sky. Soon, I hear the rush of the waterfall that plunges from the edge of the temple grounds to the abyss and the ocean of another realm far, far below.
My assailants drop me roughly to the ground and pin me there, twisting my wrists just enough to hurt. Someone’s palm covers the lower half of my face. From my vantage point, I see only long grasses and the canopy, smell wet loam and the faint fragrance of flowers.
Yán’lù’s face appears. I can make out only the glint of his teeth as he smiles in a way that sends cold through my veins.
“Hand off her mouth,” he orders. “I want to hear her scream.”
The pressure on my face loosens. Then Yán’lù backhands me across my cheek so hard that I see stars, hear a sharp, high-pitched ringing in my ears. When the world settles again, I taste blood on my tongue.
I spit on the grass. “You can’t kill me.” My voice is barely a croak. “No slaughter on temple grounds. Precepts.”
“Oh, I’m well aware,” Yán’lù says. His voice is dangerously soft. “But there are so many ways I can hurt you without killing you.”
So he’s figured out the loophole to this particular precept, too.
My heart hammers, but I force myself to hold very still. If I show fear, I lose. I test my limbs, but there are five of his lackeys pinning me down. The waterfall pounds in my ears; the river is so close to me, I can feel its spray on my skin.
“Unless.” Yán’lù crouches by my side. He bends to my ear, and I shiver as I feel his breath against my cheeks. “Unless, my flower, you tell me the secret you hold.”
I freeze. What secret could Yán’lù want from me? “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, but even as I speak, I think of my father, of the note in the handkerchief.The truth to everything is at the Temple of Dawn.And I think of Yù’chén, of the dark secret he hides that only I know.
Yán’lù’s eyes take on a manic gleam. “In that case, I think we should wash the blood from her lovely, lovely face,” he says. “Clean her up a little.”
I barely have time to draw a breath as I’m lifted anddunked backward into the river. It’s no use; the currents buffet me relentlessly, and the air immediately burbles from my lips. Water rushes up my nose and fills my mouth, and it is agony. I splutter, my body convulses, my lungs are on fire, and I think I will die—
—and I’m dragged up. I cough out water, my body heaving in great, racking gasps. But as Yán’lù’s face appears close to mine again, I lift my chin and meet his gaze. My teeth are chattering so hard that I know he can hear it, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of breaking.
I will not be prey.
“Having fun?” he asks. “We can stop, if you beg.”
I swallow but keep my lips sealed.No slaughter on temple grounds. They can’t kill me. I’ll live.But my heart and the terror pulsing through my veins scream otherwise.
“No?” Yán’lù says. “Let’s clean out your mouth.”
Water gags me again, and when I surface, I’m on the verge of begging. My entire body trembles. There’s the cold press of a knife against my cheek, and I feel my skin split open, feel warmth down my face.
“Tell me your secret,” Yán’lù snarls. “Who’s watching over you?”
I think of the immortal guard whose face I dreamt in the ocean that day, who saved me from Yán’lù our first night here. But there is another answer to his question: the reason I’m alive, the one who has watched over me all these years.
