My shin bumped against a stone step. I gripped my staff and began to climb back to the ground level of Jing Mansion.
The dim moonlight revealed a deserted courtyard, with spoiled plums crushed and bleeding across the pavement. But danger remained nearby. Yuyan’s laugh echoed from somewhere in the western wing, prompting me to hurry. I slunk past the inner courtyard to the main house. Then I pulled out my pouch of glutinous rice and got to work.
A few minutes later, I stood in the reception hall, back pressed up against an empty altar. My right hand gripped my staff while my left held a small, flickering candle I’d found in the cupboards. Through the paper panels of the door across the room, humanoid shadows emerged and stretched into view. Deathly moans hummed through the wood, making me shudder.
Be brave.
The doors flung open.
Yuyan floated gracefully inside, flanked by her possessed former household. The slice across her throat looked as horrifying as ever, gaping and raw. She smirked as her eyes landed on my candle.
“You’ll need more light than that to ward me off,” she said with an amused laugh.
I lifted my chin. “What have you done to Ren?”
“You should worry more about yourself, little priestess. The Sian king can afford to lose one of his sons. In fact, we’d all be better off.” Yuyan waved her finger. “Grab her.”
The jiangshi poured past their mistress, charging forward with startling speed. In the candlelight, I could see them more clearly than before. It seemed Yuyan’s vanity extended only to her own corpse. The bodies of the Jing household were in lessattractive conditions. Drying brown flesh clung to skeletons for some, while others suffered from bloated, waxen faces wriggling with maggots. The foul odor of rot and human waste flooded the room, choking my throat.
I couldn’t let them touch me. As they drew closer, I flung a wave of purification talismans at their foreheads, rang my bells, and recited the incantation in a single breath. The jiangshi in front collapsed to the floor, small orbs of pure white qi rising from their bodies.
Yuyan shrieked, watching a group of jiangshi stumble over their fallen comrades. Taking advantage, I purified them too. It seemed a waste to watch qi fade back into the earth, but Ren wasn’t around to claim it.
Ren.Heavens, I prayed he was still alive.
I shifted to avoid a jiangshi that had come from my left. At the same time, my heel hooked on a lifeless arm, and I tumbled backward, landing hard on my tailbone. I was about to pick myself up when a hand grabbed my wrist. I turned and stared into the filmy, sunken eyes of a maidservant, my skin going numb beneath the jiangshi’s hold. The flesh of her rotten fingers ripped open. Writhing white maggots burst from the gash, a few falling onto my arm. The maidservant’s face cracked as her lips widened, her smirk all too similar to Yuyan’s.
I whacked her hand with my peach staff, freeing myself, and spun to face the horde of jiangshi closing in. There were too many. I couldn’t purify them all.
I ran.
Swinging my staff in front of me, I fought my way through the jiangshi and raced for the open door. I was nearly there when I felt something clutch my braid and yank me back. My staff clattered to the floor.
Icy fingers crept across my bare throat, the scent of blood and incense filling my nostrils once more, making me dizzy. Or perhaps it was the hand around my neck, absorbing my life force, that was weakening my senses.
I fumbled for my bag as Yuyan’s chilling whisper brushed against my ear. “You lose.”
The numbness in my throat intensified, and I envisioned my skin turning to ice. It was a miracle I hadn’t fainted already, considering how powerful Yuyan was.
But I wouldn’t die here.
I gasped, “Where. Is. Ren?”
Yuyan clucked her tongue. “You really must stop asking—”
I slapped a purification talisman on her forehead, too fast for her to prevent it. Then I stretched out my foot and kicked my staff, the incantation already flowing from my lips, the words meeting the chime of my bells.
Yuyan’s hand fell from my throat, her scream dying as she crumpled to the ground. The other jiangshi, momentarily frozen, met my gaze and rushed forward once more. I didn’t hesitate. In one swift movement, I reached into my bag and tossed a handful of sticky rice grains at the onslaught. The jiangshi reared back from the purifying rice, giving me time to snatch my staff off the floor and leap over the threshold.
Once outside, I removed a ceramic bottle from my bag—the perfume I’d purchased for Lilan in Xiuxi. With a cry, I smashed the bottle on the floor of the reception hall, the liquid splattering across the room. Then I struck a match and pitched it inside.
The room erupted into flames.
As the fire spread, and the jiangshi thrashed within the heat, I scattered the rest of my rice across the threshold andslammed the doors shut. The smell of smoke and flowers clung to me as I ran down the steps into the courtyard, heart slamming in my chest.
I’d done it. I’d defeated Yuyan.
Now all that was left was to find Ren, so we could leave this cursed place. As for the qi we’d come for, we’d just have to obtain it somewhere else. I’d figure out an alternative solution. I always did.
