“Even so, that’s no way to speak to royalty. Were you raised by animals, girl?”
“I never wanted to speak to royalty.” Changing subjects, I said, “I wish you’d told me about your past. I would’ve believed you.”
Mistress Ming finally stopped trying to hit me. She shook her head, exhaling tiredly. “I’ve already made a life here. There’s no reason to bring up the past. Especially one filled with so much regret.”
I stared at the door, my concentration split between myself and the body I was animating outside. “Is that why you insist on saving the prince?”
“Perhaps,” said Mistress Ming. “He was such a kind child. Iwantto help him.”
“Are you sure he’s still kind? He’s much grown since you last saw him, and a son of the king who falsely accused you.”
“I can see it in his face.” She clicked her tongue in sympathy. “He doesn’t deserve what’s happened to him, just as he didn’t deserve to lose his mother so young. Surely you know what that feels like.”
I looked sideways at her. “Dajie, are you trying to manipulate me?”
She spread her hands apart and shrugged. “I’m only speaking the truth.”
I rolled my eyes, then unfolded myself from the floor, staff in hand.
“Where are you going?” Mistress Ming asked.
“Where do you think?” I stalked to the door. “To negotiate terms.”
Her disapproving “Aiyah” followed me out of the hut as Istepped off the porch and advanced on the prince standing beside the garden. He’d stopped pacing and was now gazing at the herbs protruding from the dark earth.
On his feet, he looked even taller than I’d thought, his posture perfect from years of practice. His hands hung at his sides, with long fingers well suited to playing stringed instruments. In contrast to his princely features, dirt and old blood stained his battered armor, prompting me to wonder if he felt pain. He’d come back to life in the most unusual of ways, and I couldn’t be sure how his body had been affected.
“Have you cleared your mind, Your Highness?” I asked, slowing to a stop two arms’ length away.
He turned around, lifting the Fu talisman to meet my eyes. “You’re not very patient for a priestess. I just died in battle. And discovered my mother was poisoned.”
“Yes, and I am terribly sorry about all that,” I said. “But I have promises to keep and little time to do it. The first promise being the one I made to Official Yi, who is your…?”
Prince Renshu sighed. “He works for my brother, Liqin. He must’ve heard about the ambush and hired you.”
So the battlefield had indeed been the scene of an ambush. How incredibly unlucky that he, of all people, had been caught in the middle of it.
“What’s a prince doing dressed up like a soldier anyway?” I asked.
“I’m not ‘dressed up,’” he replied defensively. “Iama soldier. Just because I’m a prince, it doesn’t mean I can’t be both.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, though.”
He shrugged. “I was just trying to get out of the palace, see the world with my own eyes for once. Enlisting in the army as a common soldier seemed like the easiest option.”
“Or the most dangerous,” I corrected.
He winced. “Yes, well.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “Going back to the main point, I still have a job to finish. Which means I must bring you home to Hulin, no matter the condition you’re in.”
The prince shook his head. “Not like this.”
I wasn’t sure if he was referring to his death, his disheveled appearance, or his miraculous return to life. Perhaps all three. Regardless, it wasn’t my concern. My interest in him extended only as far as his usefulness to me. And he had been, at the beginning, meant to be very useful.
I drummed my fingers against my staff, jostling the bells. “I must be frank—”
“You’ve been nothing but frank,” he quipped. The look he gave me was one I’d seen hundreds of times before. It was a look worn by friends, neighbors, and even my own father, a look that said,Relax, Kang Siying. You can afford to be a little more carefree.
