Chapter 14 Sword Through the Attendant
In the days that followed, I kept playing the pain of a lost child before Li Yuancheng, so he could not easily summon me to his bed.
The other two consorts wanted his favor, but with my example and Xu Liuyi's before them, they did not dare invite it rashly. I could tell they feared that if they conceived, Xu Liuyi's child would be gone again.
They came to chat with me, saying Xu Liuyi would give birth in another three or four months.
"I hope she has a son."
"So do I."
I still pretended I did not understand what they meant.
Behind my back they laughed at me. "So stupid."
When spring warmed and flowers opened, Xu Liuyi went into labor early.
It was a son.
Li Yuancheng and I hurried there. An attendant of the emperor was holding a bowl of medicine, about to feed it to Xu Liuyi.
Xu Liuyi struggled with all she had.
Her eyes were full of fear. The moment she saw Li Yuancheng, she reached toward him. "Your Highness, save me."
Li Yuancheng kicked the attendant aside.
The attendant's voice went sharp. "Your Highness the Crown Prince, do you mean to defy the edict?"
Li Yuancheng ran him through the heart with one stroke of his sword.
At that moment I also heard the sound of killing in the distance. Li Yuancheng's personal guards all rushed out.
The day Xu Liuyi gave birth was the day Li Yuancheng staged a palace coup.
Xu Liuyi curled into Li Yuancheng's arms as if she had just survived a disaster. "This subject knew Your Highness would save me."
I stepped forward. "Congratulations, Your Highness, on the birth of a son."
Xu Liuyi heard my voice and lifted her head in panic. She told Li Yuancheng weakly, "Your Highness, she is..."
I made the silencing gesture at her again.
She did not dare speak.
The two things she had said before had both gone against her wish.
She now seemed to hold it firmly in mind: a wish spoken aloud would not come true.
The child was crying faintly then. Li Yuancheng's attention was drawn away. He did not press her on what she had meant to say.
Because it was premature, the child was a tiny bundle, like a kitten.
Li Yuancheng ordered the imperial physicians to spare nothing in caring for the child and Xu Liuyi, then took up his sword and walked out.
As he passed me he said, "Stay here. Do not go anywhere. I will come for you later."
I nodded lightly. "All right."
I watched his receding back, and thought again of that autumn night on the wasteland.
A cold moon hung in the sky. I sat on my horse and could not bear to part from him.
I had told him, "Come back soon, Your Highness. I will be waiting."
Now the cold moon was still there, but neither of us could wait for the person we had been.