Chapter 18 The Bloody Handkerchief
They say many hands make light work.
The credit for sowing discord never belonged to the beauty alone.
Countless little people like me also played our parts.
I rode day and night and reached the war zone in just two days.
There I saw Herdanba again.
I handed him the blood-stained handkerchief and performed my lies with perfect emotion.
"After the princess returned to Dongxia, she reported to the Wan Nu King:
'Your daughter admires the valor of King Danba, and he feels the same. I beg Father to approve the marriage.'
But the Wan Nu King replied, 'Since she is to marry into Herchi, she might as well marry the Herchi King himself. What kind of king is a mere adopted son? Does he deserve one of our princesses?'
Then he bound her and sent her into Herchi as a tribute beauty.
The princess swore to die rather than obey and refused to attend the banquet.
The Wan Nu King threatened her, saying if she disobeyed he would tell the Herchi King that his adopted son had already taken the woman prepared for him.
In the end she had no choice but to attend.
After one cup of wine she was carried away.
By the time I reached her, the Herchi King had already... used her.
When she woke, she could not bear it and smashed her head against a pillar."
Herdanba’s face flickered between shock and rage.
When I spoke of Yin Xiu crashing into the pillar, his body swayed.
I continued my solemn nonsense.
"Do not worry, Great King. She was saved.
The princess only asked me to bring you one message: the Emperor suspects she holds someone else in her heart.
She does not dare confess her bond with you and force you to choose between father and son.
She said she was merely a birthday gift you found for him.
In the end her luck was thin. Please forget her."
A shiver ran through me after I finished.
But Herdanba believed every word.
From then on I became the messenger between them.
No one kept their guard up around a lowly maid.
My knowledge of Herdanba’s movements grew sharper than that of his own deputy.
Su Chengyu lingered at the Herchi border.
Through secret lines I sent him a steady stream of military intelligence.