Chapter 15 Summons to Ci’an Palace
I drank the poison myself, yet I did not succeed in dying.
After the poison was neutralized, the days felt stretched and fragile.
Xiao Huai An put off all unnecessary court sessions. He appeared in my bedchamber on time at the Chen hour each day, always carrying some curious thing in his hand.
Sometimes it was newly made rose pastries from the imperial kitchens. Sometimes it was a luminous jade disc, tribute from the Western Regions.
Most ordinary were the little toys he wove himself from bamboo strips. There were butterflies with beating wings, and cats with curled tails, clumsy enough to be laughable.
Yet I put them all away at the bottom of the camphor box.
The Silk Tree at Wen Manor bloomed. Pale pink fluffy blossoms sifted down onto the bluestone slabs.
Xiao Huai An would lead me by the hand through the flower shade, watching Mother teach the maids to make sachets under the corridor.
He would take the needle and thread Mother handed him and clumsily embroider a crooked orchid, saying he would hang it at my waist to ward off evil.
“Your Highness’s handiwork, I am afraid, would draw the ghosts of those who died with grievances.”
I laughed and reached to snatch the sachet from his hand, but he reversed his grip around my wrist.
His finger pads rubbed the shallow scar on my wrist. A broken glint flickered in his eyes. “Wen Yan, when I take the throne, I will tear down half these palace walls, so you can see the Silk Tree blossoms of Wen Manor every day.”
I looked at the earnest set of his brows and eyes, and suddenly remembered that in my last life he had also stood in flower shade like this. He had said he would build me a Moon Gazing Tower, so I could see the whole of Changan.
Later the tower was built. It became my cage.
“All right.” I drew my hand back and tucked his ruined sachet into my sleeve. “Then I will plant orchids all over the place where the wall comes down, and see whether Your Highness gets drunk on the scent.”
He laughed low. The sound trembled in his chest.
Sunlight fell through the gaps in the Silk Tree blossoms onto his hair, like a scatter of broken gold.
I knew this promise was a flower in a mirror. Yet I still could not help greedily watching this moment of warmth.
When autumn came, the Dowager Empress suddenly summoned me to Ci'an Palace.
She sat on a soft couch spread with white fox fur, red sandalwood prayer beads turning in her hand.
Her cloudy eyes looked me over. “Does Young Master Wen know that in a previous dynasty there was a Lord Consort who, to help the emperor steady the realm, asked to be stripped of the Lord Consort’s seat and entered the Imperial Mausoleum as a hostage? ”
Sandalwood from the censer rose in thin threads and choked my throat tight.
I lowered my lashes and bowed. “This subject is ill-informed, and has never heard of it.”
“Oh?” The Dowager Empress gave a light laugh. The beads turned faster in her palm. “Then does Young Master Wen know that the corruption case the Crown Prince has been investigating of late involves your Father’s disciples?”
My fingertips suddenly clenched the sachet in my sleeve. The stitches of the orchid Xiao Huai An had embroidered pricked my palm to pain.
“This subject believes Father’s disciples would never embezzle or break the law.” I lifted my head and looked straight into the Dowager Empress’s eyes. “If such a thing were true, the Wen Clan would not condone it.”
The Dowager Empress suddenly laughed. The sound was like dry leaves scraping a window lattice. “Clever indeed. Only, Young Master Wen should remember. The flowers inside these palace walls, no matter how bright, will fade in time.”
When I left Changle Palace, autumn wind rolled fallen leaves against my face, like countless tiny slaps.
Xiao Huai An was standing at the palace gate waiting for me. The Crown Prince’s bright yellow everyday robes snapped in the wind.
When he saw me, he came forward quickly and settled an ink-black cloak over my shoulders. “Why were you gone so long? Did the Dowager Empress make things hard for you?”
I looked at the concern in his eyes and suddenly wanted to ask him whether those disciples under investigation had become stepping stones on his climb again.
But when the words reached my lips, they only turned into, “The wind has picked up. Let us go back.”
He took my hand and walked back. The heat of his palm was startling.
When we passed Taiye Pool, I saw someone flying a paper kite. A huge phoenix kite broke from its string and plunged straight into the heart of the lake, sending out rings of ripples.
“What a pity.” Xiao Huai An looked at the kite sinking to the bottom. “It could have flown higher.”
I looked down at our joined hands. These strings could be broken; I simply could not bear to cut them.