Chapter 10
CONCUBINES AND EMPRESSES
Concubines Anye and Ruchen, two beautiful peonies;
They loved each other like a valley its river.
The Dongwu Emperor plucked them, petal by petal,
Till, root by leaf, they wither.
—UNKNOWN LITEROMANCER, ASH DYNASTY, YEAR 12
When I returned to my chambers, I was so weak I couldn’t leave my bed.
My throat was burning from all the sickness yesterday, my stomach like it had been set afire.
The taste of bitter bile in my mouth would not go away no matter how much chrysanthemum tea I drank.
When Wren knocked on my door around noon, she took one look at me and said, “Perhaps we should powder your face before the guests arrive, Lady Yin.”
“Guests?”
“Last night was for you and the prince, so the Inner Court has left you alone. But now that the selection has been consummated, everyone will be arriving to offer their congratulations. It is palace tradition.”
I forced myself out of bed. I sat like a stone as I let Wren powder my face, ink my brows, and stain my lips the color of azaleas.
The dress she had me put on was a mix of cypress green and gold, its hem brimming with trumpet flowers no doubt grown by palace literomancers.
Since gold was the imperial color, my attendant explained, only emperors and their empresses could wear it in full.
But people of high enough status like mine ought to wear it in part, to boast their power.
I did not feel like I had power.
The parlor of the Cypress Pavilion was already set up for guests.
Low tables were arranged in a circle, between the hydrangea bushes, their surfaces brimming with hot tea, dried dates, and colorful mung bean cakes.
There was an elevated seat at one end, not quite a throne; it was there that Wren directed me.
As each guest arrived, their scribes announced them. Lady Liru, Third-Rank Concubine. Lady Cinna, Honored Companion. Lady Sun, Noble Consort.
The higher the rank a concubine had, the more exquisite the embroidery on their phoenix gowns and the thicker their perfume.
Flowers of all kinds—trumpet vines, morning glories, bougainvillea—adorned their necks and sleeves.
At least one attendant accompanied each of them, more for the higher-ranked guests.
If they were afraid of Terren or of what he’d done to Zhen, their demure smiles didn’t let on. Possibly they believed their families and clans would protect them.
“May you live a thousand years,” they said, and gave me practiced bows.
Sun Jia didn’t bother with formalities. As she entered, in a gown heavy with a thousand stones of jade, she only hmmphed, rolled her eyes, and pointedly never looked at me.
I vaguely remembered Jia going to the dais sometime after I’d been chosen and receiving, at the empress’s suggestion, the remaining position of Noble Consort.
She must have loathed me to her core. As niece to the empress and a member of the great Sun Clan, everyone had expected her to be sitting where I was.
I kept my eyes averted, my lips silent. I was too exhausted from Terren’s torment to play her games, and it was taking up all my energy to not be sick.
Empress Sun came in last. When she arrived in a full gown of glimmering gold, the first thing she did was have her six servants bring out an elevated seat like mine.
When she sat on it, she rose even higher than me.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she cooed. “I have joint problems, and my knees are not fit for sitting on the ground.”
“My only wish is for Your Majesty’s comfort,” I replied, having learned etiquette during my month in the peony courtyard.
“A pity you would not afford yourself the same comfort.” She peered at me sideways. “You do not look well, my dear. Are you ill?”
Some primal instinct made me lie, the way a deer might hide a limp from a fox. “I am only tired. It was difficult to sleep last night, with the excitement of being chosen. And besides, you know how stimulating the childmaking activity can be.”
The girls in the room giggled. At once, like a dam breaking, the questions came flooding out.
They wanted to know which techniques he liked, the compliments he gave, even what he smelled like.
“All the maids were gossiping about the blood on the sheets,” Qi Nere said excitedly. “Please, tell us about your night!”
I thanked the Ancestors I had spent so much time memorizing all those techniques, and recited what Lady Chara had taught us.
I told them I had begun with Setting Mountain Sun, which had drawn out of him delighted noises, and then I had accelerated the night with Cascading Waterfall, which had made his sigil radiant with pleasure.
I did not tell them how scared I had been, how helpless I had felt. If you tell anyone what happened last night, I will kill you.
As the afternoon drew on, there came time for gifts.
The concubines brought out earrings of jade, necklaces of clattering pearls, and perfumes that smelled of rose honey and fig.
One concubine had brought in fine teas imported from as far as the Eriet Mountains, and another a live peacock in a cage, which I had not the first clue what to do with.
“These are lucky buns—made of sesame and lotus paste,” said a short-haired girl called Jiang Rovah. “They are specialties from my home in the Jiangtu District—please, try one.”
“Oh, do try some of this plum wine too.” The skinny, tan girl called Jin Veris held up a golden jar. “My uncle runs a winery near Xuen, and each jar can sell for a thousand coppers.”
It was rude to decline, but I did so anyway. There was not a chance I could stomach anything at the moment. Even the mere thought of eating, even the faintest scent of food, made me want to be sick all over again.
Jia didn’t give me anything. The longer the afternoon went on, the more agitated she became.
Finally, she stood and pushed her table over.
“Are we not going to talk about the fact that this witch”—she jabbed a finger at me—“tricked and ensorcelled her way into the Inner Court? How village filth has somehow clawed its way into our ranks?”
When nobody responded, her scowl became terrible. She tried to lift the nearest porcelain vase—which held a mandarin tree—and couldn’t. She then went to a smaller vase, lifted that one high above her head, and smashed it onto the ground with a shattering klink.
Everyone in the room went silent at once. Even Chua Yan and Liru Syra, the two concubines who had been whispering by themselves all the way in the corner, had stopped to look at Jia.
“How did you do it?” she demanded. “It was supposed to be me. It was always supposed to be me! If he had not chosen you first, I would have been the most powerful woman in the Inner Court!”
My face burned like hot coals, but I kept my eyes on the ground. If only I knew.
The empress was watching me closely. As Mother of the House, she should have stepped in to make peace, but she showed no intention of moving.
“Rice farmer,” Jia snarled. She must have taken my silence as an invitation to continue.
“I know your kind. Dogs bred from the dirt, tracking mud everywhere they run. Hideous, mangy things—even powder and finery can’t hide your true nature.
” Her voice was as sharp-edged as the porcelain pieces scattered at her feet.
“Mark my words, village cur: you are going to die. And once you die, I am going to take your place.”
It was the fact that she had swept everyone else into those awful words that made me angry enough to speak. That she had insulted all the hardworking people of Lu’an, who were much more deserving than any I had met in the palace.
I lifted my chin, unwisely, and looked her straight in the eye. “No, Jia,” I told her. “I am going to live. I am going to become empress.”
After everyone was gone, I sent for Wren and Pima. “There was a silver needle yesterday on the ground. Did you happen to find where it was?”
Wren brought it to me at once, so quickly that she must have kept it somewhere close at hand.
I went through the gifts by lanternlight, plunging the needle into the honey sweets and the lucky buns, the fig candy and the tea.
When I got to the golden wine from Jin Veris, the entire length of it went stain-black.
For a long time I stared at the needle, uncomprehending. When I’d tested the food, I hadn’t really expected it to turn black. Some subconscious part of me had done it only to prove Ciyi wrong. To say, Look, nobody wanted to kill me after all.
To prove Minma wrong. Look, the women in the palace are kind.
“Lady Yin,” Wren said, and there was something almost like sympathy in her voice.
They really did want me dead. They really did want to be Terren’s wife in my stead, despite knowing what kind of monster he was.
It was so absurd that if I were not so afraid, I might have laughed. Instead, I could only envy the upbringing all those city girls must have had, to believe themselves so invincible.
I looked up and met Pima’s eyes. “Please send a message to Ciyi. I would like to see him.”