Chapter 33
SUSPICION
Bedrobes.
For a long time, I could only stare at the maid, uncomprehending. I had no idea where the lie could have even come from.
I had only gone to the West Palace once, to obtain Maro’s journals, but that had been in secret. And even if someone had seen me, I had not been wearing anything near so dishonorable.
“I see,” said the empress with mock somberness. Her gaze swept the entire audience—the princes and the concubines on the terrace, the thousands of guests in the square below. “If I understand the implication correctly, it means our bride’s sanctity has not been preserved.”
Then I realized that I did know. I knew, with nauseating certainty, that the lie had been planted by the empress.
I could even imagine the exact words she used.
If you do this one favor for me, I will set you free.
With a sizable reward, more than enough for what you came here for.
The empress was practiced at offering temptations and making threats; I was well acquainted with both.
And if you don’t … Well, that would be a shame, dear.
If a lowly maid died without explanation, who in the West Palace would even notice?
Terren was breathing fast. His sigil flickered like coals, like he was trying hard to hold back from summoning knives. But it was one of Maro’s entourage who spoke first.
“Your Majesty.” He was young and sharp-chinned, and red with fury. “You would make such ugly accusations against the first son’s honor.”
“I did not mention Prince Maro’s name,” the empress said lightly.
“But you implied it!”
“I am merely investigating a report. There is no need to be so angry—especially if you do not believe the accusations to be true.”
It was an insidious way of wording things. She had somehow managed to make herself sound perfectly reasonable, while only making Maro seem guiltier the angrier his allies grew.
Maro seemed to realize this, too. He put a steady arm on his friend’s shoulders. “Our empress is right, Mei Yu. She is simply doing her own duty to the nation. We must let her carry on.” He wore a courtier’s impenetrable calm, but I did not miss the dark edge that flashed in his eyes.
Efficient of her, I thought, to target two of her son’s competitors at once. Did the empress have plans to tarnish the reputations of Prince Isan and Prince Kiran too?
The third and fourth sons stood close by, with their own allies.
They must have been taught well by their advisors, because neither of them said a word.
Prince Isan, in a gown of plum blossoms, stood straight and solemn as he looked out at the crowd.
Prince Kiran, draped in a ribboned cloak, was surreptitiously playing with a maple-cat.
The furry tassels of his boot, which the cat seemed to delight in pouncing on, were hidden behind a pot of incense—out of view of anyone looking from below.
“She is only one witness.” Hesin’s voice.
All eyes were drawn to the old eunuch. He had been standing on the lowest terrace, but was now making his way up the snow-dusted steps to the rest of us.
He inserted himself between Terren and the empress, and repeated, “Maya is only one witness. If it is her word against Lady Yin’s, then we must take the word of our prince’s chosen over a maid without status, must we not?”
“Ah, you.” The empress’s smile never faded, giving me the sickening feeling that the eunuch was playing right into her hand. “After all these years, you remain as wise as when you served the Joy Emperor.”
A backhanded insult, but Hesin said nothing. I had seen him use the same tactic in court, wielding silence like a weapon.
Empress Sun waited a little longer for him to speak, and when he didn’t, she turned to me.
“What the eunuch says is, of course, true. It seems that all you have to do, Lady Yin, is deny the accusations and we can get along with our merriment. It is only right that the House takes your word over a maid’s—even a young one. With her whole life ahead of her.”
Those words crept up my spine like frost. I knew they were meant just for me.
Now I understood her game. If I denied the accusations, it would mean that Maya was lying. A lie that implicated a prince might have meant a cut tongue for the likes of Sun Jia, but for a mere maid? She’d be lucky if her death was quick.
Decide, Wei, the empress’s smile seemed to say. Deny the accusations and let an innocent girl die—or confirm them and die yourself.
No matter how things turned out, Empress Sun would still come out ahead.
In her husband’s absence, she would have managed to flaunt her power to an audience of thousands—while taking a stab at both the eldest princes.
A rumor like this, even dispelled, could still blossom into something more sinister. I knew the power of rumors by now.
And the price was very cheap. Either Maya’s life, or mine.
My cheeks burned with shame. I already knew what I was going to do. Which was the obvious thing, which was save myself.
As much as I wished I could be like the martial heroes in the myths, I was only a village girl who knew nothing. I did not want to be here, facing the empress and the Great Clans, about to marry a prince who tortured me. I did not want to be in the palace at all. I wanted to be home, alive, safe.
If I died, I would never feel Ma running her hands through my hair again. If I died, I would never get to see the great man Bao was going to be, how he was going to change the world.
I rose unsteadily to my feet. I looked from the empress to Terren, whose face was a cloud of violent intent, and then to Mei Yu, Maro’s friend, staring at the ground with his hands in fists.
Hesin looked pensive. Maya looked terrified—just as terrified as I was—and it was then that I made my choice.
“The maid’s allegations are true.” I blurted out the sentence before I could stop myself, the words tumbling out all in a rush. “I do not deny them.”
There were a few audible gasps from the crowd. I sensed the guards closest to me tense, as if readying themselves to seize me. My hands were shaking at what I had just done, but there was no choice now, I had to keep going.
Because maybe there was a chance I could save us both. Maybe.
I drew in a breath, made my voice as steady as possible. “But that is not the whole truth.”
Terren lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes.
He was reassessing, recalibrating. I knew that if I lived through this, he would no doubt punish me for what I was about to say.
We had our wedding night ahead of us, and two weeks’ retreat after that to spend alone.
There would be plenty of opportunities for him to hurt me.
I could not worry about that now. I only had room in my mind to save one person at a time.
“Explain,” the empress said.
“Perhaps we should let Maya go first, Your Majesty. She has told the truth, after all. It takes remarkable bravery, to report something as dangerous as she has.”
She nodded to the guards, who took the maid away. “Explain,” Empress Sun repeated, turning to me. “Why have you gone to the West Palace at night, dressed so dishonorably?” She looked absolutely delighted, likely believing I was about to be executed—which I would be, if my gamble did not work.
“Your Majesty, I was going to see my teacher.” I glanced over at Silian.
“Though I had learned some techniques to please a man, I knew I had room for improvement. Since my wedding day was nearing, I wanted to surprise my prince with new techniques, to please him during our retreat. And I … I knew that Lady Song had more experience than me. So I asked her to…” I trailed off and lowered my head, trying to seem too embarrassed to speak.
Empress Sun gave me a poisonous look. “If that is the case, why have you asked Lady Song—and not a concubine in your own prince’s Inner Court?”
“Your Majesty, I was thinking of feasts. I was imagining that I had invited a very important guest to a banquet, and had served him a hundred dishes. But if none of them appetized him, I do not think I would double the quantity of an existing plate. I should think a gracious host would look elsewhere, for new flavors.”
A few men in the terrace below laughed, then coughed to disguise their laughs.
Please, I begged Silian silently. Work with me. Corroborate my story.
My heart drummed so loud I heard it in my ears.
“It is true,” Silian said with a smile. “In Yoor, in the northeastern districts, the ladies receive a different education than in the heartlands.”
Now it was Maro’s turn to look suspicious. Beside him, Mei Yu had turned an even deeper shade of red, matching the azalea petals strewn all over the ground. I wondered how Silian would handle her husband’s questions once they had a chance to speak in private.
“What different education?” the empress demanded. I could tell her temper was rising. “What different techniques?”
I looked at my feet, trying to seem uncomfortable. “Must I demonstrate for everyone on the day of my wedding, Your Majesty? In front of so many other men? I had intended to save my learnings for the wedding chamber, as a surprise.”
There was a chuckle from one of the Great Clans’ leaders, and this time, he did not even bother to cough over it.
The empress went quiet. She must have sensed the sentiment shifting against her, known that if she kept pursuing the matter, it would only be herself that she embarrassed.
“No, that will not be necessary,” she said in a strained voice.
“I am glad we have clarified that minor misunderstanding, so that we may now resume our celebrations.”
She said the ceremonial words alongside the chancellor, to officiate the marriage.
I didn’t even have a chance to feel relieved.
As she said those words, I felt Terren’s eyes bore into me.
He wore the same thoughtful look he did whenever he was thinking of new torture methods.
I may have lucked my way out of the empress’s trap, but who knew what he was going to do to me tonight?
He was one of two people on the terrace—other than Silian—who knew for certain that I’d been lying.
The other was Hesin.
In the break after the ceremony’s end and before the beginning of the feast, the eunuch found me. “Lady Yin, you are quite lucky that Lady Song has helped you.”
I picked a safe thing to say. “The Ancestors are kind.”
The two of us were the only ones left on the terrace. Below us, the square had cleared of the less distinguished guests, leaving behind trampled red azaleas, discarded paper cutouts, and dropped lanterns. The snow was falling in earnest now, each cluster as large as a blossom.
The more important guests were already gathered in the Hall of Heavenly Supremacy behind us. Music, warm light, and the smell of feasts and flowers poured from its gates.
“I must tell you the truth,” Hesin said. “I am growing suspicious of you.”
I was completely caught off guard. My heart raced fast, but I forced my voice to be steady. “Is that so?”
“I know of one way, at least, that the prince we serve can be killed. Despite his invulnerability ward.”
I knew the interrogation tactic he was using. I had seen him use it on the men at court, in the blade-filled Hall of Divine Harmony—guessing at motivations to see whether they would react in a telling way.
I tried to imagine I had never heard of the heart-spirit poem, had never even tried learning to read. “Really?”
“It requires stories. The very kind you have been asking me about.”
A wind blew a flurry of wet snow down my collar, and the biting cold of it made me shiver. “I did not know that stories could kill a prince.”
“I would not have expected someone like you to.” Hesin looked out at the square.
We could see quite far into the palace from our vantage, the roofs of pavilions, pagodas, and watchtowers covered in white.
“But now that I see you have been in contact with the West Palace, it is only adding to my suspicions.”
My mouth was so dry it was hard to speak. “Ah, you mean Lady Song. I admit that we are friends. We bonded at the Mid-Autumn Parade.”
“An interesting match.”
“Isn’t it? I have thought so myself.”
His gaze lingered on me. It was the same measuring look he gave all those men in Terren’s court.
My daring lie in front of the empress—in front of all those courtiers and guests—must have changed his opinion of me.
If he knew me only as a scared victim of the prince’s cruelty before, he now saw me as someone worth measuring.
Had I not been so afraid, I might have felt flattered.
“Forgive me,” he said at last. “I am old, and my thoughts have grown unruly with the passing years. The cold only exacerbates it.” He rubbed his hands together and exhaled a cloud of air. “Shall we go back inside?”