Before she was Three and before she was Little Melon and before she was Little Bitch, when she and her mother still lived in that big, shiny house, all the poultry they ate came from the estate’s backyard.

  The cook raised a few chickens and geese for both their meat and eggs, but after a fox started killing the birds, he brought back a dog to guard them.

  The dog had the shiniest bck fur, and teeth white like ivory. It would have been a very handsome little mutt if it weren’t for its disgustingly sour breath.

  But the dog liked to wander the gardens.

  When the second goose died, the dog had been wandering the grounds, neglecting its duty, and the cook finally lost his patience.

  He dragged the whimpering and yelping dog all the way back to the coops. Then he picked up a stick and gouged a long, dark line in the dirt.

  He stood there and watched.

  The dog wasn’t beaten or starved. It wasn’t deprived of treats or toys, and the children of the estate weren’t stopped from coming to py with it.

  But if the dog ever crossed the line, it would be kicked back in.

  The first few days, the dog always tried to escape. Sometimes, it saw a duck by the pond or scented a friend approaching, and each time the cook’s boot would sm into its chest, the little bck dog rolling and rolling away like a ball.

  By the first month, the dog learned that the line couldn’t be crossed.

  By the first year, the dog didn’t approach the line at all.

  And by the time the cook was dead, the dog was too scared to leave the coop.

  No-one wanted to feed the dog after the cook was dead. The dog was left alone. The dog was hungry but too scared to kill the chickens or geese. The dog ate the foxes and mice it killed but the animals soon learned to avoid it, targeting the pond ducks instead.

  Then one day, the little girl saw the dog’s hard ribs and dull eyes. She erased that carved line with her heels. She fttened it and covered it under mulch and bird feed. She hoped the dog would realise it could leave, that the cook was dead, that no-one would feed it, and that it could go back and learn to hunt again.

  That there was no more line.

  But the dog wasn’t happy.

  It didn’t dare to move.

  It was too scared to go and eat. It was too scared to go and drink. It was too scared to go and hunt.

  The dog’s coat was no longer so shiny, and its teeth were no longer white like ivory.

  The dog died.

  *

  Three thought it was a very pointless sort of death.

  The dog couldn’t even protect the chickens and geese, much less py with the shiny pond ducks.

  *

  ‘Three, you survived the competition!’ Nine grinned as he ran through the hall’s open gates, the loose sleeve flying behind him like a silk banner. Ministers and officials trailed out in varying degrees of shock, horror and confusion, though the blind prince hung back. ‘You’re really quite lucky, you know. C’mon, Eight, let her out of the chains, quick quick quick quick quick —’

  Three looked up at Nine.

  She didn’t know what to feel. What there was to feel, other than the numbness of her legs, her cold fingers, her cold-sweated neck and bnk mind.

  ‘I’m on it,’ Eight muttered. The heavy iron around her wrists cttered to the ground. He patted her shoulder with a broad palm. His strength — not as caring as Six’s, but not as overbearing as One’s — seemed to burrow right into her bones. ‘Go greet our new master, kid.’

  She didn’t move.

  His hand moved to her neck. Just like a dog’s colr. ‘Three?’

  As though her joints had all turned to rust, as though she were a knife learning to sharpen itself, she got up to her feet. She didn’t fight that hand on her nape. But her eyes were fixed on the shattered pile of red petals and splintered bck wood, on the mangled gold of the earrings. ‘Yes. I know.’

  Each step of hers was leaden; how was it that the void in her stomach didn’t leave holes in her wake? The silence, the stealth that her life was valued for, had all vanished in the wake of these terrible events.

  The new emperor did not sit on his throne, even as Three knelt down at his feet. ‘My master, my new reason for living,’ she whispered, ‘I, Shadow Guard Three, vow to continue this life by your hands and yours only. My purpose and my joy are at your disposal.’

  ‘…Thank you,’ the emperor said. His gaze fluttered past her and to the head shadow. ‘Will she still —’

  ‘If you order the guard as such, Your Majesty.’ The head shadow added, ‘If you don’t have any more tasks for the guard, might I take it to next Ripening —’

  ‘Ah-Liu isn’t just a guard!’ The princess roared, almost seething in her chains, ‘she’s a PERSON, and if you had a single shred of decency —’

  Three spun around and snapped, ‘SHUT UP!’ Trembling, she pointed at the other and hissed, ‘You. Just shut up.’

  The head shadow’s gaze seemed to burn on her nape.

  She pleaded, ‘Please stop talking.’

  The princess saw something on her face and fell silent.

  ‘I need her,’ the new emperor said. ‘There aren’t many guards remaining, are there?’

  The head shadow hummed, ‘Indeed, there aren’t. Most are dead or missing, with Two and Seven performing quite badly. If they can’t improve, they’ll be repced by the end of the year. You have a point. In that case, I’ll take Nine and he’ll supervise with me. Satisfied?’

  The man didn’t argue. ‘Alright. Do as you will, Head Shadow.’

  The woman chuckled and beckoned to Nine. ‘Come, Guard.’

  They left — but right before she stepped past the door, she reminded, ‘Please, Your Majesty. Use your imperial “We”.’

  Then they vanished.

  ‘Shadow Guard Three,’ the emperor decred, still staring out into the open doors, ‘Take the two traitors to the dungeons.’

  She knelt. ‘Understood, Your Majesty.’

  ‘…Good.’ He turned away to look into the rafters.

  The blind prince didn’t say a word.

  Even as the Sixth Prince ughed to the emperor’s face.

  *

  Three tried to scoop up some of the broken red jewels on her way out, but the pieces all slid through her fingers.

  She could only clench at her chest, the little pouch and its shattered lilies cold on her skin.