‘Did your little romance end badly, Sister?’ The Sixth Prince’s mouth made up for what his chained hands couldn’t do. ‘I saw you got dumped. How do you feel?’

  ‘Like shit, thank you.’ The princess refused to turn around. It left Three’s eyes with nowhere to look but the woman’s long bck tresses. It left a terrible void in her stomach. The chains that wound around the two siblings’ necks and hands rang together like bells, the steel ends cold in her hands. ‘Are you done, Little Brother?’

  The prince ughed. ‘Of course not. Father’s abandoned us, so naturally I’ve got to get attention from somewhere else, don’t I?’

  Well, he wasn’t going to get much here.

  The prison was a dark, dim pce that had more mould than air. Three had been here more times than she would have liked, and this trip was more nauseous than any trip before.

  Each breath was loud like a gong; the stairs seemed to run on forever, down and down and down until they finally came to endless corridors of cells.

  It was dark and bck, the like maw of a sthering hound.

  She reached out, unlocking an empty cell. Here, it was drier, with fresh straw id in piles. There was no dust, no mice or other vermin, with even a small oil mp pced on the floor.

  ‘…They were prepared,’ the Sixth Prince sneered. He pointed to Three and snapped, ‘You. Did you know —’

  ‘She didn’t.’ The princess walked straight in, each step firm and strong. ‘She doesn’t like it, either.’ Then, those clear red eyes fixed on hers. ‘Don’t be upset, Chicken Feet.’

  What a ridiculous notion. She forced a smile on her face and said, ‘I’m not. My new master hasn’t punished me for previously defying him; what cause is there for upset?’

  The princess didn’t nod or smile. Didn’t rant or rage, didn’t bme her for pulling the cell’s door shut and turning the iron key in the lock.

  ‘You’re an utter idiot,’ the Sixth Prince sneered.

  ‘You’re both idiots,’ a voice called.

  Three whipped around.

  Behind them stood Prince Qianzhong, appearing out of thin air as though he were a ghost. Thin like a bamboo tree, as cold as snow, he reached up behind his head and pulled at his blindfold — the white fabric fell from his face, fluttering like a silk mourning banner.

  Those eyes opened.

  He had eyes just like his daughter’s. They were redder than blood, deeper than the darkest abyss, the ends of his eyes curving up towards the sky. The shape of it, to her, seemed to look like birds’ heads, crowing up to the sky after bloodshed.

  ‘My children,’ he muttered, ‘you both disappoint me.’

  Three’s jaw almost hit the floor. ‘You — Your Highness, what are you doing here?!’

  He snapped, ‘You will leave me be if you’d like your mistress to live!’

  She paused. ‘…Fine.’

  The prince then turned to the two in the cell. ‘Chanzui, Qian’e. Did you kill the emperor?’

  The princess stumbled to her feet. ‘Father, I really didn’t —’

  The prince snapped, ‘Then you disappoint me more.’

  She fell silent.

  His face contorted with anger — it was the most emotion Three had ever seen on that ice block of a man’s face. Then, like a mask snapping back onto his skin, it was all wiped away. ‘I will save you, Chanzui,’ he said, ‘but only if you give up your right to the throne.’

  His son’s eyes widened. ‘Father? What do you —’

  ‘I’ll decre to the court that you’re a bastard.’ Prince Qianzhong’s eyes seemed to glint in the mplight. ‘I’ll decre that you were the result of Ah-Rong’s illicit fling with a soldier. You’ll give up your imperial surname, take on “Jian”, and formally give up your right to the throne. As for you, Qian’e —’

  The man’s face split into a monstrous smile. ‘Order your little guard to torture herself to death. Right here, right now.’

  Three stumbled back. Everything fshed at her — anger, fear, anticipation, an urge to vomit deep in her throat — and the keys jingled in her hands.

  ‘I won’t,’ Xi Qian’e hissed. ‘And you’ve forgotten, Father; she is no longer my guard —’

  ‘She is.’ The haughty, red-eyed prince, his gaze akin to that of an old, avaricious wolf, turned to her with his lips stretched until they cracked. ‘The empress never released you from my daughter’s service, did she?’

  The horror on her face answered the family of three.

  ‘The keys, little guard.’ The prince held out a hand. He didn’t turn to look at her. ‘I know the empress only ordered for you to bring them here. Not to lock them up.’

  She stilled.

  She handed them to him.

  Could the prince really save his children? His daughter?

  What would…

  ‘I won’t,’ the princess snarled. ‘Father, you’re insane. You’re mad!’ Xi Qian’e burst out ughing, ‘I can’t believe this! You can’t save us now. Even now, you’d let us rot if we didn’t cut off our own wings. Prince Xi Qianzhong, you’re a piece of shit and an even shitter father!’

  The prince didn’t reprimand his daughter. ‘Indeed. But when I turn this court on its head, I can spare you.’

  Three stepped forward. ‘Your Highness, what exactly do you want?’

  ‘I want you dead for killing my wife.’ It was only now that she truly felt the prince was watching her, looking at her — not her master, not her role, but as some kind of human enemy. ‘I want my mother, the empress dowager’s corpse whipped for ruining my life. I want the empress dead for taking what’s mine.’

  ‘You’re crazy,’ she whispered. ‘I should cut you down right here for conspiring against my master.’

  ‘He’s not your master,’ the prince sneered. ‘He hasn’t formally ascended the throne yet, has he? No coronation ceremony. No dragon robe. No beaded crown. He’s only a usurper my unworthy sister had let sneak onto that throne.’

  ‘Then who is worthy, Father?’ Xi Chanzui stared up at his father with a chilling hollowness in his pink eyes. ‘That’s what you really wanted. You didn’t want me, Mother, or my sister. You wanted —’

  ‘The throne.’ The prince whipped around and roared, ‘All these years. My whole life! I was better than any of my siblings, any of my cousins. I had the best martial arts, the best control of my qi. I kept the Northern Kingdoms from eating our shores, shortened the wealth gap, reduced disease, developed the water systems, reguted svery, restructured the court and kept our cities from bursting with migrants!’ He stormed forward, his hands seizing the cell bars as he whispered, ‘I did all of that while my little sister pyed around with that son from the Bao family. And did you know what happened when she returned?’

  He chuckled.

  It was a ugh that was neither a snarl nor a giggle.

  ‘My beloved mother handed all my achievements to my sister’s hands. She became generous. She became wise. She became the ideal ruler, the Lady of Mirrors, the Princess of True Ambition… And I?’ The steel bars creaked. ‘I was left with just my name. Xi Qianzhong. The Devout and Loyal Prince. Just because I was born blind.’

  Then Xi Chanzui stood, a coiling dragon as he roared, ‘And that’s why you let Mother die? That’s why you told her to keep the tally?’ He seized his father’s wrists through the bars — his face twisted, a hideous anger and fury and terrible betrayal contorting it all — and screamed as though his heart was ripped out. ‘JUST FOR THAT WHEN YOU COULD’VE CHOSEN OUR FAMILY?!’

  The prince let go of the bars, stepping away. He tore his wrists from his son’s grip. ‘She shared my ambitions.’

  ‘She didn’t,’ Xi Qian’e spat. ‘She just thought she shared your heart.’

  The prince fell silent. Then, he took a breath and whispered, ‘Don’t any of you wish to support me?’

  Xi Chanzui asked, ‘Then why make us forfeit our bloodline?’

  The prince had no answer.

  He just took the keys and walked out of the prison. His steps were silent as he vanished into the dark. As weightless as a ghost.

  He hadn’t lied.

  He indeed had the best qinggong Three had ever seen.