Three was hardly paying attention to the rest of her fellow guards. She could only stare at the cquered floor, stubbornly ignoring the prickling of eyes on her neck.

  This new master of hers would be a pain. But more than that, she wanted to cry — what luck it was, the first woman she took a fancy to after her was the daughter of a charge she’d killed!

  Though it was a certainty that the princess would never ascend the throne — after all, what emperor would let a traitor’s daughter become heir — it was a given that Three would suffer for as long as she lived under the other’s service.

  The princess wasn’t her true master anyway — her life was dedicated only to the throne. And with the emperor’s temperament, anything she did would be tacitly allowed unless ordered otherwise.

  I’ll have to ‘accidentally’ let someone finish her off. Perhaps I can return to the emperor or wait for the winner’s ascension. Three couldn’t die now. She still wanted to eat biscuits! And eat candied corn, lychees, and chicken feet! She was hungry!

  But Three wasn’t given much time to daydream.

  The emperor was nothing if not efficient. Before the wood in the stoves could burn away, they were all dismissed, ministers slowly trailing out the stifling hall.

  ‘You.’ The Third Princess didn’t smile, the carved lines of her beautiful face hard like rock. ‘Come.’

  She followed the other woman.

  The Third Princess didn’t deign to tell her where they were headed. Didn’t look at her, either.

  Three fell back, meekly following the princess’s steps. The hem of the woman’s white robes trailed on the ground, slowly gathering little clumps of dust and dirt. The little snowfkes and swallows embroidered on them shivered with each passing pebble.

  When the jasmine vines were repced with naked plum trees, the paved path turned into cold wooden boards. The packed earth and soil gave way to a huge sea-like ke — only little bck isnds, no rger than a small building, y speckled here and there. Above it all was a series of bridges and pagodas, pace halls and buildings standing high above the icy water on stakes.

  Three looked up. At the gate to this icy world was a pque held up high, reading, The Pace of Gentle Snow.

  Sunlight, reflected off the water’s surface, was tinted white from the chill. The glow lit up the underside of the princess’s chin and arms, hiding away her shadow. It made her thin, washed-out like a painting soaked in water.

  The regal woman walked across many bridges; deeper and deeper into the heart of this whitewood, bck-tiled web.

  Then they went into a small hall. It was closed off on all sides, but for a familiar door and window with white silken curtains. A bed y in a corner, the bedsheets embroidered with swallows, a new set of unused candles standing tall on the nightstand.

  The door clicked shut. The princess’s voice was cold. ‘Kneel.’

  Three immediately dropped to the ground, nding hard. The impact smmed through her, but she did not have the time to steady herself — the princess seized her by the hair and smashed her head to the floor.

  Pain, sharp like knives, tore across her scalp. She was bleeding. Then it was the right side of her face, the skin swelling and bruising. The sharp points of her metal earring stabbed the skin of her neck. Clenching her teeth, she pushed an arm to the right of her, but her head came smming down again, darkness blinking in front of her eyes.

  She forced the qi in her body to flow to her skin, her lifeforce struggling to protect her brain, shield her nerves and the bones in her neck.

  Up. Down. Up. Down. Up.

  Was her earring broken?

  Three blinked her eyes open. Her legs were limp on the floor, her neck forced up by the hair. Her arms gently propped up her torso — enough to keep her hair in her scalp but heavy enough for her master to feel her weight.

  Third Princess’s stoic face spat, ‘You killed my mother in this room.’

  ‘…I’m well aware, Your Highness.’

  And the princess smmed her head down into the floor again, a tearing ripping through her forehead. Wet blood dripped down her face, seeping between her lips and into the corners of her eyes.

  Then she was dragged up again. Three drawled, ‘A few more hits like that, Your Highness —’

  Down, up. Her qi silently bled out with her wounds. It carried her anger, her frustration — and she watched as the princess smelled the excitement leaking into the air.

  She spat out a mouthful of blood and grinned, ‘And you won’t have a shadow guard for much longer.’

  The princess let go of her.

  Bloodied locks of bck hair spttered onto Three’s face. Pain crawled across her skin, an ant-like nibbling across her scalp and neck. She shuffled back into her kneel, brushing the hair back.

  The Third Princess took a stool from the desk and sat down. She watched Three in silence, a cool, ft gaze settling heavily on her bleeding face.

  ‘The only thing stopping me from killing you now,’ the princess began, ‘is the fact I don’t have any other choice.’

  Three snorted.

  ‘But that doesn’t mean I can’t make your life a living hell.’ The princess crossed her arms, coldly examining her nails. ‘Kneel here. Until dawn breaks tomorrow morning.’

  Well, paying her respects to General Jian wasn’t too terrible. It would let her sleep a little less troubled anyway.

  Rolling her eyes, Three flicked her hair over her shoulder. ‘Whatever, princess.’

  The princess stood up, heading for the door. ‘On second thought,’ she snarled, ‘kowtow here until dawn. And clean up once you’re done.’

  ‘Understood, Your —’

  The door smmed shut.

  ‘…Highness.’

  A bit of white metal crumbled from Third’s ear. The petal and stamen of a filigree flower.

  She cursed. Then, she softly picked up their pieces and pced them into her pels.

  Right by her heart.