They had to set off early the next morning.

  ‘Three,’ said the princess, her wispy breaths spinning into white clouds, ‘I need you to be on alert today. Of Fifth, especially.’

  ‘That’s fine.’ Then she asked, ‘Why, though? I thought you’re allies with him and the Seventh Princess now.’

  ‘He lied yesterday.’ The princess kicked a stone on the path. It cttered away, tumbling to fall into a nearby ke. ‘My brother wouldn’t try to harm me unless he suspected we were doing something dangerous. To send Six after you meant that he couldn’t have known about Xi Chunyu and Xi Baitan’s proposal.’ Then she added, ‘They’re the Seventh Princess and the Fifth Prince, respectively.’

  ‘I see. Then, the Fifth Prince lied when he said he’d tried to recruit your brother.’

  ‘Yes.’ The princess’s cold eyes narrowed. ‘They never wanted powerful allies. They’re looking for a scapegoat.’

  ‘Then what will you do?’

  The princess looked around. The silent trees fluttered in the air, the kes’ lotuses slowly going dormant for the approaching winter.

  That still gaze settled on Three’s shoulders.

  ‘I don’t know,’ the princess said. ‘But whatever I do, I can’t provoke the First Prince again.’

  *

  Three sneaked into the ceiling again. The beams, dry and dusty, were rough under her hands, but now —

  Now they had pests.

  Insects she couldn’t quite name. Swollen mice. Flies the size of jujube pits.

  They crawled to Four’s hanging corpse and chewed at his hands, his hair. The bck ribbon, that had once shielded his eyes now hung lose at his chest, gnawed away. The body, still swinging, still hissing with gases and riddled with holes, no longer dripped blood but instead spilled pus and liquids that reeked like rotten intestines. The fleshy, fishiness of it had her gagging, acid bubbling up her stomach.

  The ground: a hazel eye.

  The stains: his stringy hair.

  His lips: a twisted scream.

  It was only three more days.

  Then Four’s body could be buried.

  ‘Your Majesty,’ a minister said, kowtowing on the ground, ‘the Northern Kingdoms have grown increasingly ambitious. The Empire of Xian cannot go on without a Northern General.’

  ‘Oh.’ The emperor impatiently rapped a finger on the arm of her jade throne. With each harsh tap, the minister’s back trembled, as though the sounds were piling on him stones fttening him to the ground. ‘Well, dear minister, what do you suggest?’

  Now, Three caught it.

  The Fifth Prince, Xi Baitan’s, eager, greedy gaze. It seared into the Third Princess’s cheeks.

  She wanted to beat that look off his face.

  But as the princess’s silence stretched on, the prince’s face began to be lit with a furious anger.

  ‘Well, Minister of War?’ The emperor sneered, ‘Do speak. We are listening.’

  ‘Uh, I, I feel…’ The minister’s eyes flickered to the empress. Back, forth, back, forth.

  Until finally —

  ‘Your Majesty,’ said the First Prince, his chair scraping against the floor as he stood, ‘I feel that perhaps a lieutenant-general should be promoted to take General Jian’s pce. Of course, the northern lieutenant is best suited — he would have the most experience in the northern battlefields, after all.’

  ‘I object!’ The Fifth Prince gritted his teeth and stood. ‘Imperial Mother, the northern lieutenant is merely a supervisor. He does not have the capabilities to command the entire northern army. I suggest the colonel of the garrison calvary; she is experienced in matters of war, personally leading her regiment with a long list of successes!’

  ‘My dear cousin,’ the First Prince sneered, ‘a colonel leads only fifty thousand men. The woman you speak of has only ever commanded in garrison battles; how could she lead an army forty times rger, with all four regiments? At least the lieutenant has studied by the general’s side, personally managing the affairs of all five regiments.’

  ‘But is it not true that General Jian’s presence itself poses a threat?’ The prince crossed his arms, the green silk shimmering with each trembling arm. ‘After all, didn’t the woman refuse to return the tiger tally to Imperial Mother? Those who handle cinnabar are stained red; those who work ink are stained bck. Who’s to say he didn’t pick up unsavoury ideas? Under no circumstances can such an event happen again.’

  ‘Xi Baitan,’ the First Prince hissed, his orange form straightening, ‘are you attempting to insinuate that the loyal man is plotting treason?’

  ‘Xi Jiaoyang,’ the green prince sneered back, ‘do you dare guarantee his morality?’

  ‘He is not such a low-life —’

  The emperor whispered, ‘Silence.’

  All sound was strangled, but for the gentle creaking of Four’s swinging corpse. Then, a deafeningly quiet creak of wood, the hushed squeak of a mouse.

  Above the Third Princess was a ceiling beam —

  And Five was on it.

  With a bottle in her hand.

  Three leapt over, fingers outstretched. She tched onto the beam, swinging around it, and threw a knife at Five’s head.

  The woman twisted, the bde flying into a pilr. Then, her gloved fingers reached into a bag, flinging a cloud of white powder —

  Three jumped up, clinging to the ceiling rafters, a burning breath frozen in her lungs. A new bde between her fingers, she shot it into the wood by Five’s feet — the woman leapt away, the powder fluttering away with the sweep of bck robes — a poisoned needle to her face — it flew past — let her body drop down —

  She smmed a qi-wrapped fist into Five’s stomach.

  Five’s eyes widened with pain. The woman flew backwards, flying into a pilr with a bang. Dust fell down like rain, the pilr’s very wood itself splintering from the force.

  Stinging. A pricking on her skin. Her knuckles grew red, a peppered speckling of red.

  Poison.

  She smashed another kick into Five. The woman groaned; then, she tottered, swaying off the beam —

  Then, Three reached out and seized her wrist, catching her before she fell.

  Two widened pairs of eyes stared into each other.

  …What did I just do?

  Then, a staggering. The world spun. They smmed into the floor.

  Right on top of the minister of war.