Page 29 of The Blood Orchid

“Your brother died because of a world that you helped to build,” I said. “You know that, yet you still aren’t sure if what you did was wrong? Do you know how many other people’sbrothers could have died because of what you did?”

Zheng Sili choked down a startled breath. “Listen here, hùnxie—”

“No,” I said, raising my voice. “If you want sympathy, go back to your mansion and cry to the other sons of aristocrats who’ve never known suffering, because you won’t get any from me. This is exactly why I beat you, Zheng Sili. Because people like you give up the moment life isn’t easy anymore.”

He ground his teeth together, sputtering out a few indignant sounds as if he couldn’t decide the best way to insult me. This was the true Zheng Sili, the pathetic, sniveling boy I’d always known was beneath the aristocrat’s exterior. I suspected that all the rich were like this just below the surface, but no one had ever dared to talk back to them.

“When you’re done whimpering,” I said, “I need to know if you have any pearl teeth left.”

“You knocked out my only pearl tooth when we were sparring!” he said, face red.

I sighed, closing my eyes.Just my luck.

“Any other ideas?” Wenshu said, looking down at Zheng Sili like he was a piece of rotten fruit.

I nodded toward Zheng Sili. “Maybe if he cries enough, the salt in his tears will make us some quartz in a few hundred years.”

“I’m not crying, I’m sweating!” Zheng Sili said.

“Would you shut the hell up?” one of the prisoners shouted. Zheng Sili obediently clamped his mouth shut and scooted back against the wall, shooting the man a dirty look. I sat down next to Wenshu, but something hard dug into my hip.

I tried to adjust it with my hands bound, but it only bit down harder, a bruising cold against my side. Had my pockets filled with river rocks when I’d fallen overboard?

Then I remembered.

My hidden pocket.Durian’s egg.

“Gege,” I said sharply, startling Wenshu. “Reach into my pocket!”

“You have a pocket they didn’t empty?” Zheng Sili said.

We both ignored him as Wenshu bent down at an awkward angle, his hands still locked behind him. He used to help Auntie So make our skirts, which was technically women’s work, but Auntie was never particularly impressed with how well Yufei and I could sew. He found the pocket and managed to slip his hand inside, pulling out Durian’s egg.

“Incredible,” Wenshu said. “You could have snuck anything in with that pocket, and you brought one of your demon eggs.”

“Where did you find a gold chicken?” Zheng Sili said.

Wenshu started to answer him, but I elbowed him in the ribs. “Ignore him, and he’ll go away,” I said in Guangzhou dialect, motioning for him to pass me the egg.

“I speak Guangdong huà!” Zheng Sili shouted, indignant. “I’m from Guangzhou!”

I had never heard Zheng Sili speak anything but the prim and proper dialect of Chang’an, fluent like any good aristocrat’s son. He sounded like an entirely different person in Guangdong huà, his voice much higher pitched and younger.

“It’s a duck egg,” I said, angling away so he couldn’t see.

“There are trace amounts of copper in eggs,” Zheng Sili said, ignoring me and moving around Wenshu to get a better look. “Crack it open, let’s see what we’ve got.”

I pressed back against the wall so Zheng Sili couldn’t see the egg. “There’s not enough copper for a transformation,” I said, though I was sure he knew it was a poor excuse when we didn’t have any better options. But I thought of Durian sleeping inmy bag, the duck who had never even shown a trace of evil, nothing even remotely suspicious besides the eggs. Surely they contained some sort of evil, since Durian himself—herself—clearly didn’t. Maybe the yolk was an acid that would burn the flesh from my bones, a bomb that would explode in my face? I had been careless back in the palace, and it had cost the other alchemists their lives.

“It’s worth a shot,” Zheng Sili said, trying to move closer. “What are you saving it for?”

Wenshu shouldered Zheng Sili back, making him lose his balance and fall awkwardly to his knees. “Don’t touch her,” he said. “We don’t know what’s in the egg. It could be dangerous.”

Zheng Sili scoffed, turning around to show us his broken fingers. “More dangerous than these guards? Crack it open!”

“Back off!” I said. “It’s not your decision.”

“Actually, it’smine,” said a low voice behind us.