Page 56 of The Blood Orchid
“Oh, this part was my favorite,” the Arcane Alchemist said. “The part where you three argued for ten minutes about whether or not it’s ethical to force me to strip so you can check me for a soul tag, then I got so tired of your bickering that I stripped anyway just to shut you up. We can skip to that part again if you like?”
“Shut up,” I said, at the same time Wenshu whispered, “Thatdoessound like us.” He turned to the Arcane Alchemist. “And why did we let you go the first time?”
“Oh, you didn’t,” the Arcane Alchemist said, shrugging. “I just ran into the pub when you thought I was putting my clothes back on, and you all forgot about me for a bit. But it doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t know the Empress an hour ago and I still don’t know her now. So if you would be so kind as to release me—”
“No,” I said. His story sounded fine on the surface, but I wouldn’t let him slip away a second time. “Why should we trust someone who has no problem lying through his teeth every day? You’ve obviously had a lot of practice at it.”
“But not enough practice at alchemy, apparently,” Zheng Sili said. He gripped the Arcane Alchemist’s chin, turning his face to the side to examine him better beneath the streetlight. The man let him turn him easily, looking oddly smug. “You have a nice face,” Zheng Sili went on. “It’s a shame about the rebound.”
The man lifted an eyebrow. “Rebound?”
Zheng Sili crossed his arms. “You know, the small issue of no one being able to remember your pretty face the minute you leave a room? You can’t fool me. You’ve clearly done way toomuch alchemy on your face and rebounded so badly you’ve practically wiped it clean off.”
“Oh, that,” the man said, relaxing. “No, that was completely intentional.”
Zheng Sili frowned, looking to me as if I could explain it.
“Youwantedto be forgettable?” I said.
He shook his head. “To bearcane,” he said slowly. “Anyone can have a pretty face, but the most beautiful things are the most fleeting. If we lived in a world of perpetual sunsets and cherry blossoms, they would become common, and their colors would soon look dull. But for the evanescent moments that I exist, I am the most beautiful thing anyone has ever seen.”
“You kind of look like me,” Zheng Sili said.
I smacked his shoulder. “He looks nothing like you.”
“I look like whatever is most beautiful to the person who sees me,” the Arcane Alchemist said, smiling darkly.
“That makes sense,” Zheng Sili said, nodding.
“And you thinkyou’rethe most beautiful man on earth?” I said. “That explains a lot.”
“I didn’t know that was even possible,” Wenshu said, ignoring us both. “To alter someone’s perception with such precision.”
“It shouldn’t be,” Zheng Sili said, turning back to the alchemist. “What stones did you use?”
The Arcane Alchemist rolled his eyes. “It’s not somethingyoucan replicate, so don’t bother trying.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Zheng Sili said. “Are you saying I’m a lost cause?”
I cast Wenshu a withering look and massaged my forehead where a headache was brewing. I was honestly starting to doubt whether this was the Empress’s alchemist, only because she probably would have murdered him by now for his pompous attitude.
I shivered as a breeze rolled across the fields, my clothes now damp from watermelon juice. I crammed my fists into my pocket and huddled closer to Wenshu while Zheng Sili and the Arcane Alchemist kept bickering. My fingers crunched against the stiff parchment I’d balled up in my left pocket, the wanted flyer Zheng Sili had given me last night. I pulled it out, wanting to tear it up for what a waste of time this had all been.
But my gaze settled on the printed sketch of the Arcane Alchemist, the smooth expanse of nothingness where his face should have been.
The dragon’s white eye, the faceless night.
I’d learned thatthe dragon’s white eyemeant opal, but perhapsthe faceless nightwas just as important. Maybe the dragon’s white eye was the stone, and the faceless night was where—or who—it came from.
“Did you use opal?” I said, loud enough that Zheng Sili and the Arcane Alchemist stopped arguing, turning to me.
“That was... one aspect of it,” the Arcane Alchemist said, avoiding my gaze, “but as I said, it’s not something you can replicate.”
“What kind of opal?” I said, stepping closer. “Where did you get it?”
For the first time, the Arcane Alchemist looked genuinely angry. “What does it matter?” he said. “It wasmytransformation, and it can’t be done again! Your questions are pointless.”
Pointless?I thought bitterly. I thought of Hong waiting for me in the darkness, fading into a whisper of light. This man had clearly been in possession of an immensely powerful alchemy stone, and he’d squandered it to make himself beautiful. I took out my knife again and held the tip to his throat.