Page 99 of The Blood Orchid

Just behind him, the setting sun had lit up the throne room across the courtyard in glowing gold, the doors hanging open and swaying in the wind. We were so close to where I had lost everything. I could still see the Empress towering over me while I gripped the bars of my cage, her golden eyes sun bright.

Hong will be dead within the hour, she’d said.Then the people will learn of the tragic passing of their beloved prince and emperor, in that order.

What have you done with him?I’d said.

My breath caught in my throat.

I froze, recalling with perfect clarity what the Empress had said next. I could still see her crimson lips forming the words, echoed by her reflection in the pool of blood that glowed from the blazing wall of fire behind her.

She had already told me how to defeat her.

Maybe she hadn’t realized it at the time, or maybe she’d thought I wouldn’t have noticed. But, like everyone else, she had underestimated me.

I ducked away from Wenshu’s cloth and jumped to my feet. “Gege,” I said, “get some scroll paper and an inkstone. I need you to draft me some legislation.”

Chapter Twenty

The crowd gathered for the royal announcement at high noon.

Though I couldn’t bring myself to look at them from the balcony, I could sense as our audience grew from the nervous whispers and unanswered questions just beyond the gates.

They had seen the gallows.

Wenshu had paid some carpenters to build them that morning, in full view of the main road. As the day wore on, more and more people had gathered, curious who they were for. It was exactly what we wanted—for people to see, for word to get back to the Empress that we were following her orders.

Many people had seen the prince return yesterday. They probably expected him to punish the private armies for destroying his palace. They didn’t know they were about to witness the dawning of a new era.

I sat alone in the throne room on the Empress’s throne, looking out the open window. From this height, I could see nothing but the sharp flash of sunlight and the faint ghost of the nearly full moon against the blue sky. In the memories of past emperors, the sky had always seemed so much clearer, like an openexpanse of Heaven. But to me, Chang’an had always seemed like a cage, a flat blue ceiling slowly lowering to crush us all.

The Scarlet Alchemist—who had ruined China—was somehow now its sole ruler. It hardly seemed fair, though I supposed fairness was a childish concept among royalty.

Once, Hong had told me in my own dialect how he would rebuild the world when his mother was dead, stripping the wealthy of their life gold, sending food and hope to the south. I had inherited the kingdom in his place, and instead of fulfilling his promise, it had crumbled in my hands.

I gripped the edges of the throne, the sun shifting so its rays were searingly sharp across my face.

Perhaps I would never feel that I was enough of anything to rule this country. But somehow, it was mine, so I had to try.

The door opened, and my chest seized up.It’s Gaozong, I thought. But it was only Wenshu.

“Are you ready?” he said.

I shrugged. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

He said nothing, stepping fully into the throne room. He crossed his arms, looking me up and down.

“We’ll have to get you some etiquette lessons when this is all over,” he said. “You’re sitting on that throne like a monkey.”

Heat rushed to my face as I uncrossed my legs, setting my feet on the floor. “Is that really our biggest problem?”

Wenshu smiled, though his eyes had no light behind them. “No,” he said. “But I look forward to the day that we can worry about small problems again. It will all be over soon, right?”

I could hear the sharp edge to his question.This will all be fine, won’t it, Zilan? You promise?

“Right,” I said, not meeting his gaze.

There were a lot of ways this plan could go wrong, leavingboth of us dead within the hour. But we had no other options.

Wenshu nodded stiffly. “I’ll get started,” he said, turning to leave.