Page 42 of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

Challenge issued.

The concubine gave her a slow, feral smile. “Oh, I’m sure I can find something for you.”

Challenge accepted.

The cool spring thawed into a warm, wet summer, and one morning, Xifeng woke to find sheets of rain cascading down. Today marked one month since she had begun slaving for Lady Sun, though the concubine had promised to find a replacement by now. Clearly, it was to be torture and degradation: cleaning up after her repellent dog, scrubbing her chamber pot, and personally hand-washing her undergarments after her moon’s bleeding.

Xifeng swung her feet to the floor. Not showing up would be admitting defeat, and she would not give Lady Sun that satisfaction. If the concubinewasthe Fool, Xifeng had to avoid showing weakness in any form. She needed to stay strong and alert, and formulate her plan of attack. She drew a hand across her cheek, reassuring herself of its perfection, and stood up.

“Good morning,” a small voice said, and Xifeng glanced at Dandan and Mei in shock. It was unclear which of them had spoken, for both were red as poppies.

“Good morning,” she returned, not daring to say more for fear of spooking them.

“You were laughing in your sleep.” Dandan blushed even more.

Xifeng paused. All week, she had dreamed of murdering the concubine in various violent ways and burying her in a cave of serpents. “I’m sorry. I’ve been having nightmares,” she lied.

“It didn’t sound like a nightmare,” Mei observed.

Xifeng shrugged and turned to see something sticking out from under her pillow. It was the bundle of black incense. Had she clutched it in her sleep? She hurriedly tucked it out of sight, and a piece of her dream returned: that monk she had seen at the trading post, only this time he had been watching her from Lady Sun’s room of bronze mirrors. She brushed her fingers over her face again—in the dream, the cut Guma had given her had returned in all of its bloody glory.

She scurried through the rain to morning prayer and then made her way to the banquet hall, where two eunuchs were placing fresh beeswax candles into the lanterns to mark the start of the hour. She found Kang sitting alone, glowering at a table full of merry, gambling eunuchs. Each time one of them rolled a pair of stone dice, they all erupted into groans and cheers.

Kang stabbed at his porridge. “They’re having their monthly outing in the Imperial City today. Aselectgroup of them goes to market to buy silks and spices. I, of course, am never chosen, though I have the best eye among them for silks.”

“Don’t sit around and wait. Why not ask if you can go?”

“I’ve asked a hundred times,” he protested. “I asked before you came in and they told me I’m a disgrace who stinks of urine.”

Xifeng rolled her eyes, knowing he referred to many eunuchs’ tendency to wet their beds. It was an unfortunate effect of the procedurethey underwent, particularly if they’d had the bad luck to have an inexperienced knifer. “That insult should have been directed at Master Yu,” she said without thinking, remembering the chief eunuch’s stench, and Kang let out a great roar of laughter. “Don’t youdaretell anyone I said that.”

“Who would I tell? The Empress, who alone doesn’t loathe me?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t wish to annoy him or Madam Hong any further. I’m the only lady they haven’t asked to help Her Majesty with festival planning.”

The upcoming Festival of the Summer Moon celebrated the first full moon of the season. It marked a momentous occasion in which the Empress and her chosen ladies and eunuchs joined the Emperor in the main palace for a banquet and a moon-viewing party. Xifeng had seen other girls sewing costumes and practicing music for the performance that would follow.

Kang’s mouth lifted humorlessly. “Too busy cleaning up Shenshi’s shit, are you?”

Xifeng scowled. “I’m supposed to be a lady-in-waiting, not a glorified maidservant. Likely today she’ll ask me to clean her balcony with a paintbrush. She’s trying to break me, but it won’t work.”

“She thinks she’s the Empress already,” the eunuch sneered. “She threatens to leave the Emperor all the time.Threatenshim. She’s forever accusing him of going after her ladies.”

“Leave the Emperor? Where on earth would she go?”

“It’s something she says whenever she wants more of his attention. He always sends gifts after a tantrum.” The gambling eunuchs erupted into laughter and Kang’s face darkened. “She had me beaten once with a bamboo cane, you know. Master Yu did it with enthusiasm.”

Xifeng winced. “What did you do to her?”

“Do you know what black spice is?” She shook her head. “It comesfrom a poppy plant grown near the Gulf of Talon and costs more than our lives put together. In small amounts, it’s medicine for pain. It relaxes you, gives you the sensation of ultimate well-being. But when smoked in large amounts, it brings...visions.”

Images swirled in Xifeng’s mind: a dark room full of smoke, and sticks of jet incense glowing with fire. A chill danced across her skin. “What sort of visions?”

Kang leaned forward. “Some say you can see the future. But I’ve never been stupid enough to smoke enough for that. And I’ve never gone snooping around the Imperial physician’s cupboards looking for some, yet Lady Sun accused me all the same.”

“Why would she do that?”

“She hates me because I don’t worship her like the other eunuchs. Lady Sun may be arrogant, but she’s not an imbecile. She knows when someone doesn’t like her. She hasn’t the gift to make people love her, so she takes revenge on them.”

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