Page 37 of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

He would have made this place feel more like home.

From the sack, Xifeng pulled out the bronze box containing her mother’s dagger and hairpin. She tucked it beneath her pillow, vowing to find a better hiding place later, and made to put the sack away when she felt something unfamiliar inside.

Frowning, she removed the object and gave a choked cry upon recognizing it: a bundle of incense and a cheap metal holder to burn it in. Even unlit, the thin bamboo sticks emitted a noxious fragrance of black fungus and swamp herbs that took Xifeng right back home to her aunt’s secret room.

Guma had known all along about the hidden sack. She knew Xifeng would abandon her and wanted to make sure she couldn’t ever forget her.

For a moment, with the scent seeping back into her skin, Xifeng felt as though she had never left Guma behind at all.

•••

Xifeng met Madam Hong on the South Balcony with her face scrubbed, hands washed, and hair pinned into a knot. She wore the clean clothes that had been provided, but she still felt out of place in the luxurious sitting area where the Empress’s chief attendant awaited her.

Vines of spring roses shaded the balcony, and sweet azalea looped over the railing. Madam Hong sat at a stone table, gazing off into the distance, her face sallow above her embroidered coral jacket. The whole scene appeared staged as though for a performance.

“Do you know how many girls long to be where you are?” she asked, without looking at Xifeng. “Yet the gods saw fit to throw you in the Crown Prince’s path, and thus his mother’s.”

Master Yu leaned against the railing behind her. “What a lucky girl you are. Sit down.”

Xifeng obeyed, wishing Kang were there. His presence would have made this seem less like a standoff, with the eunuch and lady-in-waiting glaring from the other side of the table.

“You are here as aservantof the Empress, reporting directly to me and Master Yu,” Madam Hong announced. “You will work hard at any task you are given, whether it is arranging flowers, mending clothes, or emptying chamber pots, if the maids can’t get to them on time. You will find nothing beneath you, for thereisnothing beneath you.”

“You will be respectful at all times. None of that impertinence andshowing off your knowledge to your betters,” Master Yu snapped. So he hadn’t been too stupid to recognize her poetic insult, after all. “You have no license to speak to or disturb Her Majesty in any way. You will not leave the city of women without permission from us.”

“Well, girl?” Madam Hong barked. “Do you understand?”

Xifeng’s hands itched to slap the pompous expression off the woman’s face. She felt the creature shifting between her ribs and the accompanying spasm of dread.Please, not now,she begged.I can’t afford to make enemies so soon.

“Speak when you’re spoken to,” Master Yu shouted, startling even Madam Hong. He seemed quite comfortable showing his venom with only the chief lady-in-waiting present.

Xifeng recalled a story she had read about how the elephant and the grassland bird existed together. The bird ate small pests on the elephant’s body, thereby sustaining itself, while the elephant benefited by staying clean. She imagined Madam Hong as the wrinkled, ungainly elephant and the eunuch as a bald, bad-tempered bird, and almost laughed out loud.

“I understand, Madam Hong,” she said, trying to keep her lips from twitching.

The woman scowled. “The ladies wake before sunrise, wash, comb, and dress. They go to the shrine for an hour of prayer, during which they honor the blessings of the Dragon Lords.” She made the sign of respect Empress Lihua had earlier. “Between meals, each works intently on a task given to her. In the evening, they spend an hour reading or practicing calligraphy or music, and then there is another hour of prayer before bed.”

“The lanterns you see all around us are not only ornamental, but also measure time,” Master Yu said curtly. “They will keep you on task.We do not tolerate lazy, stupid women in proximity to the Empress.”

“What is to be my task?” Xifeng asked as politely as she could manage.

Madam Hong scowled. “You werenotgiven permission to speak, girl.”

Xifeng willed her hands to stay in her lap. She imagined returning to Akira and having to explain that she’d been thrown out of the palace because she had slapped the Empress’s chief attendant. The urge to laugh grew stronger, as did the movement in her rib cage. Before she could stop herself, she said tartly, “My name is Xifeng, notgirl.”

With one smooth flourish, the eunuch leaned over and cracked his folded fan across her shoulder. Xifeng felt stinging warmth where he had hit her and peered at him in amusement. After Guma’s imaginative beatings with the cane—including pouring water over her back to intensify the pain—did the fat little man truly imagine he could break her spirit?

“They’re all the same when they come here,” Master Yu sneered to Madam Hong. “They think because Empress Lihua is kind and welcoming that they are different.Special.Arrogant and high-strung, with some notion of rising to the top, like foam on an ocean current.”

“That’s a beautiful turn of phrase, sir,” Xifeng said sweetly, ignoring the pain in her shoulder, and he scanned her face for impudence. Was the imbecile even aware how much of his speeches were stolen from poetry?

A spiteful smile blossomed on Madam Hong’s lips. “My dear Yu, wasn’t it just this morning that Lady Sun complained about her maidservant? Perhaps we can putXifengto use there, and have her... assist while the lady finds a replacement.”

“You always have the most appropriate solution. I’ll speak to her tonight, and you,girl,will start next week. You’ll have to have a bit oftraining first; we won’t send a complete novice to Her Ladyship. Now get out of our sight.”

Xifeng rose with a brilliant smile, enjoying their disturbed expressions at the sight of it. “Thank you for your time. When I see the Crown Prince again, I’ll let him know what you’ve done for me.” She bowed before their shocked stares. Apparently they had forgotten that the prince had recommended her for the position—not that she would likely see him again, but gods above, that threat had beenfun. She strolled off as merrily as though they hadn’t treated her like dirt. Outward grace at all times, as Guma had taught her, no matter how she boiled inside.

Kang waited for her on the ground level. Despite his customary simper, he surveyed her with quick, clever eyes. “You survived. They haven’t broken you like a colt in the stable?”

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