Page 39 of Song of the Crimson Flower

Lan glanced at Bao, struck by the similarity of his story to Huy’s.

“That is the last we have of the black spice,” Huy went on, nodding at the basket in the old woman’s hands. “Years ago, the Gray City hid their drugs in towns and villages all over the Grasslands before selling them. This was one such place. As a reward for their complicity, the villagers received a percentage of the black spice to use. That was how bloodpox started.”

Bao shook his head, confused. “You seem to imply that there is a link between bloodpox and the fact that the Gray City gave black spice to these villagers.”

“I’m not implying it. I’m telling you straight out.” Huy seemed grimly pleased that Bao understood. “The disease begins with aches, chills, and fatigue, and it ends within weeks as the person bleeds from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears until they die. The physician and I noticedthat bloodpox did not exist in this village until black spice came. We also noted that every sick person had used the drug. Black spicecausesthe bloodpox.”

There was a long, shocked silence.

Huy jabbed a finger at the basket. “That is what the Gray City doesn’t want you to know. That family has hushed up illnesses and deaths for generations. Mistress Vy’s ancestors kept the secret of how the barbarian kings truly died out. Mistress Vy’s grandmother created a variant that wiped out an entire sector of the city. And her uncle was the first one to conceive the idea of cross-breeding the poppy to another plant, but only managed to create another deadly version.”

“How do you know all this?” Commander Wei demanded.

“I have friends who escaped the labor camps with me. They are more bent on revenge than I am, spying and collecting information against Mistress Vy. I care nothing for her. Since the physician died of old age, these villagers—who have been nothing but kind to me—have become my responsibility.” Huy uttered a humorless laugh. “The irony is that for over a century, the Gray City has been trying to make a miracle medicine. They sell black spice in order to fund the true research: creating a variant that will end all sickness in the world.”

“A noble objective, perhaps, but not at the cost of innocent lives,” Bao said, his face troubled as he looked at the pot of soup in his hands, and Lan knew he was thinking of his connection to Mistress Vy.

“But if black spice causes the bloodpox, why are you bringing it to a woman ridden with the disease?” Commander Wei asked.

“We’ve heard rumors about a potential treatment for bloodpox,” Bao mused, before Huy could answer. “You’ve been attempting to treat her with black spice, haven’t you?”

The young man gave a tight nod. “It causes the illness, but it is alsothe only treatment that works for the symptoms. It keeps the patient alive and takes away her discomfort... for a time.”

“But it doesn’t cure her?” Bao guessed. “It only prolongs her life, and when the symptoms come back, they are stronger than before?”

The old woman came forward. “M-my lord,” she pleaded to the Commander, “my name is Cam and this is my husband, Tao. The sick woman is our daughter. We’ve known Huy since he was a boy, and he was only trying to help us, and he has such a good heart, my lord...”

“You all know that black spice is illegal, and still you used it,” the Commander said flatly.

“Huy bought us more time with our daughter, sir,” Tao said in a shaky voice. “Wewilllet her go; we are not so selfish as to want to prolong her suffering. But we wished to say goodbye to her properly. Please do not throw Huy in prison—he has his whole life before him. If anyone must be tried before the king, let it be me.” Hearing his distress, the little girl and the twin boys clustered around him.

Lan’s heart ached for them all. There would be no one left to help them without Huy, and from the way the children hugged Tao, the old couple apparently cared for the orphans of the village, too. “Please, sir,” she begged Commander Wei in her turn, “the harm is done. And it isn’t as though they bought the black spice; it was given to them by the Gray City. Is there truly a need to punish them further?”

After a moment, Commander Wei sighed. “I will make no decision yet,” he said, but Lan could see as well as the elderly couple that pity had won out. They thanked him effusively.

“I am deeply sorry for your grief,” Bao told the couple quietly. “I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for you. But I urge you to consider the Commander’s words: black spice is hurting all of you more than it is helping. Even if you do nothing now, sooner or later, the supply willrun out. Your daughter’s suffering must end, but I want it to be clear that this is your decision to make... yours and hers, if she is able to communicate her wishes. No one else.”

Cam, who had been crying into her husband’s shoulder, looked up at Bao. “It is too cruel, the way the drug evens her breathing and takes the green tinge from her skin. She looks so healthy and lovely, lying there. But it always comes back.”

“I understand,” Bao said sympathetically.

“And I can’t help but cling to her in those moments, and think to myself,What if this time, the illness never comes back?” The old woman began to cry again weakly. “I know we have to let her go, I do...”

“You are loving parents. Everything you are feeling is perfectly natural,” Bao assured her, and Cam and Tao’s faces filled with gratitude. Lan looked on, moved by their reaction to his compassion. “The soldiers will encamp outside the village tonight, and I promise they will not come in to disturb your daughter. Our company leaves at dawn. But I would like to help Huy tonight, with your permission. I can make a tonic of ginseng and mint and a few other ingredients to help relieve your daughter’s pain and let her rest comfortably. May I do that?”

“Yes, of course,” Tao said, glancing at his wife. “And we will... we will try to find the strength to say goodbye. We need to speak to our daughter about this and hear her wishes. But perhaps it’s time.”

Cam’s face crumpled, but she nodded and gave the basket to Huy.

“Why don’t you go in and see her now? I’ll help you with this and leave you alone,” Bao said, following the couple inside with the pot of soup. After a moment, he came back out, his face endlessly sad, and Lan went to stand by his side without a word. “We can’t destroy the black spice until they’ve made their decision. It wouldn’t be right. But I think they understand.”

Huy sighed as he looked at the contents of the basket. “This was all my doing. She would have died weeks ago, but they begged me...”

“Didn’t you hear Cam?” Bao asked him. “You gave her time with her daughter, and she’s grateful to you. What’s done is done.”

“But the sooner we get to the Gray City, the better,” Wren said fiercely. “We need to inform our allies and send a message back to Jade about the truth of Mistress Vy’s doings. We have to rally our troops. It is time to fight this evil and declare war outright, and to hell with the negotiations.”

A chill crawled down Lan’s spine at the warrior’s words. Lan had merely left home to right a wrong, but it would bring her into a conflict much bigger than herself and all of the small worries that had consumed her for nearly eighteen years.

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