Page 46 of Song of the Crimson Flower

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Bao collapsed onto the bed, still wrapped in Commander Wei’s thick wool cloak. He was asleep the second his head hit the pillow, and for the first time since the village, he slipped into another vision of his mother. This time, he was in a lush garden like a jungle, overrun by large leafy trees and spreading shrubs. Black spice scented the night air and beneath it, Bao smelled rain. Mistress Vy walked toward him from the black metal gate that ringed the garden.

“My son,” she said, and despite his misgivings, his heart leapt at her bright, loving smile. “I’ve managed to call you to me again. I missed seeing you. But you look so pale and tired.” Her smile fell as she reached a hand toward his cheek.

“I haven’t been sleeping well,” he said, again feeling both the impulse to lean into her hand and the urge to pull away. “I think the spell is taking hold.”

Vy shook her head. “Huong could always be cruel with her magic, even when she was a little girl,” she said, the lines around her eyes tightening.“Don’t worry. I will make her shatter the enchantment as soon as you get here. I’ll take care of you, Bao.”

His shoulders relaxed a bit at her words and reassuring tone. She took a seat on a stone bench and patted the spot beside her, and he sat gingerly. The vision, again, felt as real as though he were physically in the garden with her. The stone was slightly cool beneath him, and when he touched it, he felt a bit of dampness from the rain that had fallen.

“How far are you from the Gray City?” his mother asked.

Bao opened his mouth to tell her, then hesitated, remembering what he knew of Vy’s failed attempts to win Lord Nguyen over to her side. He didn’t wish to be involved in whatever conflict lay between his mother and the nobleman. He felt her sharp eyes on him the whole time as he struggled to come up with an answer. “Not far. We’re staying at a friend’s home about a day’s ride away. Only two nights left before the full moon and the enchantment takes effect.”

“Hasn’t it already?”

“It has limited me somewhat. I can’t be separated from my flute, nor can I go far from someone with whom I’m traveling. A girl named Lan.” He remembered the sadness in Lan’s eyes before they had parted in the corridor. Had she, too, been thinking about what would happen when the spell was broken and they had to part ways, back to their respective worlds?

“So, you have someone special to you,” Mistress Vy said, smiling, but the tension around her eyes quickly returned. “All of that valuable magic in Huong’s veins, and she chooses a frivolous spell pertaining to the heart. What will break it, then? Lan confessing her love to you in return?”

Bao hesitated. All through the journey, he and Lan had shared the mutual understanding that she was helping him get to the witch. Or tohis mother. He had never considered—neverdaredimagine—that Lan might be the one to break the spell, after all. She cared about him; she had told him that herself. But it was too much to hope that she might, at last, return his feelings. “The witch told me it had to be a declaration of love from someone who loves me,” he said at last. “She expected it to be you. She seemed to think I was living with you and accused me of luring her back for you.” Bao frowned, thinking over what Huong had told him. Something didn’t fit. “Why would she think I was back in the city when she was the one who took me away?”

Vy shrugged. “She must have thought I had found you and brought you back.”

You, who are the result of my sister’s and Sinh’s betrayal of me, he remembered the witch saying to him.The product of their lies. And won’t it be fitting to send you back to them not as their son, but as something else entirely?

“When Huong cursed me, she seemed to think Sinh was still alive. But you told me he had died of bloodpox when I was two, right before Huong took me away,” Bao said, watching his mother carefully. “Why wouldn’t she already know that?”

“Your aunt has clearly gone mad in all of those years of living alone,” Mistress Vy said, calm and composed. “She must have forgotten that Sinh had died.”

“She loved him. How could she have forgotten something like that?” Bao asked, irritated. “I think you lied to me. Tell me exactly what happened. Is my father dead or not?”

Mistress Vy’s gaze on him was cool and appraising, and her loving, maternal smile was nowhere to be found. “You have a good memory, my son. Very well, then. The truth is that your fatherisdead, but not from bloodpox, like the rest of our family.” She folded her hands in her lap.“When Sinh and I married and had you, Huong was so jealous that she poisoned him against me. She filled his ears with lies, saying that I was evil and that black spice was an instrument of my malice. And then she left the city one night without saying goodbye.”

“Then Sinh was still alive when she left,” Bao said slowly. “And I was still with you.”

“I thought our problems were over with her gone. But your father listened to her, and he betrayed me,” Vy said stiffly. “Shortly after she disappeared, he took you and fled under cover of night. I sent my guards after you, but he had hidden you, and you were lost to me. They found him alone. I begged them to bring him to me alive, but in their fierce loyalty, they chose instead to punish him... with death.”

Bao stared at her in silence.

“Listen to me, Bao,” his mother said, jaw quivering. “Sinh was threatening to reveal my formula to the world. He wished to destroy my life’s work and my family’s legacy, all thanks to the venom Huong had spilled into his ears. My guards were protecting me as they thought best.”

“Why did you lie to me?” he asked. “Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”

“Because I was afraid of what you might think of me. Driving my sister away, driving my husband away,” Vy said, “my husband dying at the hands of my guards, and then losing you. But it doesn’t change anything, Bao. It’s still the truth: you were taken from me, and everyone I ever loved went away. But this is my chance to make things right.” She moved closer to him, her eyes wide and almost feverish. “You are my son and heir, and I am leader of the Gray City, which should be a kingdom in its own right. That makes you a prince, Bao.”

“It makes me no such thing,” Bao said, getting up from the bench. He felt one of his terrors coming on—his breath was coming too fast,his heart was racing, and he felt as hot as though he sat in the midday sun. “You may have given birth to me, but I can make my own choices as you said the last time we met. I can choose not toinherityour kingdom.” He imbued the final words with as much sarcasm as he could. This woman and her excuses for murder—this woman and her delusions of being a queen.

When Vy spoke, her voice was low, defeated. “I feared you would be like this. I was afraid you would think like Huong, but I expected more of you,” she said. “But you’ll see—you’llbothsee. In a few weeks, I will have the formula for a medicine so powerful, so effective, the Empress of the Great Forest herself will be begging me for it.”

Bao whirled on her. “You’ve found a way to cure the bloodpox?”

The smile returned to her face, broad, beaming. “I want to celebrate this accomplishment with my family,” she said longingly. “To piece together that part of my life, to forgive Huong and be forgiven by her... and you. You’ll see, my son. I will make this all right.”

In her eyes, he saw absolute conviction. Whatever his mother had done, whatever people said of her, she absolutely believed in her mission—and her right to pursue it. “You’ve only done what you thought was right. I believe that,” he said quietly, his heart breaking. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you’ve killed knowingly to achieve your goal, and there is nothing anyone can say to persuade you to stop. I can’t trust you, I...”

Mistress Vy held up a hand. “Don’t say it yet,” she said, in a voice both commanding and cajoling. “Wait until you get to my city before you decide what to do with your heritage. Like it or not, Bao, you are a part of me. The Gray City is in your blood.”

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