Page 61 of Song of the Crimson Flower

Bao followed her gaze to a clearing in the garden, just outside the infirmary, where the Gray City workers had moved some of the healthier patients to make room for injured soldiers. Lan, who had helped take care of the wounded all night, had fallen asleep on one of the pallets, her cheek pillowed on her hand.

“I know, Auntie Huong,” he said softly, and the witch smiled at the term of endearment. “It’s one thing to fall in love on a journey, far away from home. But out there, in the real world, she’s the only daughter of Minister Vu, and I’m...” He trailed off, chuckling as he remembered how Lan had cried,Don’t you dare say peasant!

“You are a physician’s apprentice. And from what I saw last night, you’re well on your way to becoming a full physician one day. The Gray City could use a leader like you, nephew. You could build a new life and a home here, with Lan.”

Bao’s heart sank. “But I’m still the son of a treacherous, power-hungry traitor. Minister and Lady Vu would never approve of our union.”

“You think far too little of yourself, Bao. Yes, Vy was a traitor, but she was the leader of a great city, and you are the next of kin.”

“She called me a prince,” he said, shaking his head.

“Well, and why not? She always did think of herself as a queen.” Huong snorted. “But what I’m trying to say is that you are someone. You have talent and aspiration and somewhere to go in life, and Lan clearly thinks you’re a worthy partner, no matter what her parents mayhave to say. If Lady Yen can defy the expectations set for her, why can’t your girl?”

Bao couldn’t help it—his smile grew wider and wider all through her speech, and his face glowed. All his life, he had dreamed of having family who cared enough to build him up, and now he was sitting with an aunt who believed in him. “Thank you,” he said softly, and Huong beamed at him. On the horizon, the sun was ascending over a city of smoke and ruin. But it was a new day, and as Bao had found out, a lot could happen in a new day. “It will be a lot of work.”

“No one ever promised you it would be easy.”

“No,” he agreed, “but it would beeasierto take the helm with help from family. You weren’t planning on spending the rest of your life on that riverbank, were you?”

The witch narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you suggesting? That we both live here?”

“We don’t have anywhere better to go,” he pointed out. “We could rebuild this city from the bottom up. We could make it a center of trade and industry and learning. There issomegood to what our family has done, creating a safe space for people who need it. What do you say?”

Huong looked at him, and for the first time, Bao could see himself in her face—in the tilt of her chin and the curve of her nose, and the way she carefully considered the question before answering. “It would be rather satisfying to order Vy’s people around,” she admitted, and that was how Bao knew that she was accepting his offer. He grinned at her, and she gave him his smile back with the same dimple.

“Did you really love my father?” he asked.

“More than anything. But there was nothing I could do to persuade him to love me.”

“Not even magic?”

The woman laughed. “Magic has no effect upon the heart. It might temporarily control the mind, but it doesn’t alter the core of a person’s being or the deepest reaches of their soul. Love is a magic all its own,” she said, placing her hand on Bao’s shoulder, over his birthmark. “I’ve been alone all my life, even when I was here. I’ve learned to welcome solitude like an old friend, but perhaps it’s time I changed that.”

“We could build you a quiet, private sanctuary here,” Bao suggested. “You could have a little house and a garden, like you had on the riverbank. But you’d have me nearby, too.”

Huong patted his arm. “We have much planning to do, nephew. But for now, I think I’ll go and get some rest. Your girl is awake, and I don’t fancy being the third wheel.”

Bao kissed her cheek, and she gave him another pat, groaning as her bones creaked when she stood up from the steps. He watched her stretch and walk back to the house, and then Lan was standing in front of him with her head tipped to one side, smiling. For a moment, he just sat there looking at her in silence, filling his soul with her lovely face.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

“How I was terrified, once, to look you in the eye,” he said truthfully. “I didn’t know how much I was missing.”

Lan laughed. She took a seat two steps below his and leaned her head back against his chest. “How is Commander Wei doing? And Lady Yen?”

“The Commander is stable. The surgeon patched him up well, but it was more complicated than I thought,” he said, wrapping his arms around her. “And Lady Yen is sleeping with a smile on her face.” They sat in silence for a moment, gazing out at the sunrise. Somewhere beyond the wall that surrounded the city, Bao knew the grasslands were swaying in the gentle breeze, untouched by the violence and devastation.

“Did you ever think this would happen?” Lan asked dreamily. “Whenyou first saw me at my father’s house and loved me for all those years. Did you imagine that one day we would be sitting together in a burned garden, looking out at a wrecked city?”

Bao laughed. “No, I never imagined that. But Ididimagine this,” he said, tilting her head gently back so that he could kiss her the way he had always dreamed of doing. Her lips were like silk, soft and warm beneath his tongue. He knew in his bones that fifty years from now, his heart would still race at the sight of her. They had journeyed afar and broken a witch’s spell together. They had gone from being two people with unrequited love, to two people broken apart, to two people come back together again: two halves of a whole, as they had always been meant to be.

Lan looked up at him, when they had pulled away at last, breathless from the kiss. “So how do I measure up to that imaginary version of myself?”

“You know, I was worried you wouldn’t live up,” he joked, and she hit his arm. “But it turns out therealyou is so much better than the one I imagined.”

She kissed his nose. “You made a great sacrifice tonight,” she said softly. “I know it must have hurt to let your mother go. What do you think will happen to the city? Is it up to you?”

“That’s what Auntie Huong and I were discussing just now,” Bao said. “We’d like to stay and rebuild the city into something better than it was before. And I could truly picture myself living here and calling it home... once it’s a different place, of course.”

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