Page 33 of Empire's Curse

“Do you wish to look at the dresses, my lady?”

She set down the box of hairpins on her dresser and turned her attention on the trunk, her nerves getting the best of her as the maidservant unlatched the lid and threw it open. Daiyu was unprepared for the silk dresses inside. The shades of dresses ranged from fiery red to deep sapphires, lush emerald, creamy pearls, and rich golds. It was more than she could have imagined, and when she placed the clothes against her skin, they seemed to go well with her tan skin. All the pale dresses that were currently in her wardrobe seemed plain in comparison to these.

“These are stunning,” she breathed, running her hands over the gold embroidered threads of a dark purple dress. In truth, these did seem to suit her more than the other clothes that had been assigned to her, and the thought of Muyang picking these out made her blush deepen. Sheshouldn’thave been swayed by these expensive gifts, and yet … she found her heart swelling with excitement.

“Theyarestunning,” the maidservant remarked with a wide, toothy grin on her leathered face. She patted Daiyu’s hand. “You’ll be his bride and soon, all these gifts will seem so small compared to everything you’ll have!”

Daiyu’s smile faltered and she could only nod. The older woman had no clue she was planning on leaving, and the idea was like a slap of reality to her face.

She couldn’t be too happy with these dresses, especially since she likely wouldn’t wear them for long. She needed to go back home, where life was simpler. Where she wore worn-out clothes with too many patched up holes, where her grass-sandaled shoes were so thin she needed to make new ones, and where her family was patiently waiting for her.

“Would you like to try them on, my lady?” The maidservantheld up a dark green dress with swirling gold dragons dancing along the skirts.

“Maybe tomorrow,” she replied weakly.

When the maidservant left and Daiyu was alone with all her gifts, guilt weighed heavily on her conscience. She shouldn’t have been here. She was supposed to be home. She was supposed to tend to the family garden since Lanfen didn’t have a green thumb, and make herbal tea for her grandmother to help with her aching body, and scrub the grime off her twin brother’s clothes after they helped Father in the rice paddies. She was supposed to milk their family cow early in the morning since Mother liked to drink milk tea before setting to work. She was supposed to braid Lanfen’s hair since she did her hair better than her. She was supposed to do more than sit here and be a pretty doll. Her hands were roughened with tough work, and they weren’t meant to be idle.

She twiddled her fingers together to keep them from fussing over the dresses and to keep them from snatching one of the hairpins. She paced her room again, her mind growing more tangled with every step, every breath, and every thought. Her chance of escape seemed even slimmer than before. What could she do to leave this place?

Perhaps she could ask Feiyu to spirit her away and ask her family to move far, far away as well? But she shook that thought away the instant it formed. She couldn’t burden her elderly parents like that, nor her siblings, who had friends and ambitions in the village. It would be too much for everyone to throw their lives away—everything they had worked for—and run because she had been naïve and unlucky enough to catch the wicked emperor’s attention.

Daiyu tossed and turned,her gaze flicking up to the roof of the bed and then to the carved wooden lattices along the four-poster frame. The only sound in the room wasthe flickering fire in the hearth, the howling of the wind outside her shuttered windows, and the occasional booms of thunder. Even though she had lit a spiced incense stick an hour before bed, she couldn’t sleep.

She pulled the silk sheets over her face and breathed in the sandalwood smell clinging to them from the incense. Nights were truly the hardest in the palace; it was also when she felt the most alone.

She turned her focus on the pitter-patter of rain hitting her shutters and tried to force herself to be lulled to sleep by it. Right when her eyelids began to feel heavy, the sound of wood creaking just outside her door and the jangle of her door handle snapped her awake. She sat upright in bed, and all of a sudden, the fire in her room died.

Everything became dark in an instant, and she knew that something was very, very wrong.

The door slowly swung open and if she wasn’t awake, she might not have heard it clicking shut behind the intruder. Her heart hammered in her chest and she narrowed her eyes into the darkness of the room. Everything was too dark for her to make out anything.

Her heart hammered in her chest and she slowly reached for the emperor’s dagger that she kept under her pillow. The smooth handle of the weapon seemed to fit perfectly in her hand as she brought it in front of her.

Footsteps padded through the room, and Daiyu carefully pulled the blankets off her now-clammy body. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the shadows in the room, and her stomach dropped to the floor at the sight of a figure approaching her, his arms spread out like he too couldn’t see that well in the dark. But just as her eyesight was adjusting—his likely was too.

Daiyu eyed the doorway and then the man that was slowly creeping his way here. She couldn’t easily run past him, but if she caught him off guard, then maybe … maybe she had a chance.

Without wasting another second, she leapedoff the bed and sprinted to the door. The man grunted and lunged toward her. She was only a few feet away, but her vision blurred and a scream ripped through her throat as a body slammed into her. She crashed onto the floor and rolled with the man, who struggled to clasp his meaty hands around her throat. Daiyu waved the dagger in front of her body defensively and the blade was met with resistance. She yanked harder, and the man cursed loudly. Splotches of warm blood splattered her face and she continued flailing the weapon in front of her.

“Stop that!” the man growled, grasping her neck tightly.

Daiyu continued to thrash, her already-dark vision growing dimmer. She kicked him hard between the legs and he inhaled sharply, his hold on her loosening. It was all the time she needed to crawl out from under him.

“Feiyu!” she screamed, rushing to the door. “Feiyu?—”

The intruder grabbed her ankle and yanked her backward. The room spun and she slammed to the floor once more, her chin cracking against the hard tile. She reached for her dagger, but it had skidded a foot away from her.

“Get off me! Help!” She clawed her way forward, her hands gripping the edge of her rug as the man continued to pull her. Her gaze was locked on the door, waiting for guards to bust through, or for Feiyu to teleport to her room like he had a few weeks ago. “Help!”

“You bitch.” The intruder smothered a cloth over her face and she struggled against him, her limbs growing heavy. “Stop moving so much, or I’ll accidentally cut that pretty neck of yours.”

Something cold touched her throat, but she could barely keep her eyes open. He was saying something else too, but the words were muffled, like there was a barrier between them. In seconds, her world became a black void.

13

Daiyu groaned softly,her chin and elbow aching. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, and she was nearly blinded by the blaring sun. She inhaled sharply and looked around herself wildly. Where she expected to see the silhouettes of her four-poster bed or the familiar furniture of her room, she was instead met with hills, trees, and a cluster of men on horses surrounding her. Her body jostled forward, and she could barely sit up on the floor of the uncovered wagon she was on. Her hands were bound tightly with rope and bits of hay covered her night robes.

It took her a few minutes to realize the position she was in. Had she been … kidnapped? Sold to a group of mercenaries? A band of thieves? Bandits? She couldn’t tell, but by their gruff outfits and crude, chipped blades, they seemed like the latter.

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