Page 109 of The Poet Empress
He let out another sob—he couldn’t stop it from coming out. He was exhausted, and still hurting, and the fish was suffering so much, dangled like that.
“One cut, and you will become the most powerful in all of Tensha. Nobody will be left to contest you. Not one person in the world can hurt you.”
The carp’s thrashing was feebler now. It was dying.
The shoe stepped down into the arrow. It broke with asnap. He collapsed onto his side, gasping for breath. It took everything he had not to pass out from the pain.
“One cut, and you will be safe again. No more hurt. No more fear. Just one cut, my beautiful child, and you will become—”
Heir,was what she likely meant to say.
Free,was also possible.
Wind,was how he liked to imagine it.
He would never know for sure, because he finally did make a cut. And then the voice and the shadows, the hands and the shoes, they all went as silent and still as the fish.
Seven years.
Seven years since you’ve begun writing that spell to make him invincible.
How arrogant I had been to assume I’d known the whole truth—when I had heard it from Hesin, when I had heard it from Maro, even when I had gone in person to Tieza. How foolish I had been to have believed I could write Terren’s poem without once speaking with him, without hearing his testimony from his own mouth.
That night, after I’d returned to my pavilion, I added one final, crucial verse to my love poem. Then I summoned my messenger.
“Tell Lady Song it’s done,” I said.
“What’s done?” Ciyi asked, out of habit, but he knew better by now than to press me.
He left to deliver my message, leaving me in my empty parlor, with my killing spell safe under the floorboards, its characters glowing hot like the Archer’s nine shot-down suns.
60SUMMER CICADAS
A week later, Silian invited me to visit the West Palace, using the summer solstice celebration as an excuse for us to meet.
At the wisteria arch leading to the Thousand Lotus Lake, a soft floral aroma and two polite but wary maids greeted me. “Welcome, Lady Yin.”
Their wariness made sense: I might have been here twice before, but those visits were covert. This was the first time I had been here as an actual guest, and during daytime.
The West Palace looked different in daylight. The lake seemed even more endless, the near end of it bobbing with gentle lotuses, the far end vanishing only in a distant haze of peaks. Gazebos, walkways, and bridges crowded the shores, reflecting in the clear water. They were already filled with guests. Men and women, all dressed in shimmery silks and vines, holding silver wine vessels and conversing over the strum of zithers.
A distant sort of sadness settled heavy in my chest. I had never once seen Terren’s palace this full. I had never seen it anything other than empty.
Silian wove her way through a bridge full of fan-dancers to greet me. “Lady Yin,” she said genially. “You look magnificent today, like a real empress.”
“Where can we talk? There are too many people here.”
“Not yet.” She smiled and took my arm. “Let us first enjoy the solstice.”
It was hard to think of anything but the paper hidden in my sleeve, and Terren’s imminent assassination, but I followed her into one of the gazebos to join the dozens of courtiers already there.
Within the circle of the crowd, two child eunuchs unjarred a fist-sized cicada each onto a table. There was a green one and a red one, their bodiescovered with moss and little leaves, their wings clipped so that they could not fly away.
“I’ve consulted the stars,” said one of the observers, “and my money’s on the green one.”
“Pffah,” rebuked another beside him, red-faced with drink. “Your amateur astronomy is nothing compared to tradition. Even the youngest children know that red is the luckier color.”
The two cicadas scuttled about the arena, which had been carved with Tensha’s mountains, valleys, and rivers, ramming their heads against each other until one of them stopped moving. The crowd went wild—with excitement or frustration, depending on which way the betting had gone. Coins clinked as they changed hands. Even Prince Maro, who was mid-conversation with a courtier on a bridge not far away, glanced over to see what the commotion was about.
