Page 18 of The Poet Empress
I thanked the Ancestors I had spent so much time memorizing all those techniques, and recited what Lady Chara had taught us. I told them I had begun with Setting Mountain Sun, which had drawn out of him delighted noises, and then I had accelerated the night with Cascading Waterfall, which had made his sigil radiant with pleasure.
I did not tell them how scared I had been, how helpless I had felt.If you tell anyone what happened last night, I will kill you.
As the afternoon drew on, there came time for gifts. The concubines brought out earrings of jade, necklaces of clattering pearls, and perfumes that smelled of rose honey and fig. One concubine had brought in fine teas imported from as far as the Eriet Mountains, and another a live peacock in a cage, which I had not the first clue what to do with.
“These are lucky buns—made of sesame and lotus paste,” said a short-haired girl called Jiang Rovah. “They are specialties from my home in the Jiangtu District—please, try one.”
“Oh, do try some of this plum wine too.” The skinny, tan girl called Jin Veris held up a golden jar. “My uncle runs a winery near Xuen, and each jar can sell for a thousand coppers.”
It was rude to decline, but I did so anyway. There was not a chance I could stomach anything at the moment. Even the mere thought of eating, even the faintest scent of food, made me want to be sick all over again.
Jia didn’t give me anything. The longer the afternoon went on, the more agitated she became. Finally, she stood and pushed her table over. “Are we not going to talk about the fact that this witch”—she jabbed a finger at me—“tricked and ensorcelled her way into the Inner Court? How villagefilthhas somehow clawed its way into our ranks?”
When nobody responded, her scowl became terrible. She tried to lift the nearest porcelain vase—which held a mandarin tree—and couldn’t. She then went to a smaller vase, lifted that one high above her head, and smashed it onto the ground with a shatteringklink.
Everyone in the room went silent at once. Even Chua Yan and LiruSyra, the two concubines who had been whispering by themselves all the way in the corner, had stopped to look at Jia.
“How did you do it?” she demanded. “It was supposed to be me. It was always supposed to be me! If he had not chosen you first,Iwould have been the most powerful woman in the Inner Court!”
My face burned like hot coals, but I kept my eyes on the ground.If only I knew.
The empress was watching me closely. As Mother of the House, she should have stepped in to make peace, but she showed no intention of moving.
“Rice farmer,” Jia snarled. She must have taken my silence as an invitation to continue. “I know your kind. Dogs bred from the dirt, tracking mud everywhere they run. Hideous, mangy things—even powder and finery can’t hide your true nature.” Her voice was as sharp-edged as the porcelain pieces scattered at her feet. “Mark my words, village cur: you are going to die. And once you die, I am going to take your place.”
It was the fact that she had swept everyone else into those awful words that made me angry enough to speak. That she had insulted all the hardworking people of Lu’an, who were much more deserving than any I had met in the palace.
I lifted my chin, unwisely, and looked her straight in the eye. “No, Jia,” I told her. “I am going to live. I am going to become empress.”
After everyone was gone, I sent for Wren and Pima. “There was a silver needle yesterday on the ground. Did you happen to find where it was?”
Wren brought it to me at once, so quickly that she must have kept it somewhere close at hand. I went through the gifts by lanternlight, plunging the needle into the honey sweets and the lucky buns, the fig candy and the tea. When I got to the golden wine from Jin Veris, the entire length of it went stain-black.
For a long time I stared at the needle, uncomprehending. When I’d tested the food, I hadn’t really expected it to turn black. Some subconscious part of me had done it only to prove Ciyi wrong. To say,Look, nobody wanted to kill me after all.
To prove Minma wrong.Look, the women in the palace are kind.
“Lady Yin,” Wren said, and there was something almost like sympathy in her voice.
They really did want me dead. They really did want to be Terren’s wife in my stead, despite knowing what kind of monster he was.
It was so absurd that if I were not so afraid, I might have laughed. Instead, I could only envy the upbringing all those city girls must have had, to believe themselves so invincible.
I looked up and met Pima’s eyes. “Please send a message to Ciyi. I would like to see him.”
11THE CURRENCY OF THE PALACE
The eunuch was already smug when he entered my pavilion, but when he saw the black needle, his face lit up with a beaming smile. When I told him that I would accept his offer to be my chief eunuch, his smile turned positively radiant.
“But there are two conditions,” I said from my raised seat. I was finally beginning to feel better. At the very least, my head was clearing. Behind us, under the light of a scarce moon, the peacock battered its wings furiously against its cage.
Ciyi’s smile was gone. Clearly, he had not expected a simple rice farmer to know to bargain.
And I wouldn’t have, had it not been for him and the other women of the court. They had finally taught me that power was the currency of the palace. That, even if it didn’t feel like it, I held some of that currency in my hands.
“First, I’d like you to teach me to read.”
His expression turned instantly to horror. “But that is treason, Lady Yin! Surely you know what happens to women who are found to be literate!”
