“My name is Sima. I have been assigned as madame’s servant. I will live with you and see to all your needs. Today, I am to prepare food and begin preparations for madame before the heir comes tonight.”
Lilette’s head jerked up. “I thought he was coming tomorrow.”
Sima pursed her lips. “Is he? Good. That will give us more time.”
It would be much harder to escape with this woman watching her. “I don’t need a servant. Please just go.”
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible.” Sima cleared her throat. “Tell me, why did the heir choose you?”
Lilette looked past the doorway, to the ramparts. The sun was just beginning to move behind them. Her time was running out. She staggered to her feet and took a few faltering steps toward the door.
Sima was beside her in an instant. “It wears off slowly. Sit, rest. It will pass by tomorrow.”
“I don’t have time to rest,” Lilette ground out. She’d made it to the door and then stopped.
A man waited outside. At the sight of her, he started forward. Sima held out a forestalling hand. “She just wanted some fresh air. She’s coming back now.”
Though her whole body ached to fight, Lilette allowed Sima to pull her back inside and settle her on the cushions.
“You didn’t choose to be here?” Sima sounded surprised.
“No,” Lilette whispered, her heart pounding with desperation. “I did not choose it.”
Sima’s brow drew together. After a moment, she sighed. “No one ever leaves. Even those who have help.”
Lilette clenched her fists at her sides. There had to be a way. If not now—she braced herself as the fear slammed into her—then soon. “Will I ever be allowed to leave this compound?” It would be much easier to escape if she were already beyond these walls.
Sima stirred the vegetables. “Sometimes, if the hot season is especially bad and the needs of the empire are not too demanding, we go to the summer palace in the mountains at the center of the island. It is beautiful and remote enough that we are allowed to travel beyond the palace walls.” There was an undeniable hint of longing in the woman’s voice. “Even then, most concubines never leave the compound. A select few have spent time in the palace itself, if the emperor wishes it.”
Lilette knew Chen would never risk taking her from the safety of these walls. Escaping would take time and careful planning, neither of which she had. She closed her eyes and imagined herself home, sitting on the shore, the sun bleeding red as it sank into the sea’s vast waters. The images calmed her.
Sima set the food before Lilette, who refused to look at it. The woman sat on her heels, her hands resting on her legs. “Will you not eat, madame?”
Lilette moved the food farther away so she wouldn’t have to smell it. “I am not well.”
“Did you eat all the food I left for you earlier? The tray was empty.”
Lilette sighed. She couldn’t tell the woman about the food stuffed in her robes. “It was delicious, thank you.”
Sima sniffed. “If I am to teach you court manners, I must know more about you. Might I ask you questions, madame?”
Lilette wiped the sweat from her face. “I suppose.”
Sima closed the brazier vents to snuff out the fire. “You speak as a Harshen, though clearly you are not. Where are you from?”
Lilette took a deep breath, determined not to let her emotions surface. “From one of the smaller islands.” She didn’t tell her about being born a Kalari—it was not a story she told. Ever.
“What was it called?”
Lilette’s head was beginning to hurt. She rubbed her temples. “Calden.”
Sima cocked her head to the side. “You do not look like a Harshen.”
Lilette’s stomach rolled inside her. Groaning, she pressed her hand to her middle.
“Madame? If I am to instruct you, I must know where to begin.”
Lilette’s mouth watered uncontrollably. She held her fingers over her lips and tried to concentrate on keeping the vomit down. “I came to Calden Island when I was very young. A man named Fa took me in and raised me as his daughter. He died a few weeks ago.”
She tried and failed to push the memory of his death from her mind. So much blood that it had stained the surface of the sea. She could taste it as she had dove down to kill the eel that had bitten through an artery in Fa’s arm.
Sima watched her carefully. “Why did the heir choose you as his concubine?”
Lilette didn’t understand what these questions had to do with her learning the proper etiquette. “Doesn’t matter.”
For the first time, Sima met Lilette’s gaze. “Have you performed all your duties as a concubine yet?”
Lilette swallowed her outrage and tried to rise to her feet, but she was suddenly dizzy. She stumbled and threw her hands out to catch herself, but there was nothing to hold onto. She tripped on the cushions and crashed into the brazier, burning her hands and spilling hot coals across the floor.
She blinked to steady her vision, but everything was fuzzy and disjointed. “I am not well.”
Sima knelt next to her but made no move to help, no move to smother the coals smoking on the beautiful wood floor. “Answer my question.”
Sima’s hands were right in front of Lilette’s face. She stared at the ring on the woman’s finger. A curving dragon, its scales bright gold, its face impossibly detailed with emerald chips for eyes. But what stunned her most was the dragon’s claws—five of them. Only the royal family could wear a dragon with five claws.
Sima bent down and clenched Lilette’s jaw in her impossibly smooth hands. “He’s risked a war for you. I want to know why.”
This close, Lilette could smell the woman’s pear-blossom perfume. Servants wouldn’t wear something as lavish as perfume. And the eunuchs served the harem. A different sort of fear reared up inside Lilette. “Who are you?” But she didn’t wait for her answer. “The woman on the elephant.” Chen’s wife.
Han had warned Lilette to be afraid. Her stomach cramped. “What have you done to me?”
Sima’s hold tightened, bruising Lilette’s jaw. “I will give you the antidote if you tell me why.”
“But . . .” Lilette sputtered before clamping her mouth shut. She’d only had one bite of the spring roll. Surely that wasn’t enough to kill her, yet her body told her otherwise. Lilette’s heart raced, pumping the poison faster through her veins. She did not want to die.
“Because I am a witch. His father tried to take my mother when I was a child. I was meant for Chen.”
The woman’s expression turned to disgust. “Did he think to sire his own private choir of witches? It would never work. The witches always find their own.” Sima laughed suddenly. “Well then, his destruction will be easy to orchestrate. I won’t even have to kill him. The witches will do it for me.”
Lilette’s head ached. “The antidote.”
Sima’s gaze narrowed. “One more thing. What was your mother’s name?”
Lilette wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her wrist. “Lellan. Her name was Lellan.”
Sima scrutinized her for a long moment. She gave a small nod of satisfaction before releasing her and gathering the food and tea. Lilette’s hand shot out, trying to grab her arm, but there were two arms now, and she’d reached for the wrong one. The woman easily batted her away and started toward the silk screen.
“Wait! The antidote!”
The woman chuckled dryly as she tossed the food and the remainder of the tea into the soil. “There isn’t one. Never was.” She stepped out of sight.
“Should we wait until it is finished?” came a man’s deep voice. Definitely not a eunuch.
“It’s too risky. Besides, it only takes one bite, and the whole plate was empty. No one could survive that,” Sima answered tartly.
One bite was still one bite too many. Lilette stopped fighting her nausea and vomited onto the fine silk cushions. She reached into her robes and tossed the towel of mangled
food onto the floor. She had to get out of the house, get help. She struggled to her feet, using the wall to shore herself up until she peeked out the door.
Sima and the man were gone. It was nearly dark. Lilette put her hands out for balance and started forward, but promptly tumbled down the steps. She lay gasping, her heart flopping in her chest like a dying fish. She pressed the heel of her hand against her ribs to keep it from beating out of her chest.
She rolled to her side and came face to face with the monkey she’d thrown the spring roll to. It was lying under a shrub, dead. Looking past the carcass, Lilette fixed her gaze on the gate. She had to reach it. Years of balancing on Fa’s fishing boat were the only reason she made it to her feet and kept her balance all the way to the gate.
Lilette’s hands were numb and tingling, her shaking limbs impossibly heavy, but she managed to grab the latch and pull it open. She lurched through the gate. Everything tipped and swayed around her. Leaning on the wall, she threw up bile. She pressed the back of her cold wrist to her mouth and followed the wall back the way she’d come.
Her heart finally started to slow down. For a moment, she felt better. Her vision cleared and she was able to move without clutching onto something for support. Her pace picked up measurably. It didn’t last long enough, though. Everything was surrounded by a halo, like each object was backed by its very own sun. She swayed and stumbled like someone deep in her cups. She bumped into something, reeled back, and looked up, up, up.
Through her muddy thoughts, she recognized the ramparts. She’d gone the wrong way. Filling her lungs, she screamed for help. Silence answered her. With tears in her eyes, she faced the way she’d come. She could feel her body shutting down. See death teasing her along the outer curve of her vision. Already it was too late.
But Lilette had never given up before, and sheer habit kept her moving when nothing else would have. She turned and lurched back the way she’d come. But death grew more bold, more ominous. She tried to bat the darkness away with her hands, but it only laughed as it came swarming in.
She fell to the ground, her whole body convulsing. Death leaned over her, and its breath puffed against her face. It smelled of orchids.
Chapter 6
With complete power comes pride. Pride breeds corruption. Corruption begets vulnerability, which pride refuses to see. And so begins the vicious cycle of destruction. ~Jolin
Lilette wasn’t sure how long she’d been lying on the ground before death’s arms reached beneath her and picked her up. She struggled against it, willing her body to fight the poison coursing through her.
“Be still,” said a deep voice.
She immediately relaxed. Not death, but a man. Had he fought death off? She rested her aching head against his broad chest. “Hurts.”
“What happened to you?”
Rain began tapping against her skin. “Woman. Poison.”
“Hold on, little dragon.” He took off at a run. Later, she would remember little of it. Mostly just sensations. The muscles of his arms relaxing and contracting with each of his running steps. The steady beat of his heart, so different from the occasional thump of hers. The scent of his damp leather armor.
The way he held her and his smell tugged at the fraying edges of her memory, but she didn’t try to weave the threads together. She didn’t care enough to try.
He paused twice—the last time to slide open a door. A woman gasped. “What are you doing here? You can’t be here!”
He grunted, the sound vibrating against Lilette’s forehead. “Apparently I can.”
She struggled to open her eyes as he set her on a sleeping mat. “It’s her, isn’t it? Lilette?” said the woman.
“She’s been poisoned,” he replied.
After a moment’s hesitation, delicate hands pressed against her chest. “She’s cold. Her heart is weak.”
Lilette finally managed to blink her eyes open and stared up at one of the most beautiful faces she’d ever seen, pale green eyes a shocking contrast to her dark features. The woman’s eyes were round, her face longer. She was definitely not Harshen.
She pried open Lilette’s mouth and sniffed. “She’s vomited.” She came eye level with Lilette. “Were you pricked or did you consume it?”
Lilette’s body didn’t seem to be connected to the rest of her. “The spring rolls.”
The woman nodded. “What did it taste like?”
Everything was so blurry. She squinted, but it didn’t help. “Like . . . spring rolls.”
The woman disappeared and the man leaned over her. It was Han, his scarred face twisted with concern
This didn’t surprise her. Some part of her had recognized him when he picked her up. And somehow she didn’t want to kill him.
From close by, a bell rang. Lilette glanced out the window. It was full dark now. The woman came bustling back into the room. She positioned Lilette’s head on her knees and held a cup to her lips. “Drink it.”
Lilette didn’t have much of a choice as the liquid was poured into her mouth. She immediately gagged. She recognized the taste from a lifetime of clearing out old fire pits. A sludge of ashes mixed with water.
“Keep it down,” the woman warned. “It will absorb the poison.”
Lilette swallowed to keep her gorge from rising, but as soon as the mixture hit her stomach, she immediately threw it up.
“You want to live, you’ll keep it down.”
The cup was tipped back again. It was gritty and horrible, with chunks of charcoal sticking in her throat. Lilette swallowed, and with everything she had left she fought the urge to vomit.
The woman just kept pouring more down her throat. “I’ve summoned my eunuch. You better slip out of here before anyone sees you,” she said to Han.
He scoffed. “I think I can handle your tailless dog.”
The woman’s eyes hardened. “He won’t keep your secrets, and they’ll kill you if they find out you set foot in the harem.” Her face softened and she reached out and touched the jagged scar that stretched from his cheek to his mangled ear. “My son, I’m so sorry.”
He pulled away from her. “I don’t want your pity.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “Go. Before it’s too late.”
He cast one last glance at Lilette, his gaze unreadable, then turned and strode out.
The woman held the cup to Lilette’s lips once more. Tears dripped from her face onto Lilette’s cheeks as if they were her own. Lilette was certain the tears were not for her.
The woman stroked her head. “My name is Ko. Yours is Lilette?”
Her bowels cramped and she curled into a ball. “Yes.” She moaned in pain. “Han is your son?”
Grief crossed Ko’s face. “Yes.”
“Chen too?” Lilette gasped.
Ko shook her head. “No. His mother died a year ago.” That made Chen and Han half-brothers.
The eunuch arrived. He was younger than the first Lilette had met, his face practically boyish. “Alert Chief Wang that Madame Lilette has been poisoned. Quickly.”
The boy ran.
More eunuchs came. Ko ordered them to bring in more braziers, water, and stones to make steam. “We’ll sweat the poison from her. Seal up the windows.”
One of the eunuchs pressed his hands together and bowed to Ko. “Honored madame, you should go. We will care for the girl.”
Lilette squeezed the woman’s hand, silently begging her to stay. She wasn’t sure when she’d started holding it.
Ko squeezed back. “I will stay with her.” It wasn’t long before the stuffy heat of the hot season had grown unbearable. Sweat coursed down Lilette’s skin while the eunuchs fanned her. She silently willed her heart to keep beating.
Ko kept pouring water into Lilette’s mouth. Sometimes she threw it up, sometimes she kept it down. Chen arrived with Wang and the court physician, another eunuch with straggly gray hair circling his mostly bald head, his long mustache resting on his protruding belly.
The whole room of eu
nuchs rolled smoothly into their kowtows. Ko bent low but didn’t move from her position as a cushion for Lilette’s head.
Chen took one look at Lilette and kicked over a brazier. “Who did this?”
Eunuchs scrambled on all fours to scrape the coals and ash back into the brazier before it burned the house down.
When no one answered him, Chen knelt beside Lilette. His hands hovered above her body before coming to rest gently on her shoulders. “Who did this to you?”
She blinked blearily at him, the halos around everyone making her squint. “A woman.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
He rested a hand on her clammy forehead. “What did she look like?”
Lilette shut her eyes. “Her face was longer.” She had to rest. “Her eyes close set.” Another break until the dizziness passed. “She wore a five-clawed dragon ring with . . . with emeralds for eyes.” She lay back, exhausted from the effort of speaking.
Chen reeled back on his heels, his face flashing with disbelief that quickly melted to fury. He glared at the physician, who was already mixing powders into boiling water. “She dies, you die. Understand?”
The man bowed, clearly terrified.
Chen shot a final look at Lilette before storming out. Eunuchs followed him, closing the screen and sealing it to keep the steam from escaping.
Ko watched the physician dump in more powders, her brow creased. “What is that?” Han’s mother asked.
The physician stirred the concoction briskly. “Honored madame, it is poison to counter poison. Ashes from poisonous frogs, centipedes, and snakes. I also mix it with ground shells to trap her soul inside her body.”
Ko stared at him. “You’re giving her more poison?”
He tipped Lilette’s face up and helped her drink it. She choked and gagged. “This is just the first of her treatments. We must cleanse her body of toxin. Strip off her raiment.”
Eunuchs slipped her out of her tunic and proceeded to treat Lilette in ways she hoped to never experience again. When it was all finished, she was too exhausted to keep her eyes open and in too much pain to sleep. She listened to Ko humming as eunuchs fanned her.