Jade Fire Gold(97)

My father hands me the sword. Immediately, the hilt molds into my palm and a rush of energy shoots through me. My hand trembles. Not because I’m weak, but because I’ve realized something.

The only living thing in this room apart from me is him.

I could kill my father with the sword. I could turn him into a spirit bound to it. All it would take is a flick of my wrist.

You could take his life force. Don’t you feel it? It is strong. It will make you more powerful, whispers the other voice that lives in my head.

For a horrifying moment, I am tempted.

Instead, I address my father quietly. “When we were attacked at sea, I pointed this to the sky.”

We walk out of his study and into the garden. The days are shorter now and the sun is setting, our surroundings turning a deepening grayish-blue. I feel a little light-headed and it’s hard to breathe. I can’t tell if it’s my nerves or something else. I exhale slowly and clear my mind. Slowly, I raise the sword to the Heavens. Thunder rumbles in the distance.

But I know it isn’t because a storm is coming.

I summon my magic, feel it flow through me, mixing with the sword’s own energy. The sky fractures, light splintering through clouds. The blade burns with white fire. I hold it down and point at a tree.

The blast catches me by surprise, and I fall over. I stay down, coughing so badly my ribs hurt. There’s an ache creeping up my neck and a pounding in my head. Something doesn’t feel right. I’d felt exhilarated the last time I used the sword, not like this.

My father is already at what’s left of the tree, examining the stump and its ruined bark. When he finally turns to me, it isn’t concern that I see in his eyes.

But the wild, feverish gleam of a madman.





45


Altan


A day feels like three autumns to a man missing his beloved.

What a lie that old Shi saying is. Each damned minute that passes feels like an entire winter.

It has been a week since Ahn left for the palace and all I have received are ciphered notes from Linxi and nothing from her.

It feels like I’m going mad.

I don’t have a word for this feeling inside of me. Whatever it is, I hate it. I want to ram this inexplicable emotion back into the prison it escaped from. Sand may make me weak, but this . . . this unravels me. It keeps me caged in a world where a touch can mean nothing or everything. Where a glance, a smile, a slight shift of the brows—each infinitesimal gesture and movement brings new meaning to my existence.

It is terrifying.

Tang Wei says I have fallen in love. I think she is being ridiculous.

Sighing, I push the window open, just a crack. The sun is almost setting. Tang Wei should be back here at the safe house soon with food. I have laid low, choosing to stay indoors for the most part.

I gaze out onto the capital streets, sniffing the crisp air tinged with an aroma of roast meat layered with a brighter scent of fresh flowers. The familiar sights comfort and sadden me. The water feature with the white stone arch and twin dragons still stands next to the sweet shop I used to visit with my sister. Shīfù’s favorite Green Needle Teahouse is along the next street. . . .

This place holds too many memories.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs pulls me out of my thoughts. The shopkeeper from below hands me a letter a messenger dropped off. After she leaves, I rip it open. It looks like Linxi’s handwriting, the ink slightly smudged. She must have been in a hurry; the message isn’t coded.

Pagoda. Lake. Grandmother.

My pulse races. Reason tells me to wait for Tang Wei, but if Ahn’s grandmother is truly there, there is no time to lose. The sooner I can get her out to safety, the less Ahn has to worry about.

And the faster you can have your revenge.

As a boy, I tried many ways of sneaking out of the palace. I never succeeded. Now, I must sneak in. Part of the western wall of the palace compound faces a moat. In Father’s time, it was thought the water was defense enough. The guards were stationed at the top of that stretch of wall, not its perimeter at the base where water met stone. If that route doesn’t work, I will have to find another.

I hesitate, a nagging voice at the back of my mind telling me to stay. To wait for Tang Wei instead of going in alone.

A sudden crack of thunder sounds, and I look out the window. Strange. There was no indication of a storm coming. Moments later, the sky over the palace grounds lights up in an eerily familiar way.

Ahn.

The drawbridge is up when I arrive. It will make too much noise to form a path over the moat with magic—I’d have to freeze the water. In this silence, the guards would surely hear the ice cracking. Besides, it would take too much energy and magic to do so. I shrug off my cloak and plunge in before I can overthink it. The shock of the frigid water cuts through my bones as I swim. Once I haul myself up, my teeth chatter incessantly.

In the light of the flaming torches above, I count the guards. Six. I’m about to scale the wall when the gong signaling the changing of the guard sounds. I will have to wait until the old guards leave and the new guards get into position before I can take any action. Otherwise there will be too many of them.

I can’t risk conjuring up a flame and I don’t want to waste my energy drying my clothes, so I change my breathing to increase the circulation of qì inside me, building warmth as I press myself against the wall and melt into the shadows. Turning into an icicle isn’t the way I wish to depart this world.