rain8 THE LONG SPELL OF RAIN
By Pooky

Chapter Seven:

Having stopped for an hour to water the horses, Shang removed his helmet and stood beside his cousin. Their eyes were fixed on the same thing, the Imperial Palace rising against an amethyst canopy of night darkened sky. The moon's angle declared the hour late, it had been hours since the daylight had fled. It had been a long ride through the city. Shang was sure, as the two men watched the horizon, that they were not feeling the same thing. It had made the journey difficult, straining communications between them. They had no common ground, no real love between them as cousins and comrades should. But Taiping had thrown them together in this clumsy alliance, as if hoping for better. In truth it broke Shang's heart just a little, that this powerful cousin would plant a knife in his back if it suited him, and all for her. Dangerous affection and innate suspicious did not a good alliance make. Gods, he wished for Tai-shan.

"We outnumber the Palace Guard, Cousin," Li Longji insisted for the fourth time. Shang sighed, wondering why Taiping had put him in command, and over her favorite nephew no less. "Five to one. If we surround the Palace, we can crush them. Empress Wei will have no choice but to surrender, the little bitch isn't stupid, she'll know when she's conquered." There was an undertone of violence to his words that forced Shang to understand his real meaning. It was none of his business what he did to Empress Wei, she could die the Death of a Thousand Cuts befitting the traitor she was, but he himself would not have permitted what he implied.

Letting the comment go, Shang shook his head. "Make one move and our aunt is dead," and Mulan, but he could not say that now. "It's not as easy as storming the Palace this time. They're not the Tujue." He had learned from his experience with Shan-yu, and Mulan's little plan to save the Emperor, strategy and deceit counted for more than strength.

Li Longji grabbed ahold of his arm, Shang fought to suppress a small shiver, not knowing why the other man made his skin crawl. "You'd better be right," a strong note of danger hardened his already deep voice. "If anything happens to my aunt..." He did not finish, leaving the threat open. Shang eyed him coldly from head to toe, his cousin was not as tall as he, and more slender. People often said they looked alike. Women fainted over him and he allowed it, using them as he would. His cousin hated women, save Taiping, always surrounded by those who were so much smarter than himself. That was one reason he had not brought Mulan along. He planned to keep Mulan as far from Li Longji as possible, she was too naive for a playboy like him. Tai-shan was a playboy, and a downright whore, but at least there was unconditional trust between them.

"She's my aunt too," Shang wrenched his arm free roughly, mounting his horse again. His aunt too, but he wasn't happy with her. One day after his marriage, just a taste of a peaceful life, and she had demanded him as her errand boy. He had come, of course, because he had no choice, that's how he had reasoned it out. They had made a deal, a marriage for his services. Still, why didn't she just send the scroll to her favorite nephew? "You and your men keep out of sight. I'm going to the Palace." Seizing his reins, he steered his horse around. "I'll be back in an hour."

Li Longji was left there seething, tapping his foot. At that moment Shang could care less.

He was glad for the silence on his ride into the Palace, Longji's army of ten thousand had prevented any such thing as peace of mind. The troops were still outside the city, awaiting the signal from Longji. Shang awaited a plan from Mulan, there was no way an obvious onslaught would get them anywhere. He wasn't quite sure why he bothered to fight so hard to save Taiping, what had she ever done for him besides use him as her pawn? No, that was unfair, but she had certainly never doted on him the way she had Longji. He owed her nothing, he kept telling himself, his efforts were all for Empress Wei. Revenge, revenge for murdering his uncle. Li Xian had always been kind to him, Li Xian had never used him. But Taiping, it wouldn't have rankled so much if she had shown him genuine affection, if he could figure out what she was after.

Once inside the Palace grounds, he trotted slowly on his horse's back to the spot where he had agreed to meet Mulan, keeping his eyes open for the unexpected. There was an open field near the Palace gate, a kind of practice yard where they had liked to spar. There were few guards here, and really there wasn't a need for any. It was a place for soldiers, courtiers never ventured here at all. There was no one about now, the flat ground spotted by shadows of trees leaning their branches over the Palace wall. Two guards stood nearby at the gate he had entered, soldiers he knew well. He dismounted, looking around, where was she?

Something soft dropped into his hands, a sheer silk scarf some shade of deep mauve or red, he could not tell in the darkness. He raised his head, seeing a slim figure in the window above him, leaning over the balcony. For a moment, he stood agape. Her shoulders and arms were bare, with only a loose robe of gold threaded white silk wrapped around her body and held in place beneath her chest by a bright red sash. Her exposed skin was layered in necklaces, her wrists with jewels and her hair was a headdress of golden combs and red feathers. Through the heavy mask of face paint, he almost did not recognize his own wife.

Looping the scarf around the pillar holding up the balcony, Shang used it to climb up to her. With one leg swung over the balcony's edge, he balanced himself, returning her scarf and draping it around her shoulders again, covering her. But inside he felt a twinge of something, the same forbidden longing he had often felt for Ping, when he had studied with shameful care the shapely lips, large eyes and tiny frame of a small boy soldier. It was not forbidden anymore, he had to remind himself, and she was not a boy. Yet it still seemed forbidden, as if it were filthy and defiling to look at her with open and unabashed lust, to admire the swell of her breast, the slope of her shoulders, the way the silk clung to the shallow flare of her hip. And those lips, their well-defined and sensual shape, ideal for kissing. The strong perfume must be dizzying his head, reminding him of the clean scent of her hair, the salty sweet taste of her skin in the softest and most tender of places. Yes, it felt so forbidden, such a cheapened and carnal thing beside the true respect he held for her. It was nothing of prudishness - he had admired and pursued women before, singers, dancers, poets, talent was so much more thrilling than beauty - but the notion of being undeserving now.. He breathed in deeply her perfume again, what spell had she thrown on him?

"Princess Taiping said I had better disguise myself if I am going to wait for you," she noted his shock at her appearance, looking down at herself a bit disbelievingly too. "She said I can't look like the same woman the guard saw entering her rooms. I can't look like anyone who could possibly be tied to her. What do you think?" She posed a bit. "Do I look pretty?"

Shang glared at her, she looked like something Tai-shan would go wild over and she had walked through the Palace that way! How was he going to take her near Li Longji now? "We both know you have no shame." It wasn't meant to sound so playful, he was displeased, not at her really, but at Taiping. I can dance, and sing too he heard her declaring again at the banquet. He shook his head, there were more important things right now. "What have you learned?"

Leaning against one side of the balcony, she angled her body in such a way that the curve of her hip was plainly obvious. "Is that all you want from me?" Her head tilted to one side. "To gain information? And all this time I thought men were after something else."

"Stop it!" he scolded her in a sharp whisper. "This is no time for-"

He cut off when she lifted one leg, balancing her silk slippered foot on his knee and leaning back. "I want to show you something," her smile held nothing but childish amazement, a blossoming maiden discovering her charms for the first time. He shook his head, trying not to pay too much attention to the way the thin silk stretched itself around her thigh, gathering in little ripples at the bend of her knee. More important things, he chanted to himself. Lifting the hem of her dress, she first revealed one slim, white ankle, then raised the silk higher to her knee, and then higher still until her thigh was exposed. The guards whistled, called out their appreciation at the white leg bare in the night. His first urge was to snatch her skirt back and cover her, but his eyes were fixed on a dark shape etched there. "It's a magnolia," she declared, proudly flaunting her new tattoo for all the world to see, delighting in her audience. "Isn't it pretty? Taiping had one of her ladies do it for me, to complete the disguise."

"And just how far were you planning to go with this... disguise?" he demanded roughly. In the back of his mind he wondered, as many times as he had seen those feet bare at Wu Zhong, how he had mistaken her for a boy. They were so white and small.

Letting her skirt fall back a little, she took her red scarf and looped it around his neck, tugging at the ends and forcing him forward, closer to her. "As far as I have to," she dropped her voice to a whisper, red rouged lips against his cheek. He tried to draw back, maybe being strangled by her scarf would clear his head. Well, she was right about one thing, no one would suspect it was her

"Are you drunk?" There they were on the balcony, a general with a scantily clad concubine who had him trapped with one leg and a red scarf! She seemed to enjoy watching him fight for restraint, she seemed to thrive on it, as if it were some twisted revenge for all the times he had made her squirm in training, her day of reckoning.

She stopped her preening and stood with her arms folded, letting the ends of her scarf dangle freely around his neck. "I had a little wine with dinner." Standing up straight again, she sighed. "I think I have a plan, Taiping thinks it'll work but it's a little dangerous." He chuckled despite himself, what could possibly be more dangerous than facing an entire Hun army with only a single cannon?

He glanced over his shoulder, new figures were passing along the gate. Grabbing her arms, he pulled her against him, kissing her as thoroughly as he knew how. Pushing her away gently, he caught his breath. She was standing with one hand pressed to her breast, as though she would faint, smiling at him through lowered lashes.

"They were watching," he explained quickly, as if he needed an excuse to kiss his own wife. "I couldn't let them see who we were." She nodded, but still grinned. With another shake of his head, he wrapped an arm around her waist. "Come on then, my pretty concubine." Holding her in one arm, he slid down the balcony to the ground again. He scooped her up in both arms and placed her onto his horse, climbing behind her and letting her ride side-saddle balanced on his knee. Now the entire Palace would think he was having an affair with a courtesan. Good gods, he wasn't Tai-shan! But it wasn't nearly as bad as them knowing Mulan's ties with Taiping. He sighed, wishing he had the freedom not to care what others thought of him, the freedom that Mulan exercised with gusto.

"Taiping bribed her servant to take my horse outside the gate," Mulan informed him, making an exaggerated show of leaning against his shoulder as they passed the gate guards. "And it's just an ink drawing." He sighed in relief, the last thing he needed was a tattooed bride. She started to whisper in his ear, this plan she had, but began pressing kisses to his neck to help her ruse. Just don't get carried away, he scolded her in his mind, we have a mission ahead of us. So long as she could play the mindless concubine until they got her things and her armor again, no one would be the wiser.

~ * ~

As Li Longji tapped his foot angrily outside the Palace gate, Shang cursed Taiping for the hundredth time that night. It was very early morning now, well before dawn, the smoky indigo of the fading night sky still held the moon high overhead. He gave a long sigh as he tested Li Longji's ropes again and continued up the Palace steps. With six thousand men blending into the Great Square now wearing only rags, and four hundred at his heels, Mulan's plan should be fool proof. Still he wished he wasn't so nervous, he wished Mulan would stop fidgeting where she stood several yards behind him, it would be so much more reassuring.

Thankfully, Li Longji had ignored Mulan's presence, she had stayed with the soldiers, and would remain there until it was time. Under her armor and helmet, and as far away as she was, Longji didn't even seem to notice that she was a woman at all.

"Let's just get this over with, cousin," Longji hissed, tapping his foot once more. His pride was hurt at being dragged and bound into the Palace, where all the guards could see him, even if it was only a pretense, part of the plan. "My father had better reward me for this. Maybe if he wasn't so weak, if he didn't spend his time watching herbs grow, my aunt wouldn't be in danger." Shang felt another shiver crawl up his spine. One moment he was a filial son, willing to fight for the throne in Li Dan's name, the next he was full of scorn for his father, a violent scorn. For him, nothing was worth the cost of Taiping's life. Nothing.

The guards were staring, leaving Shang no other choice but to cuff his cousin across the face. The other man groaned as his lip caught the steel rim of Shang's gauntlet. "Be silent, traitor!" Shang growled loudly enough for the guards to hear. "You'll have plenty of time to talk once Her Majesty gets a hold of you!" All the while, Shang wished he didn't delight so much in striking the other man. Taiping, why did she have to mix him up in this?

They made their way through the gate, into the Palace, Mulan and her men behind them. Her part of the plan was simple, run to take Taiping to safety, and wave a signal for the soldiers in the square. Your mother told me to be like water, Mulan had said, and Tie-lin taught me how to be still. We have to appear harmless until the right moment. It's all in the timing. The wisdom of women, Shang nodded to himself, it was something to be frightened of.

"Empress Wei," Shang demanded of another guard. "Take me to Empress Wei."

Bowing, the guard led them through the halls. So she was not presumptuous enough to plant herself in the Throne Room, not that it mattered. They were led to her personal chambers, grander than Taiping's even. Who could expect less, when she thought herself the next monarch of China?

Her appearance always surprised Shang, she seemed so sweet by first glance, a small willowy woman who hardly looked old enough to carry the years she had. She made him think of bamboo, bending in the wind, yet surviving the storm. It would take fire to destroy her. For a moment, he tried to understand her, her life, her motives. This woman had been exiled with his uncle, disgraced by Empress Wu, yet she had been the rock that Li Xian had leaned upon, just like Empress Wu. In his later years, the Emperor had been old and withering, but the people loved Li Xian, they had loved him for the way he saw to their needs. Shang wondered what had changed her, made her so vicious, he found it hard to believe a woman born with that face could have been monster all her life. Why, Taiping, he wondered in silence, why didn't you stop her long ago? Why did you let her make a puppet of Anle?

Pushing Li Longji forward on his knees, Shang bowed before the Empress. "Your Highness, I caught him outside the city, bragging. He helped Taiping kill your husband, and they have a plot to kill you next. I've brought him to confess, and for your to punish as you see fit. We can't let either of these traitors escape justice for their crimes."

Genuine anger caused his words to shake only slightly, it was not hard finding real anger when looking at her.

A smile broke across that pretty doll's face, pleased and convinced. "I thought as much," she clicked her tongue, a good actress he must admit. "Nephew, I always knew you and that aunt of yours would bring me trouble one day. I never thought it would be my own husband. You were always so loyal to Taiping, she is too much like you mother. Go, " the order was for his soldiers. "Fetch Taiping at once and have her brought to me. Tell her I promise swift justice." She seemed to take special pleasure in drawing out those last words. Mulan turned, leading half of her soldiers to obey the Empress.

"Confess," he barked roughly at Longji, prostrate on the floor now. "Tell Her Majesty how Taiping poisoned the Emperor's perfume so she could take the throne herself! Tell her how she hired you to kill General Zhen, a man loyal to the Empress, tell her how she was your next target!" He slammed his foot into his cousin's side, watching him jerk in the sudden pain. This had to be convincing. "Tell her!" Shang turned his eyes to the almost beaming Empress. "Your Majesty, I am prepared to use torture if I must."

At her nod, Shang drew his sword, kicking Longji onto his back. This time, he felt a bit of remorse as he made a nick on his cheek, a shame to mar that handsome face, he thought bitterly. As Longji let out a pretend cry, Shang poised the sword again, the torture was to cut the flesh one nick at a time, until the victim was left to bleed to death after the thousand cuts. It often took long hours to die, the stories said, and was carried out almost like a ritual. They had agreed on only one cut.

"Alright!" His cousin made a fine impression of sounding terrorized.

The Empress seemed disappointed when Shang lowered his sword. She folded her arms. "You had better tell me everything, Nephew," her smile was cruel, making Shang's stomach turn as the tone in her words turned almost wistful. "I have a spot of earth where I have just planted new bamboo. I could keep you there, day and night, within two years the bamboo would start to grow through your body. Most painful."

This time, Shang was sure Li Longji's look of horror was only half pretended. "She wants the throne, she promised to make me Crown Prince. She-"

He was interrupted by a guard bursting through the door.

"Your Majesty, a riot has broken out in the Great Square. You must come see!"

Empress Wei whirled on him, her face painted with rage. "It will have to wait! I have a prisoner to deal with. Now go! Send the Palace Guard to deal with it!"

The guard dropped on his knees. "Please, Your Majesty, they're-"

"Go!" Her last shard of her dignity was shattered. The guard scrambled from the room.

Li Longji rose to his knees, in a few moments this would all be over. His cheek was bleeding, his lip bruised from the blow Shang had dealt him earlier. It's too late now, Empress Wei, Shang thought as she stepped toward Li Longji again, there's no one here to protect you now.

The door creaked open a second time, admitting Mulan and another soldier escorting Taiping. The princess's hands were bound in front of her with Mulan's red silk scarf. She did not put on as fine a ruse as her nephew, but stood stiff-backed and proud, no one's captive. He glanced at her angrily. This was all her fault.

"Taiping," Empress Wei sung the word with a sickly smile. How could someone so pretty smile like that? "I see you're ready to confess. Poisoning my husband was a little... low, but forcing my daughter to throw herself at your other nephew, and to pin the blame on me? That was child's play, anyone could see through your scheme. We aren't children anymore." That cut deep, his aunt flinched at those words, and oddly Mulan did as well.

"Were we ever allowed to be?" A strange cast of sadness had come over Taiping's words. Shang stared at her, and the vicarious sadness which had crept over Mulan's face. He saw what he had hoped never to see, Mulan was devoted to her now, lost in this court game. He clenched his fists, nails cutting into his palms. Wasn't using him enough for her? Did she have to trap an innocent woman as well? Of all the people in the world, Mulan was the one he wanted to save from the iniquity of the Court, It had shattered his life, stolen his father, his uncles, his grandmother. Why was she trying to steal her too?

The Empress' eyes flashed with anger as she paced to and fro, cold and unfeeling, an odd contrast to the spark of open emotion in Taiping's face. "You're always so good at being tragic, but I've won this time. Tonight, I will let you live, long enough to see your precious nephew die at the hands of his cousin. Tomorrow, you will face the court, and before you lose face in front of everyone, you will announce that I will succeed the throne. All your power, all your influence, will be gone. But I am merciful, I will allow you one last shard of honor. When it is done, you will take your own life and be noble, so you can show your face to your Ancestors in Heaven. After all, you were my childhood friend."

Shang hoped his shivers weren't obvious; she was a monster in the face and form of a doll.

"I want to show you something," Taiping said quietly, part of the plan, or no, the Empress had wounded her with those words. Shang felt a momentary pity, but only that brief, she could have saved his uncle.

When the Empress' brow quirked in surprise, Longji turned to Shang, holding out his bound hands. In one careful stroke, Shang slashed the ropes. The other man bolted to his feet, seizing a frozen Empress Wei, brandishing a knife and pressing it against her snowy throat. She tried to scream, but no sound came out. Her eyes were wide.

"You!" Her head turned towards Shang. "You betrayed me!"

After Mulan had untied the scarf around Taiping's hands, the Princess stepped forward. "I know the truth, and you know it. There is no one to save you now, you dismissed the guard." She gestured to Longji, "Bring her."

Keeping the knife steady at her neck, Longji proceeded to drag her from the room, down the dimly lit halls and around a turn until they came to the balcony.

She was forced to face the courtyard below, the shouting mob of soldiers who had doffed their rags, waving drawn blades and chopping at the few remaining guards who dared still resist. Bodies were strewn across the walks, the grass, even floating in the pools, staining the once clear water red. Most of the dead wore the uniforms of the Guards, overcome by Li Longji's men. Shang closed his eyes against a bloody memory, he had seen this before in Louyang. Once again his country was being torn apart, right before his eyes, and Mulan's eyes. He felt like screaming, lashing out.

The Empress let out a strangled whimper of her own, sagging against Longji. Her eyes turned to Taiping, shining with a veil of fresh tears, stricken tears. "Make them stop," her lips trembled over the words. "You have that power."

Shang's thoughts echoed those of the Empress, but Taiping shook her head sadly, Mulan stepped closer to her. "Do you know what they want?" The Princess intoned quietly.

"Blood...?" The Empress' face had paled, the tears sliding down her cheeks now.

"Your blood," it was almost a whisper. "They know you killed Li Xian and they want justice. They know you want the throne and they don't want another Empress Wu. Give up, your dreams are destroying this city, and soon the empire with it."

Her whole body shook with her sobs, her fear. "No..."

Li Longji pressed his knife further into her throat, his grip around her tightening. "What do you want? That last shard of honor? I don't think so." He had all the fury of a lover avenging his beloved, it made Shang cringe, that zeal in his eyes. "But what to do with you? Kill you quickly and not let you suffer a moment? Or should I give you to each one of my men and let you die like the whore you are? Or how about that bamboo?" A slow trickle of crimson droplets dripped from under his knife point. Her face was wet with tears, rendering a smeared fingerpainting of her make-up. She was weeping uncontrollably while Taiping stood there, watching him torture her girlhood friend. She may as well have been a stone statue, for all the emotion she showed now.

Empress Wei jerked, kicking Li Longji in the groin. He dropped the knife, crying in pain, giving her that crucial moment to pick up her skirts and run, screaming for Anle.

"Go after her!" Taiping pointed in the direction she had gone. Shang took off running with Mulan and Li Longji at his heels.

Shang led the chase up a curving flight of marbles steps, for a little woman, she was surprisingly fast, but she was a frantic woman. Swords drawn, the trio followed her into a chamber and out again, down another hall, her shrieks ringing through the air until she slipped into yet another dark corridor and was lost from sight. Glancing at each other, the three generals reached an intersection of two corridors where the Empress had last appeared, deciding to split up. Shang took the turn to his right, hearing a door slam in the hall ahead of him. He froze the moment after he burst through the inner door.

The chamber was dimly lit by green candles, wafting a fragrant spicy scent in the air. He breathed it in a moment, it was calming, soothing. A young woman stood with her back to him, gazing in the bronze looking glass on the wall. The dark eyes met his in the mirror, clear, intelligent eyes. It was Anle, swathed in her finest brocades, green and ivory, a small brush in one raised hand as she carefully painted her eyebrows, intent on nothing else. She was so composed and serene, so beyond what was happening around her, though the shouts from the courtyard rang clear.

Her eyes would not leave his, her red lips formed one word. "Please."

He turned the sword in his hands, leaning tiredly against the door frame, his eyes squeezed shut in physical pain. Not again. A parade of memories pushed themselves before his eyes, dark memories. He was back in Louyang again, a sword raised in a rebel's hand, Maosu stepped forward, Shang felt his body tense as if that sword had run through him instead, pressing a hand to his side to collect the fauceting blood. But that was not the worst of it. There were snow covered mountains all around him, a frail yet brave woman kneeling helpless at his feet, the shadow of his sword fell across her flushed face, flushed with fear and the fever of her wound. The sword dropped, clattered, his father rose from the platform, alive.

What were his choices? To spare her now and leave her for the angry mob to rape and torture as they would? It did not matter if she was innocent, she was the daughter of a criminal. If he killed her quickly, as she was imploring him, it would save her moments, hours of pain. Was that mercy, he asked himself, was that honor? Even if her blood was on his hands? Shang's head swelled with the madness of it, it was all like a fever dream. He couldn't do it, not an innocent woman, not his father, not Mulan. So he lowered the sword, leaving her for the mob, enraged by his own weakness. He wanted to help her, this victim of the Court.

His eyes opened again, the sword was at his feet on the blue rug, Anle was still painting her eyebrows in the mirror. But something was different. There was a new face in the glass, Mulan's face.

"You can't hide anymore, Anle," he heard Mulan hiss. "I know the truth!"

Anle moved one hand over her white throat as Mulan lifted her sword, holding it out with both hands.

"No, Mulan, wait!..." He stepped forward, his eyes squeezed shut at the swish of silk skirts, Anle running forward, and the sound of something wet. When he opened his eyes, a lucid thought came to him, a pragmatic thought. His cousin was too tall to behead herself on Mulan's sword, if that was her aim, By instinct, Mulan must have lowered the blade to try to pull it back.

But when he opened his eyes he saw that Anle had been too quick, piercing her middle, spattering the two generals with blood. He forced himself to look at Anle, sprawled on the floor on her side, refusing to treat her death with the same cowardice as he had his fathers, eyes fleeting from the sight. His gaze took in the discarded make-up brush, the white hands dipped in the blood that was leaking from her torso, over her once fine clothes and onto the rug. He staggered back against the door frame again, leaning against it.

Mulan had not moved an inch, the bloody sword still in her hand, just like Tai-shan that night in Louyang. "I didn't mean..." her words trailed off. It was just as well, no words could change what she had done.

"She was innocent," Shang heard himself say, surprised at how firm his voice was. He tried to tell himself it was accident, Mulan had only drawn the sword. Anle had stepped into it. But he was so torn, he couldn't stand to see another member of his family die. "We'll have to hide her for a proper burial, we can't treat her like one of the traitors."

The sword fell from Mulan's hand. "Innocent?" She repeated the word in a shaky whisper. "She killed the Emperor! Taiping has proof!"

"Taiping?" He spat the name like a curse. If it weren't for Taiping, none of this would have happened today, and the woman had planted this false proof in Mulan's head? Using her to eliminate another possible obstacle to her power? He expected better of Mulan, more intelligence, more loyalty. Anger burned inside of him, how could she, Taiping, steal the one thing in his life that was clean, pure? How could she? "You let yourself be manipulated by Taiping? It's one thing to serve her but another to kill for her! She'll find proof that I killed the Emperor if it suited her, she's not to be trusted!" Somewhere deep in his mind, he knew he had gone too far, been unfair. Why was he shouting at her? Why couldn't he swallow his anger enough to find a clear headed thought?

Her eyes were wide, hurt, disbelieving, furious. "You were the one who brought us here, don't talk about your aunt that way! I trust her! Maybe you should trust me like you promised! I'm not as stupid and naive as you seem to think, I may be a peasant girl but I can make up my own mind about who's trustworthy!"

His eyes narrowed, he wanted to fight this rage, he wanted to reason this out. "As long as you serve her, I want nothing to do with you." Why that poison in his voice? Where had he learned such cruelty, to be so bitterly false in his words. Those were not the words he wanted to say. He wanted to run to her, wanted her as a shield from all this madness. But she had betrayed him now, she had abandoned him to become a part of the life he hated.

He turned from the room, his wife had condemned an innocent woman, she had trusted Taiping over him. Shang walked through the Palace halls like a ghost, empty, lost. He felt nothing when he saw Longji carrying the head of Shangguan Wan'er on the end of his sword, his eyes overlooked the slain officers of the Palace Guard, men of the Wu and Wei families. Most of all, he found a special numbness as he gazed down at the courtyard again, the soldiers were cheering, passing Empress Wei's corpse over the crowd, stripped bare now and spangled with blood.

"I've done what you asked," he turned to Taiping, who was watching the scene with all her cold impartiality, wondering briefly if she shared his apathy. "Let me go."

She looked at him, with the same eyes he had glimpsed in his own face staring out of that mirror, the same stoic mask on her features. His hatred grew, consuming him in one moment. How had he managed to become like her?