Foreword It began badly. Few wars begin well, but this conflict reached into every niche and pore of the empire of Chihang. Months before a single blow was launched, families became divided. It seemed like harmless politics: Stay the course, or expand their borders. Then men with power began to whisper behind closed doors. But they were not the only ones listening. Part One Chapter One “I don’t understand the prince sometimes,” growled one burly guard, leaning as far away from his charge as possible while her nails flew at him. “What does he see in this one?” “Put me down! Let me go!” His partner shrugged and fished a gold-plated disk out of his rucksack. “I can tell you one thing. If I had my pick of women, I sure wouldn’t bother with the ones who don’t want me.” “Then you’d sleep alone!” spat out the struggling young woman, still trying to claw at the face of the man who held her. If her hands weren’t bound, she would have speared his eyeballs. “Watch your mouth, you little—“ the other soldier’s fist balled around the coin. “New arrival?” called a commanding voice from the far end of the dim corridor. All three of them stilled, the girl remembering too late to take advantage of the lull. She was hauled forward instead, tripping over her own feet on the tiled floor. The insulted guard pulled his shoulders back and offered the disk to the authoritative man waiting for them on [...]

Chapter Two Mei Ba watched the ripple of her robe as her feet worked hard to create the illusion of gliding. She could almost imagine herself to be a ship on the gravel path’s ocean, a swell leaving stone bubbles in her path. A battleship, the other women would point out nastily. Large, unwieldy, meant for the deployment of other, swifter ships. She pushed those thoughts away, making the turn from one garden path to another, toward her Emperor’s favorite suite. She hated the games and one-upmanship that cycled constantly through the Ladies Quarters. When she was first selected for the honor of a place among the Emperor’s women, she had feared him more than the gods or death. How foolish she had been. It was the other women she needed to fear; the aristos competing for the title of Wife, everyone else battling for every hard-won show of favor. Mei Ba fell somewhere in between the social classes. She knew she had no hope of ever being a wife, though much had been made of her potential fertility. And yet, without ever having to force herself to be charming, to entertain, or to delight, she had found a secure position in the Internal Court. She appeared unshakeable—They would mock that, too. You could shake Mei Ba and she wouldn’t move, but she would jiggle. The sting of all their harsh words brought the beginning of tears to her eyes, and she lifted her head just enough to clear them [...]

Chapter Three The bath was an ordeal. Dinner turned her stomach. Instructress had stood over her with a reed that bit the exposed back of her neck with every action deemed uncouth, inappropriate, or out and out barbaric. The other women at the table had refused to speak with her, but their snide looks had been enough. They were enjoying her pain. By the time she was called to the suite of rooms commanded by the man known as Jun, she was a frothing pot of anger. If they turned the heat up any higher, she would boil over and scald them all. Her nails bit deep into the palms of her hands as the door to his study was held open for her and then shut. Jun glanced up at her mildly, nodded once, and returned to the scroll he had been perusing. “I am not the Emperor’s new toy!” she shouted, enraged by his inattention. He stilled and then placed his half-moon spectacles on the desk he was seated at. “No, you certainly are not that. Come sit with me, girl, and we will talk.” His response disarmed her. Not knowing what else to do, she sat at the long, low table across from him. She was suddenly very aware that he was the same age as her father, a man she had loved from a distance with wary respect. But Jun didn’t seem the type to cuff a child for letting the goats strip the land bare…or [...]

Chapter Four Kuroma fidgeted, frustrated. They had taken her to another new room when her meeting with Jun was finished. A room with a bed in it. She tried again to explore, but Instructress had wrapped her in new clothes after her bath and she could do little more than stand, sit, and shuffle. How could court ladies stand being so confined? Even her arms would only rise so far. The smoothness of the material made her constantly aware of it—and every time it seemed to slip. Worse, her hair had been pulled so tightly had her head ached. The only pleasant thing she had been given today was a pair of cushioned slippers to wear in the halls… but these were left at the door. She looked at them longingly, then winced as the weight of her hair shifted. She had to escape this place. Larger things than she had any right to be involved in where going on in this building. She could feel the world she knew slipping away from her with every hour that passed. Trying to reassure herself that she was just a peasant girl, a goat farmer’s daughter, she rubbed the rough skin of her knuckles against her silk dress. The raised skin caught at the threads, pulling at them and destroying the smooth plane. She nearly smiled. A sharp rap at the outer door made her spin—and trip on a carpet. Her alarmed shout and string of filthy words as she fell caused [...]

Chapter Five The Emperor of Chihang sat on his dais, a thick pillow beneath him to support his aging back. To his right and left a dozen men with jeweled badges of rank sat waiting to offer him the will of their provinces. They always asked for the same things. Money. Land. Permission to acquire both. When they fought amongst themselves they came to him to settle the dispute. He was always fair. Always, always, meticulously fair. That didn’t always please them. But when he was a young man first come to his throne, he had made it clear that he would not tolerate dissent after his decision had been made. Now they muttered to themselves among themselves, but they did not dare approach him or take action. It made the court more peaceful. When he was a boy, still known by the baby name En, his father had ruled. Emperor Hsieh Hito Lung-chi Fat had been a man of many passions. He loved good food, and bad women—it had been he who built the new Women’s Quarters in the South courtyard to house them all in style. He was known for his volatile temper, and his swift, often bloody view of justice. The Empire had prospered under him, as it had under the four men who came before him. They pushed the Empire’s boundaries, put down revolt on the outskirts of the nation, dared to provoke the great powers who resided on the other side of the mountains that [...]

Chapter Six Mei Ba sat on her favorite cushion, taking time to settle herself. The spacious, airy room set aside for the most favored noble concubines to pass their leisure time hummed with the talk of genteel ladies. She removed her poem from its wooden cylinder and once again set about contemplating it. This was how she spent her mornings: repeating the words of dead poets to herself, wishing their meaning would make itself clear. But not this morning. A flurry of sloppily knotted robes sank onto the cushion beside her, exhaling and grateful sigh. “I’m exhausted!” Mei Ba’s expression lifted. Yan Hua was a good friend, the one woman to see past Mei Ba’s position to the companion within. Now she kicked off her outdoor sandals and tucked them beneath the folds of her robes. “Aiyaa! General Chi’ung wanted me to go walking with him. Five times around the outer courtyard! Can you imagine? I only agreed because it wasn’t even dawn yet and only the kitchen staff were up.” Mei Ba frowned, giving Yan Hua her full attention. “The Major General was up so early? I thought he rose at dawn, not before it.” He was Yan Hua’s patron, the man who held claim to her. She had been exclusively his for some seasons now, and Mei Ba was used to her friend’s early schedule. “He does,” Yan Hua agreed, continuing to make herself comfortable. “But he said he was restless today. He woke the seneschal and everything [...]

Chapter Seven Kuroma was blissfully ignorant of the rumors sweeping through the Women’s Quarters. At sun up she had been brutally wakened by the Instructress beating on her door. It wasn’t an unusual hour for a farmer’s daughter, but she was emotionally and physically exhausted by the previous day and had needed every moment of sleep. Instructress made sure to tell her that she looked like she’d been awake all night drinking wine and making a fool and a slut of herself. The irony appeared lost on her. Instructress hustled her and several other girls, none of them older than her fifteen years, into the baths down the hall. Water streamed from the ceilings—and she screamed when she felt how cold it was. The other girls giggled as Instructress forced her back under the icy stream and took a soapy rag to her. “But I bathed yesterday! Four times!” “A clean woman washes every day!” More laughter as a bucket was dumped over her head to rinse her hair. She was then given clean robes for the day and her others removed to she knew not where. That worried her; she had never owned more than two of anything at one time in her whole life. She knew the palace was opulent, but what if she was expected to pay for the clothes? She had nothing of value, and her family had only a fraction more. Thankfully, the new robe was far plainer than the one she had worn for [...]

Chapter Eight Most of the day had passed before Kuroma awoke completely. She had flitted in and out of consciousness as panic surrounded her. Every time it felt worse. Hands on her, water in her. Her skin burning, eyes burning, chest fighting for every gasp. She hadn’t wanted to stay there for very long, and she had quickly retreated back into the dark every time, until the manhandling and the prodding ceased and she was allowed to drift away into a restful, needed sleep. When she at last opened her sticky, grit-filled eyes, she didn’t recognize the room. It wasn’t her corner in her parents home in the village… nor was it the room she had been given on the third floor of the Women’s Quarters. Trying to clear her vision, she looked toward the light coming in through the window. “Good even, Lady Kuroma. Please don’t try to speak just yet.” Kuroma frowned, but couldn’t put together the effort to resist as someone helped her to sit up and then put a cup of water to her parched, swollen lips. “Drink. It will help.” The coolness of the liquid persuaded her to open, and it spread across her sticky tongue, giving her welcome relief. When she had had enough, the cup was removed and she was gently helped back onto her pillow. Kuroma squinted up at her helper; someone new. Again. “I am Fen Hono,” the woman standing over her said, in a way that suggested she was comfortable [...]

Chapter Nine It was a dry, rocky, craggy land. The horses’ hooves clopped woodenly along the beaten path, ground to gravel by decades of use. The Prince looked around him with interest; when he had come through here before, it had been to rush toward a battle. Now he took note of the subtleties of the land. So this was where his little terror had come from. The place was subdued now, no doubt licking its wounds from the fight with its neighbor, a similar village some way in the distance. If he was honest with himself, he would admit that he could see no difference between the two places. But he knew that one was valuable, because it was where she had been raised. Major General Chi’ung Futono pulled abreast of his prince. “The scouts have reported. Everything is as you said it would be. The house is occupied. A man left around daybreak and went to the goatherds.” The prince nodded. That was as it should be. “Any sign of the boy?” “No, highness.” He waited patiently for his master’s order. No matter who ruled Chihang, no matter what positions they held, Futono would always serve Li Lung-chi Heng. They had been boys together. Trained together. Warred together. “Hu?” His prince smiled ferally. “Clear the way. We will speak briefly to the headman, then proceed directly to the home.” “Yes, highness.” Futono rode ahead to give the orders. He did not question. He served.

Chapter Ten Kuroma paced. She felt no more comfortable in this room in the small hours of the morning than she had the evening before. The prince had requested her presence. Demanded. Fen Hono’s lips had thinned to two pressed bands of pale color, and Kuroma knew the woman had fought for her. She needed the entire night to rest. She was too young to be of service to any man, never mind one as strong and powerful as the prince. Her efforts had failed. Kuroma waited for the prince to come to her. With shaking hands she had lit the wick that brought life to a lamp on the outer wall of the building. Fen Hono had explained everything to her; the lamp signaled to the waiting man that his lady was ready for him. Her shoes were to be left by the garden door. Her hand sought again the reassurance of the bronze disc now tied firmly around her starved waist. “This is your safety,” Fen Hono had told her with great urgency as she knotted the woven leather around Kuroma. “It signifies that you are not yet a woman. A man who uses a girl with this disc may be punished with death. The prince has never yet abused any woman that I know of. But make sure he sees this right away, so he is not mislead.” She had met Kuroma’s frightened eyes. “That, too, has been punishable by death.” Kuroma shivered. Fen Hono would help [...]