The Princess's Gambit - Chapter 4

I straightened my sleeves and opened the carved door. “How leisurely of you, Regent, to come skulking about the rafters of my residence.”

Ten paces away stood a proud man whose purple robes looked all the more flamboyant against his handsome features. Xie Yunbai strode toward me.

Once close, he raised a hand to gather my disordered hair. He felt me resist and stepped back half a pace. “I was allowed to do this before. Why not now?”

The inexplicable comments I had seen today troubled me. Since when did Xie Yunbai have a brother? I tipped my head back and studied his face.

What if Pei Rong had come here as one of his moves on the board? A sudden urge to kill rose in me. Better to strangle Pei Rong outright later and avoid the trouble.

Sensing my distraction, Xie Yunbai deliberately pressed a little harder and nearly redid all my hair. Then he pushed a square box into my hand. It was an ordinary ebony box, and the pin he had used was of a style sold in any street market.

I tossed the box back to him in distaste. Predictably, he grew angry.

“Jiang Zhaoxue, look at yourself. Your hands are bloody, your conduct absurd. Throughout Yun, mothers speak your name to stop their children crying at night.”

I smiled at him. “What? Does the regent dislike it?”

He examined my face and suddenly smiled. “I like it very much.”

Then his tone turned. “You were even more lovable, Eldest Princess, when you crawled before me and begged on your knees, one step at a time.”

Before my anger could get the better of me, he struck first. “You said we would share the realm. Now you are clearing a path for a child still wet behind the ears. You have not kept your promise.”

Reason doused my anger. I chose my next words carefully, probing him.

“I hear you came from Zhangtai County in Huangzhou. During those three years of drought, the fields were strewn with the starving dead and families were torn apart. I thought you, of all people, might understand how I feel.”

His fingers paused behind my ear. “I am alone in the world. No parents, no brothers or sisters. I cannot understand your tender sibling devotion.”

A perfect answer. I tried another question.

“You killed the people in the imperial prison, didn’t you?”

He smiled. “They were unworthy of becoming your stepping stones. Jiang Zhaoxue, I alone am enough for you.”

Wind blew into my barren eyes. His words chilled me to the bone.

Still smiling, he said, “You know how far my patience goes. When I return from Yanzhou, Your Highness must make a decision.”

“You’re going to Yanzhou?”

My heart sank, then I thought of a better plan: let the regent die there. I was laughing wildly inside; a smug curve escaped onto my lips.

He lowered his head until our eyes met. “There’s a rebellion in Yanzhou. I leave the capital tomorrow. Jiang Zhaoxue, have you no kind words to send me off?”

Did he think a cheap hairpin could buy him a favor? My fingers tightened on my sleeve. He wanted the military tally.

Xie Yunbai chuckled. “Relax. The Changdong garrison is stationed in Yanzhou, and I have His Young Majesty’s edict. I don’t need the tally. I ask only one person to accompany me: Xing Chaoyun, commander of the imperial guard. His Majesty has agreed.”

“Bullshit. He agreed?”

Xie Yunbai laughed until he had to put a hand to his chest. Only after some time did he offer a dry judgment: “How vulgar.”

Who the hell cared what he thought of my manners? My assassination plan died before it had even taken shape. With Xing Chaoyun as his shield, I could not touch him on the road to Yanzhou.

I gritted my teeth and forced out a smile. “Don’t die out there.”

I gave each word its own weight, stretching the taunt until it sounded almost intimate.

“When the time comes, I wouldn’t mind dying at your hands.”

He said it close to my ear, flirting with greater skill than I had managed. What nonsense. No one cherished his own life more.

I watched him turn away. At the flower-framed gate, he glanced back.

“Oh, and on my way in, I kindly saved a woman dressed like one of your maids.” He paused. “I was coming to see you, after all. I can’t help doing a good deed or two.”

My brow twitched. “Is that so?”

The woman must have been Xiaozhou. I showed no concern for her. Xie Yunbai was so used to opposing me that, as in the imperial prison, anyone I tried to save would die by his hand. Conversely, if I insisted on killing someone, he would save her.

But I was certain that dagger had pierced Xiaozhou’s heart. No miracle medicine could restore a dead woman. Xie Yunbai was bluffing.

“A maid who made a mistake, nothing more. Take her if you like.”

Something fell onto the thick carpet inside my bedchamber with a muffled thud. My heart lurched. Trouble had come in pairs: the Chenjiang poison was taking effect.

“Someone is in your room?”

My face betrayed nothing, though every nerve in me went taut. “I’m merely amusing myself. Are you jealous, Regent?”

If Pei Rong really was his brother, he could call for help. If he did not know Xie Yunbai was his brother, he would not dare disobey me.

No. I knew what Chenjiang did to a body. The silk I had stuffed into his mouth was little more than a verbal threat.

Xie Yunbai lingered at the gate for a long while. Apparently hearing none of the entertainment he had hoped for, he looked up at the blue-gray sky.

“The moon is full tonight. Then I wish Your Highness a pleasant night of passion.”

Only after I was sure he had left did I turn back inside.

Behind the screen, Pei Rong was curled up in agony. His blue-white nails had scraped ragged streaks of blood across the floor. The familiar smell reached me.

His refined face was almost bloodless. The silk had fallen from his mouth, and his lower lip was smeared red.

For no reason I could explain, I remembered his words: “Pei Rong is human too. A beating hurts me.”

I bent and put my fingers against the back of his cold, sweat-soaked neck. His long neck lay in my hand like a lone goose with broken wings.

I unwound the silk binding his hands and wrapped it around his neck, loop after loop, tightening it without expression.

He looked up at me. A plea lay hazy in his dark eyes.

I remembered a lark I had once kept. After its neck broke, its body struck the ground, but those dim eyes kept staring at me.

It hurts. It hurts so much…

Who was crying out? Who was screaming?

The silk grew taut in my hands, inch by inch. I knew this sensation well. The bloody thrill of it almost stripped away my reason.