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If the air in this tunnel was deadly, it might be a long time before they found her body.
Xifeng continued calling out as she walked, hoping a eunuch would hear her. The passage branched and she continued down the tunnel she thought might lead her back to the entrance. Was it her imagination, or did the ground slope downward as she walked? Beneath her thin cotton shoes, the stones were warm and slick with moisture. The air became thick and heavy, drawing beads of perspiration on her forehead and upper lip. A primal, earthy smell emanated from somewhere below.
Suddenly, her foot stepped into nothingness. She cried out and dug her nails into the dirt wall. But further observation revealed not a hole, but a set of stone steps winding down into the darkness. She stared in disbelief. Who would build such a thing in this place?
Her rational mind told her to turn back and take the other tunnel, but another voice spoke within. It reminded her of how she’d felt when Guma read her cards, or when she had talked to thetengaruqueen, or when Wei had told her the Crown Prince wanted her in the palace. Itwas a feeling of destiny come full circle, ofbelongingto this place in some strange way.
Xifeng,the voice crooned. The creature stirred beneath her heart, caressing her rib cage.
Something waited for her below, and she wanted—needed—to find out what it was.
She hugged the wall as she descended, trying not to slip. The darkness seemed to recede, or perhaps her eyes had grown used to it. A dozen more steps, and the warmth and the dripping sound intensified. Abruptly, she reached the bottom and found a flat stone floor leading to a vast emptiness that stretched out before her.
Xifeng stood in a cavernous space with walls of rough, unhewn stone. Shimmering rays of light crept through holes in the rock ceiling dozens of feet above her, illuminating the edge where the floor ended and the water began—a slow stream swirling in the depths, steaming and billowing gusts of hot air around her. Along one wall, a sheet of the scalding water poured from a crevice in the ceiling. Her breath came in short, ragged gasps when she realized she could see her own reflection in the waterfall as clearly as if it had been still water... or a mirror.
“A hot spring,” she murmured in disbelief, the hairs rising on her arms and neck. “What sorcery is this?”
She had half dismissed these natural wonders as fables, for how could water be naturally hot? The rivers and swamps near her town had always been cool even in summer. But the stories she’d read claimed some waters ran deep into the bowels of the earth, where the Dragon Lords had once stoked the fires from which all mankind had sprung. It had been a privilege of kings and queens to bathe in such water.
The springs did not lie calmly as the Imperial ponds did, far above. They did not shine or trickle as the streams in the Great Forest haddone. This watergurgled. Itbelched. It shoved along fissures and fractures in the rock, forcing its way along with a ferocity she had to admire. It bubbled in a glorious ugliness that was almost beauty.
There was a small outcropping of boulders alongside the waterfall, which Xifeng climbed gingerly. It was like a balcony overlooking the rest of the cavern.My own private court,she thought. Some of the water had collected on the boulders, forming a sizable, quiet pool protected from the barreling stream. She dipped a few fingers in. The water was hot, but not unpleasant—it felt comforting against her rough skin. Boldly, she stuck her whole hand in, fluttering her fingers in the silken water and enjoying the serenity of this secret, forgotten place.
Xifeng sat on the boulder, watching the springs roar, her unease melting away. A thick coating of dust lined the floor, with no footsteps other than her own. It looked as though no one had been here in years... perhaps centuries.
The stairs meant someone had known about these springs once. One of the Empress’s ancestors had likely bathed here long ago, and it had been abandoned or become inaccessible.
Xifeng liked the idea of a place where no one could find her—a hidden sanctuary, tucked away just for her. She peeled off her rain-soaked clothes and laid them on a boulder to dry, enjoying the hot air on her skin. She dipped her feet into the pool and searched with her toes for the shallow bottom, then immersed her entire body, gasping at the heat. She had already grown used to the thick, sour smell of the water, and splashed some of it on her face and hair.
“My own gilded tub,” she told the darkness.
The pockets of light seemed to twinkle at her, and her skin prickled with the awareness she had felt in thetengaruclearing. This was an ancient place of rooted memory—a cavern etched in stone whilekingdoms rose and fell and gods created the world above. The water vibrated with a deep undercurrent of magic, and she thought if she allowed it to, it might pierce her body and enter her lifeblood.
She stepped out of the pool naked and faced the waterfall, echoing Lady Sun’s gesture as she ran a hand over her smooth, bare stomach. The steam licked at her skin as she stared deep into the glassy mirror of water, certain there was nothing in the world lovelier than what she saw within. That face like a flower in the first flush of spring, and the curve of those breasts and hips like the outline of a priceless marble vase.
Nothing, not even Lady Sun at the height of her seductive power, could rival it.
Fairest,the voice within her whispered.
Xifeng tilted her face, a pale moon in the evening of the water. She felt like a goddess in the shimmering light. She was a poem come to life, and each vein was a lyric.
She had been so wrong to doubt her destiny, to assume the cards were mistaken. This struggle, this difficult beginning, was only a trial to test her strength and her mettle as Empress.
Fairest of all.
“You have nothing to fear,” she murmured. Though she herself spoke the words, they came from another place, another world. The swirling of the steam was like the slithering within her. “You have only to hear me and to do as I ask.”
Trust me. I will help you, my child,the voice said, and it was so like Guma’s that Xifeng cried out in love and longing, hands outstretched for a face in the dark.
Her aunt was here, and she would help her. She would not beat her anymore, but love her as a mother should. Together, they would vanquish their enemies. Xifeng wished she had the bundle of incensehidden in her bed, so its fumes could mingle with the steam and she might see Guma before her once more.
A sound came at the edge of hearing. Xifeng turned her head quickly and the movement broke the spell.
Once again she was alone, and there was no one and nothing in the darkness.
Why are you so sleepy today?” Madam Hong snapped.
Xifeng wiped her watering eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ve been having nightmares...”
