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If I have to see one more performance or parade, I’ll leave the palace and join a monastery.” Kang flopped melodramatically onto the bench, fanning himself. “Is the festival over yet?”
Xifeng laughed. “I don’t mind the spectacle, but I’m only a simple peasant girl who could never have imagined such things. Didn’t you feel like a god looking down at the people?”
For the past three mornings, as part of the Empress’s retinue, they had joined the Imperial couple on the balcony jutting out over the palace gates, overlooking the city. The crowds had cheered to see them, and it had been magical, just for a moment, to imagine the raucous applause had been forher.
It had been her first taste of what it might be like to be Empress.
“I suppose you’re right,” Kang conceded. “I must be tired from the performance. Thank the gods Their Majesties seemed to enjoy it. We’ve only been rehearsing an entire year.” He had taken part in adramatic stage play the night before, put on by the eunuchs each festival.
“Your acting was my favorite part of this week.”
He wagged a finger at her. “I told you, flattery will win my heart every time.”
She grinned, enjoying the evening breeze that blew strands of her hair across her face.
Seeing the city come alive had a way of putting one in a brilliant mood. That morning, the performers had worn costumes representing each kingdom, accompanied by men beating enormous drums that had to be pulled on chariots. Acrobats had flipped and twirled through the air as the dragon dance began: five serpents of silk, metal, and glass, each as long as a city block, concealing twenty dancers who shook the shimmering coils in time to the thundering drumbeat.
“If we could go into the city tonight, I’m surethatwould be your favorite part.” Kang scowled at a group of dignified eunuchs who walked by without acknowledging him. “Normally, each district closes at sundown, but the Emperor extends curfew on the last night of the festival. I’m told the marketplace and food stalls are a sight to behold.”
“I can’t go, but you can.”
“Not without permission fromthem.” He glared at the eunuchs’ retreating backs. “Anyway, if they let me out, they probably won’t let me back in. To amuse themselves.”
“Have they been treating you worse than usual?”
“It’s nothing I can’t handle. The more you and I are seen together, the more they isolate themselves from me to curry Lady Sun’s favor. They’re afraid of her. And they won’t have anything to do with anyone who challenges them or might hurt their prestige. But I willneverturn my back on you, my one true friend.”
Xifeng gripped his hand warmly. “Nor I you, sweet Kang. I’m foreverindebted to you. The least I can do is speak to the Empress on your behalf. I’m sure she’ll help us.”
“You’re that certain of her good favor?”
“Trust me. Let me do this for you, as thanks for all you’ve done for me.”
But Xifeng couldn’t speak to Her Majesty that night, as the household was in a flurry of preparation for the final banquet. And they’d had another invitation besides: the Emperor had requested that his wife be present in the reception hall before supper. The ladies took special care in dressing and flocked after the Empress in her resplendent red-and-gold silks.
The princes and concubines were already waiting when they arrived. Xifeng recognized the gold, crescent-shaped comb Lady Sun wore as the one she’d been accused of stealing. The woman’s resentful eyes found her at once, and her hand tightened on the shoulder of her little boy. Her gaze promised revenge for the humiliation brought upon her, and though Xifeng’s pulse picked up, she kept her expression neutral.
Emperor Jun swept in and embraced his wife, sparing no glance for her ladies, and Xifeng felt something strangely like disappointment. “I’ve come to give you your birthday present, my dear one. I commissioned it five years ago and the artist has delivered it at last.”
The Empress’s eyes sparkled at him. “You are the most generous of men, husband.”
One wall of the room had been covered with a heavy cloth. On His Majesty’s command, four eunuchs tugged it down to reveal the map of Feng Lu that had been hidden in Lady Sun’s apartments, and a murmur of appreciation arose.
Lady Sun glowered at the top of her child’s head, her hand like a claw on his shoulder. For someone who had triumphed and had beendefended by the Emperor himself, she seemed sullen, subdued. Xifeng noticed His Majesty didn’t look once at the concubine. It made her wonder why, of all places in the palace, the Emperor had chosen to hide the gift in Lady Sun’s quarters for so long. It seemed cruel, like he was taunting her. Xifeng turned her eyes to the Emperor just in time to see him look away from her, and her heart gave an odd little lurch.
“It’s a splendid gift,” the Empress was saying, “and I will treasure it always, my love.”
The Emperor caressed her cheek, and immediately Lady Sun pushed her child toward the map. The boy stared up at it with round, intelligent eyes, and asked a question in his childish babble. Xifeng made out the wordssea monstersand couldn’t help chuckling with the others.
“Do you see how clever your son is, Your Majesty?” Lady Sun asked loudly. “Already he knows where the kingdom of Kamatsu lies.”
Everyone exchanged uncomfortable glances and the Crown Prince raised his eyebrows. Xifeng noticed he had positioned himself squarely between his mother and Lady Sun.
She’s not so different from Lady Meng after all,Xifeng realized as the concubine looked pleadingly at His Majesty. All of her talk about playing the game of men had been nothing more than a cover for her fear and desperation.
“I’ve been assured this is a fitting gift for you,” the Emperor told his wife, as though no one had spoken. “It suits you better than jewels, as a woman of thought and intelligence.”
Red faced and without a word, Lady Sun seized her child and began to leave without permission. It was clear to all that she had somehow displeased the Emperor in private.
