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He was in council when the news came. A palace servant rushed through the door, arms raised before the Son of Heaven, falling to his knees and his head bowed low. “Your Majesty, forgive me! There’s been an accident at the Altar of the Sapphire Sky…”
The room swelled with voices. The foolish berated the servant for bothering their sovereign with such a trivial report, while wiser men immediately snapped out questions.
“What happened?”
“How dare you interrupt His Majesty with such trivialities!”
“There was a ceremony scheduled for today, was there not?”
“Go tell the Minister of Rites! Someone flog this man for his insolence!”
“Wait - who was supposed to conduct the ceremony?”
“SILENCE!”
His council of ministers quieted down, even as the Emperor stood from where he had been sitting behind his desk. When the Son of Heaven raised his voice, it was wise for lesser men to obey - so they did, all voices in the room falling silent, allowing him a chance to hear himself think. And for the servant to talk. “Speak. What has happened?” he continued at a more acceptable volume for the closed room.
The servant proved his worth as he presented his report clearly and concisely. “The beam suspended above the altar fell in the middle of the ceremony.”
His chest tightened as the room grew cold all around him. He had performed a rite at that very altar only last month. That beam was massive. He had been assured that it would not - could not - fall. If it had and anyone had been underneath…“Is my brother alive?” he ground out, forcing his demeanor to remain even and calm.
Please, no! Not Zui - please!
“His Highness, the Moon Prince, is unharmed.”
He locked his knees to keep from falling into his chair with relief. Thank you. Oh dear gods and ancestors, thank you. “Gentlemen,” he managed with an equanimity he did not feel, “I expect your reports to be finished at the end of the week. I will consider all of your perspectives and inform you of my decision. That will be all.”
The council members filed out, the news that the beam had fallen already being fed into the grist that was the court gossip mill. Only once the last man had left, the door sliding shut behind them, did the Emperor let out a single, shuddering breath. “Report.”
The servant, a mid-ranking member of the Mi Clan assigned to keep watch over his brother during official engagements, continued to kneel while the council had flowed around him and now raised his head. “Everything appeared to be proceeding normally when a young, freckled servant girl began attempting to push her way past the guards to reach the ceremony, insisting that the beam was about to fall, that it had likely been tampered with. There was an altercation - she accused the guards of being complicit and was struck. I believe she was attempting to cause enough of a commotion to alert those inside that there was a problem, but was unable to do so.”
A young, freckled girl - oh no. His favorite. He forced himself to focus. “How did she make her way inside? She must have, if the Moon Prince is unharmed, as you say.”
“Grand Commandant Kan vouched for her and ordered the guard to stand aside.”
The fox vouched for a servant girl? Of all the times for his intuition to rear its head! “So, she entered the building. Then what?”
The servant took a deep breath. “It was only a minute or so later that the crash from the beam falling could be heard clearly, even outside. There was silence for another several minutes before the Moon Prince appeared, carrying the girl in his arms.”
“And her condition?” If she was dead, his brother would be outraged. Attempts on his life were one thing - but Zuigetsu had never resigned himself to the collateral damage they sometimes left in their wake.
“Unconscious. I was honestly surprised she didn’t pass out when the guard bludgeoned her face, but she forced herself back to her feet. It would appear she was injured again when the beam fell - her leg was bleeding freely. The Moon Prince’s demeanor was calm as befits his rank, but he walked quickly in the direction of the nearest medical office.”
He nodded. Sensible.
“Your Majesty, he was not masked.”
And that spoke to Zui’s state of mind more than anything else. For him not to have taken the moment required to put on the mask that hid his face - and his identity - from the court was a silent sign that his brother was too agitated to care about protecting his most closely guarded secret.
For a moment, the Emperor wondered if he should simply let the consequences fall where they may before firming his jaw. If Zuigetsu were ever to discard the mask of ‘Master Jinshi,’ then it would be best if it was his choice, rather than forced on him by extreme circumstances. So he would protect his brother’s secret until he could do so again himself. “How many people saw him unmasked?”
“Too many to silence, Your Majesty. Everyone lowered their heads, as per protocol, but we have no way of knowing how many peeked for a chance to see the Imperial younger brother’s face.” The servant remained on his knees, perfectly composed.
The Emperor nodded to himself. “Begin a misinformation campaign. Inform the court that Master Jinshi, being of noble blood, was performing that ceremony on behalf of the Moon Prince, who became unexpectedly ill last week and required a proxy.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is there anything else I should know?” he asked, already gathering his papers up and tapping them into a neat pile.
“One interesting consequence, sir. Grand Commandant Kan seemed quite shocked at the sight of the servant girl in the Moon Prince’s arms. He didn’t attempt to interfere, but once they had left, he sentenced the guard who interfered with her attempt to enter the temple to one hundred lashes and dragged him to the military grounds himself to see the punishment administered.”
Lakan, seeing to the punishment of a guard personally? That is interesting. But not nearly as interesting as seeing for himself that his brother was unharmed. He was quite certain that there would be those in the court who snickered at the idea of the Emperor running to see to the safety of the beautiful eunuch Jinshi, his acknowledged favorite and rumored lover, as a saccharine display of sentiment.
They could laugh all they liked.
He had almost lost Zui today. He wouldn’t be able to rest until he had seen with his own eyes that his boy was all right. “You are dismissed,” he told the servant, who rose to his feet with a single, graceful motion, arms still raised before him in respect before leaving the room.
The Emperor left his office, pausing only to inform his secretary just outside the door, that the rest of his meetings were to be rescheduled today before leaving, calling a palanquin and mentally bemoaning the fact that, while it was not the fastest way to travel in comparison to simply walking where he wanted to go, it was the most acceptable compromise between the dignity of his position and the urgency of getting to his destination. He sat, his posture perfectly erect, his demeanor calm, allowing the court to see that their Emperor was unbothered by this assassination attempt against his only heir - at least, until Gyokuyou and Lihua’s children were born.
He cherished Lingli, but for the security of the succession, he had to hope that both of his consorts delivered boys. If he couldn’t formalize Zuigetsu as the Crown Prince and see him married and a father himself, then incidents like today would only continue to happen. Although who would have had the gall to rig such a dramatic assassination attempt? He had enemies, certainly, but he hadn’t thought any of the current factions bold enough to try a move like this.
Oh, certainly the beam falling could have been an accident. Frankly, he had been concerned the first time he saw the design for the Altar of the Sapphire Sky and stood under the massive, creaking structure. But familiarity had bred, if not contempt, then a certain relaxation of caution as the altar appeared to be safe.
That had been a mistake. A wooden beam the size of a great tree, easily large enough to crush a man under its weight? It was begging to be tampered with - and according to the preliminary report, that was exactly what had happened.
“Halt!” he ordered, when the palanquin was a few pavilions away from his destination. If he knew his brother, Zui would be knee deep in getting the investigation off the ground and the Emperor arriving in all pomp and circumstance would only distract from that rather important task. Instead, he climbed down and indulged himself in walking the rest of the way, his usual bodyguards and attendants falling into step behind him. He stepped over the threshold into the quiet pavilion. His brother kept an absolute minimum of staff, but there was an argument to be made for quality over quantity.
Especially as one of his favorite people in the world walked out of the main house to bow before him, her typical smile replaced with a worried expression on her creased face. “Your Majesty,” Suiren said.
“Stop that,” he complained, raising his former nursemaid up with a gentle hand under her elbow. “Is he here?”
“Yes, sir. He’s just returned and is in his office, along with Master Gaoshun. If you’ll forgive me, I need to return to that poor girl’s side - his highness was utterly insistent that Xiaomao wasn’t to be left alone.”
He blinked. “He didn’t leave her in the care of the doctors?”
Suiren shook her head. “He wouldn’t hear of it.”
Oh, Zui. “How is she?”
“She’s been in and out of consciousness, but never awake for very long. I’m not sure what part of her is the bigger mess - her head or her leg,” Suiren said, pressing her lips together.
On one hand, he wanted to go straight to his brother, but this girl was the reason why Zui was unharmed. “May I see her?” he asked quietly. He trusted Suiren to offer an objection if his presence would cause a problem.
“Of course, Your Majesty.” Suiren nodded her head. “This way.”
The Emperor allowed Suiren to lead them into Zui’s home, gesturing for his bodyguards to remain outside. The doors to his bedchamber were open, a small couch pulled over by the bed itself, where his brother’s servant girl laid. Her head and face were wrapped in thick, white bandages, along with one leg. “Poor child,” he murmured. “That guard is probably already fifty lashes deep into his punishment for striking you.”
“Did Your Majesty order that?” Suiren asked, gently adjusting the blanket around the girl.
He shook his head. “Grand Commandant Kan saw to matters of military discipline. He’s always been strange, but this is oddly diligent for him.”
“Not at all, Your Majesty. After all, if you could get your hands on whoever tampered with the beam at this moment, I’m quite sure you would order far more than a whipping.” Suiren arched her brows at him.
He cocked his head to the side. “Does she know Lakan?”
“I would say so. He’s her father by blood.”
What.
“I beg your pardon?” He managed to get out. “Lakan is her father?”
“By blood, yes. The Grand Commandant has been making quite a nuisance of himself toward the young master recently, but his connection to our Xiaomao was recently confirmed.” Suiren glanced at him.
Little apothecary, so many things about you just became incredibly clear. The sharp insight, the obsession with a specialization, her overall brilliance. Those were all markers of the La Clan. “It begs the question then - what on earth was she doing serving as a laundry maid in the Rear Palace before Zui found her?”
“That, I’m afraid I couldn’t tell you, Your Majesty. But we do know that she grew up in the pleasure district with her adoptive father who taught her his craft. The young master didn’t think to ask her adoptive father’s name, but I overheard her recommend his services to a young friend of hers who frequents the pleasure district often.” Suiren caught his gaze with hers. “His name is Luomen.”
Oh. The Emperor stared at the young woman on the bed, his mouth open in shock.
Karma really did come around again.
Luomen. The doctor who had cut him from his mother’s womb and saved both children in the process - a man who had fixed up his scraped knees and nursed him through childhood illnesses with a patience and grace he had never appreciated as a rambunctious boy. He had thought Luomen could do anything, save anyone as a child. Until the awful day he realized that, for all his talent, Luomen could not save everyone. Listening to Ah-Duo’s sobbing that first night through her door, as he and her chief lady-in-waiting could do nothing to soothe her agony, he had punished Luomen in a fury for falling off that pedestal.
And because he had indulged his own worst impulse, three of his children died because the bumbling eunuch the physicians had desperately tried to train to replace Luomen was simply not up to the job. In the dark hours of the night, just after Lihua’s boy had passed away, he wondered if he had cursed his own line.
Until this girl had appeared in the Rear Palace with the courage to warn the consorts of the poisonous face powder. Luomen’s adoptive daughter and protégé.
He scrubbed one hand over his face, aware that Suiren had never approved of his decision, had in fact told him off for making his mother’s and Ah-Duo’s pain even worse in his desperate desire to simply do something to make things better. “I thought Doctor Kan must have gone abroad. Back to the West.”
“No, Your Majesty. It would appear that he settled in the pleasure district, to raise a little girl. His nephew’s daughter.”
He did some quick mental math. That would make the apothecary just about a year younger than Zui. Lakan would have been in the Western Capital at the time of her birth - and shortly after he returned was when Lakan had begun his rise to power, seizing control of the La Clan from his father and half brother. His grandmother had thought Lakan’s sudden interest in power strange, but given that Lakan had (reluctantly) allied with him as the Crown Prince to begin pulling control of the throne away from his grandmother’s slipping grip after the Yi Clan’s destruction, he had been preoccupied with securing his eventual succession as more than a puppet ruler. He had been more than willing to use Lakan’s strategic brilliance to further that goal without looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth.
If Lakan cared enough to punish the guard for harming his daughter, why had he allowed that same daughter to grow up in the pleasure district with his uncle instead of as a cherished, protected princess of the La Clan?
He stopped. A princess of the La Clan. That changes everything. He looked down at the sleeping girl in Zui’s bed. “Suiren?”
“Yes, Your Majesty?” His former nursemaid smoothed the blanket covering the apothecary.
“Stop that. You know Zui better than almost anyone else. I know he’s quite attached to this girl. Especially after the events of today, is he as head over heels in love with her as I suspect?”
Suiren took a deep breath. “I think, in this aspect, you know him better than anyone else, Yoh.”
Yes, I do. Oh, Zui, I’m sorry. I wish you had inherited any other trait from me. My devotion to your mother did neither of us any favors. But a princess of the La Clan, even an illegitimate daughter, is an entirely different prospect than I faced. Perhaps it might offer some sort of justice if Luomen’s daughter married the son he ‘failed’ to save?
He took a deep breath and brushed his own hand very gently over Maomao’s bangs, the hair shockingly soft under his fingertips as he moved the strands out of her face. “I should wait until you’re awake to say this, but thank you.” He rose and bowed before her, a genuflection unseen by anyone except Suiren, who smiled at him with a quiet pride in her eyes.
The sound of quick steps approaching outside broke the moment. He glanced at Suiren and they moved quietly into the parlor, as if they had been standing there, talking, the entire time.
Jinshi entered, still dressed in the formal robes from the ceremony, adorned with the Imperial dragons he was entitled to wear, for once. “Your Majesty, I - ”
The Emperor met him in the middle of the room and pulled him into his arms, feeling the young man’s shocked inhale against his chest.
Jinshi froze for just a moment before he returned the embrace, squeezing him hard in a way he hadn’t done since childhood. The Emperor took a deep breath, reassured that his boy was fine - physically, at least.
Assassination attempts never got any easier, though. He thought this might have been one of the most elaborate he had ever seen and if not for the apothecary, it would have succeeded. Those were always the hardest ones to sleep at night afterwards. He’d had his chance to react, but now it was time to be calm and steady in the face of his boy’s barely contained agitation. “I see you haven’t been squished like a bug.”
Jinshi frowned. “It was close. If the apothecary had been only a few seconds later…”
“She wasn’t,” he pointed out, keeping his own tone of voice soothing. “She arrived in time and you’re both alive.”
“She has fifteen stitches in her leg!” Jinshi cried.
“Young master.” Suiren never raised her own voice, but only glanced at the bed where the girl lay sleeping, a momentary grimace crossing her face before she settled back down again.
Jinshi took a deep breath. “We should continue this in my office.”
“Agreed.” The Emperor squeezed Jinshi's shoulders again. “Come on. I want you to go over everything you’ve put together so far.” He looked up to see Gaoshun waiting patiently in the doorway, arms raised before him.
“Your Majesty, with your permission, Basen and I would like to go inspect the altar while you and your bodyguards are present,” Gaoshun said in his mildest tone of voice. To the Emperor’s ears, his milk brother might as well have shouted his anger at the close call none of them, save the girl, had anticipated.
“Granted. We will stay until you and young Basen return to see to my brother’s protection,” he replied formally.
Gaoshun bowed and left, leaving the Emperor to turn to Jinshi. “Come on. Let’s talk elsewhere.”
Jinshi nodded and allowed the Emperor to precede him out of his own home before leading him to the nearby office, offering his sovereign a seat on an elegant couch along one wall, perpendicular to the main desk.
He took it, accepting the hospitality, even as Jinshi began to pace his office. “So. What happened?”
Jinshi took a deep breath. “The apothecary came to me this morning. An acquaintance of hers who has been investigating a series of strange coincidences came to ask her opinion - and she connected them to Master Kounen’s death earlier this year, which I also had her investigate. Since she knew I had an interest in the matter, she brought the soldier’s investigation to my attention and I agreed with her that, while all of the incidents appeared to be simple accidents, so many of them together indicated there was some greater purpose driving them.”
The Emperor nodded, letting Jinshi talk.
“I didn’t have time to join the investigation myself, because I was preparing for the ceremony, but the apothecary seemed quite…excited to pursue the matter on my behalf once she was motivated.” That caused a wry smile to twist his brother’s lips before his brow furrowed again. “The next thing I knew on the subject, I heard a commotion just before she barreled into me at top speed and knocked both of us out of the way just as the beam came down. One of the mechanisms gouged her leg when it fell and I don’t even know how she hit her face…”
“A guard outside bludgeoned her when she attempted to enter the temple,” the Emperor offered. “According to the report I received, she provoked him in an attempt to get your attention.”
He didn’t think he’d ever seen his brother more infuriated, eyes narrowed, his fists clenching at his sides even as that beautiful voice snapped with the sharp bite of a whip. “She’s tiny - there was no cause to hit her! And with a weapon, at that!”
He held up one hand to forestall Jinshi’s anger. “Grand Commandant Kan is seeing to his punishment.” He paused and arched his brows. “When were you planning to tell me that you had a lost princess of the La Clan in your employ as a maidservant?”
That stopped his brother’s rant as he shook his head, pressing his lips together in an attempt to control his reaction. “She’s not a princess. She’s an apothecary. And she’ll be the first one to deny the strategist’s claim to her.”
Lakan, you appear to have engineered your match, he thought as Jinshi absently pulled the tie on his hair, spilling it over his shoulders temporarily before he began tying it back with a piece of cloth in an approximation of his more usual hairstyle. “Well, it doesn't matter. Except for you. I gather you’ve had more of Lakan’s attention than you’d care to lately?”
Jinshi groaned. “Yes.”
The Emperor shook his head. “Better you than me,” he teased gently. “So, no ideas on who might think it was a good idea to drop a beam on you?”
His brother shook his head. “No. There’s been no threats, no indication of anything. As far as everyone else should be concerned, the Imperial younger brother is a shut in, not worth targeting. I’m waiting for the apothecary to wake up - I still don’t know how she knew the beam was going to fall..” he trailed off to look out the door, in the direction of the main house.
“Well, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to keep me updated on how your investigation goes.” The Emperor paused. “Also, you forgot something.”
Jinshi blinked, looking confused. “I did?”
He arched his brows. “Your mask.” He just looked his brother up and down - at the Imperial dragons he still wore, the subtle perfume of temple incense clinging to him. “I’m putting out the story that my younger brother required a proxy after becoming ill earlier this week and ‘Master Jinshi’ performed the ceremony on his behalf.”
His brother’s eyes had widened at the realization that he had exposed his carefully guarded identity to the palace for all to see only for his shoulders to slump in relief as he realized that the Emperor had covered for him. “Thank you.”
“Are you going to tell her the truth?”
Jinshi took a deep breath, nervously jerking a finger against his robes. “If she asks. Yes. I think she’s earned the right to know. But she may not want to know something beyond her station.”
“She’s clever. She may have already figured it out, given where and how she found you,” the Emperor pointed out gently.
“Maybe.” Jinshi shrugged his shoulders, a nervous expression crossing his features.
So. That was to be the game for now. He resisted the urge to shake his head at the two of them. They would have to figure this out themselves. But in the meantime, he couldn’t help but think, Gyokuen is a clever man who needs to be handled carefully, given his past history with the Yi Clan, but I suspect you may end up with the more troublesome father-in-law in the future, Zui. Well, one of them. Luomen is unlikely to give you trouble. But Lakan?
He carefully kept a smile off his face, despite being unable to believe he could smile only an hour ago.
Better you than me!