Chapter 14 — The Secret the Empress Dowager Concealed

"Because it was not paper."

"It was a tattoo."

The hall plunged into a silence so profound it felt as though the very air had congealed. I looked at the Emperor, whose face was etched with astonishment. My father spoke again, his voice steady and sharp. "The late Empress knew that paper would be burned, jewels would be pillaged, and anyone who held the truth would be murdered."

"So, she ordered the Phoenix Feather Bureau to mix a secret medicinal tincture into the ink, tattooing the imperial decree onto the skin of the Emperor’s back when he was but a child. Only when that ink meets the waters used to soak the Phoenix Feather Jade does the writing reveal itself."

Eunuch Chang’s face drained of all color.

"When His Majesty was small, there was indeed a birthmark on his back."

The Emperor whipped his head around to stare at him. The old eunuch collapsed to his knees, trembling. "This servant deserves death! The late Emperor commanded that no one was to speak of the birthmark on the Emperor’s back; I only ever thought it was a chronic ailment."

My father said, "That was no birthmark." The Empress Dowager suddenly let out a soft, airy laugh.

"Xie Guihong, you spin a persuasive tale."

She glared at the fragment resting on the tray. "But the Phoenix Feather Jade is shattered, and the other half has been missing for years. Without the complete stone to soak in the water, the tattoo cannot be revealed. What proof do you have?"

My father smiled.

"Who told you the other half was missing?"

The Empress Dowager’s composure finally fractured. My father turned his gaze toward me.

"Ming Duong."

I was startled. "Me?"

"When you were a child, did you not once shatter a piece of jade?"

Memories flooded back. I was six years old, climbing a tree to reach for a bird’s nest, and the jade pendant around my neck had indeed cracked. I had wept bitterly, but my father comforted me, telling me it was no matter, that he had smoothed the edges for me. I had always assumed the piece was only half the size of a palm. My throat turned to dust.

"You... you hid the other half?"

My father shook his head.

"It was not I who hid it. It was your mother."

"My mother?" I spun around to look toward the side chamber. The Empress Dowager suddenly rose to her feet.

"Seize Xie Guihong!"

Her cry was not directed at the imperial guards, but toward the halls outside. The great doors groaned and burst open. Those who surged in were not the guards, but a company of internal death-squads clad in iron-gray armor. Their blades were pointed directly at the Emperor. The expression on Xiao Zhi’s face chilled instantly.

"Protect the Emperor!"

In a heartbeat, the hall dissolved into utter chaos. My father grabbed me, shoving me forcefully behind the imperial dais.

"Go find your mother!"

Panic gripped me. "And you, Father?" My father snatched a discarded boot from the floor and shoved his foot into it.

"I am going to peel the face off the Empress Dowager."

The moment he finished, the decorative screen behind the Empress Dowager began to slide away. A man dressed in white stepped out. His brows were delicate, his eyes bright; he looked like a frail, sickly scholar. Yet, as the death-squads caught sight of him, they bowed their heads in unison.

"Young Master."

The mocking smile vanished from my father’s face. Xiao Zhi’s grip on his blade tightened until his knuckles turned white. The Emperor stared at the man, his voice a blade of ice.

"Shen Huai Nian. So it was you all along."

The man in white looked at me and offered a gentle smile.

"Ming Duong, it has been a long time."

My entire body turned cold. I had no memory of ever meeting this man, yet his next words made the blood in my veins run icy.

"Seventeen years ago, I was the one who personally placed you into that snow-filled crevice."

The clash of steel in the hall seemed to stutter for a heartbeat. "Seventeen years ago, I placed you into that snow-filled crevice." I stared at his gentle, seemingly harmless face, finding the situation utterly grotesque. My father stepped in front of me, his voice carrying a chill I had never heard before.

"Shen Huai Nian, you are still alive."

Shen Huai Nian chuckled softly. "And is the Marquis not standing there breathing as well?"

My father stared him down. "I live because my life is tenacious. You live because, when you should have died years ago, someone else died in your stead."

The Empress Dowager shrieked, "Shen Huai Nian, stop wasting your breath on them!" But he did not move. He kept his eyes fixed on me.

"Ming Duong, you have grown so much."

A wave of nausea churned in my stomach. "Do not speak to me with such intimacy."

His smile never wavered. "When you were small, I even held you in my arms."

My father lifted his foot and hurled his newly donned boot directly at the man’s head. "The man you held was a snowdrift!"

The boot flew with deadly precision. Shen Huai Nian tilted his head, and the footwear struck a death-squad soldier square in the face. The man groaned and collapsed to the floor. My father muttered a curse, "What a waste." By then, Xiao Zhi had already drawn his sword. The great hall descended into absolute pandemonium. The soldiers lunged from every corner, ignoring the cowering palace maids, the eunuchs, and the physicians. Their goal was singular: the Emperor, and myself.

The Emperor, favoring his wounds, struggled to his feet. Eunuch Chang’s voice cracked in desperation. "Protect the Emperor! Protect him!"

Xiao Zhi slashed a soldier in half, his other hand shoving the Emperor further behind the dais. My father dragged me backward. "Go to the side chamber and find your mother!"

"What about you?" I cried.

"I am going to hold off this pathetic excuse for a scholar."

Shen Huai Nian heard this and offered a thin smile. "The Marquis still possesses such a sharp tongue."

My father sneered. "And you are still as punchable as ever."

Without another word, he snatched a heavy bronze candelabra from the desk and swung it with all his might. Shen Huai Nian drew his sword. The glint of the blade was blindingly fast.