“What did you do to her?” she snarls at me.
“No…，” Ruyi protests weakly. “Not her.”
Then comes the sound of many feet striking the wood floors, followed by shouts of “Highness! Your Highness!”
The princess looks past the doorway, eyes wild. She points to the screen at the side of the room, and I duck behind it, still holding the sword and the mask. Scented robes and luxurious fabrics surround me; this is her dressing area. I pull myself farther into the silks, hiding myself as I listen to the raised voices beyond. Through the screen, all I can see are silhouettes, but I know these are armed men.
“Do you deem it appropriate to barge into my bedchamber at this hour?” The princess speaks in a restrained tone, showing no indication of the emotion she exhibited not even a moment before.
“My apologies, Highness.” The guards nervously shuffle their feet. “We had a breach in the palace walls, and we are concerned for your safety.”
“As you can see, there is no one here but myself. You should be out there, trying to find the intruder.”
“Yes, Princess.” One of the soldiers raises his weapon in a salute. “We will find the one who dared disrupt your rest and bring you his head.”
“See to it that you do,” she says, her voice cool and composed.
The stomp of boots leaves the area, and they are gone. I shove the spill of fabrics off me and hurry to the bedside. The princess tugs off the pile of covers she had thrown over Ruyi’s body, and I gasp when her face is revealed.
Glassy, unblinking eyes. A trickle of black at the corner of her mouth.
“Ruyi!” the princess whispers through gritted teeth, shaking Ruyi’s shoulders, all composure lost. “Wake up!”
For a moment I consider leaving her to die. Permit this course of perverse justice if she is truly the one who distributed the poison throughout the empire. But I shake the thought off easily. Saving Shu’s life is more important than my desire for vengeance, and if I save Ruyi’s life, it will bring me closer to the truth.
“Move,” I demand of the princess, all courtesy gone. When she does not listen, I pull her away.
“What are you doing?” She looks at me, lost to panic, hands clawed and teeth bared, ready to tear me apart if I hurt Ruyi. This is beyond loyalty and care of her handmaiden, this is … something else.
“If you want her to live,” I tell her, “get out of my way.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Princess Zhen moves aside, biting her lip.
“My father is a physician,” I say to her, adopting the voice he uses when his patients’ family members are in hysterics. “I will do her no harm.”
No more than what has already been done, anyway, but I don’t tell her that.
She nods then and gestures for me to continue.
This for me is a different kind of ritual. Steady hands, calm nerves. Not so different, I realize, from being a shénnóng-shī.
I pull the dagger out and, ignoring the gasp of protest next to me, cut away the layers of Ruyi’s tunic until the wound is exposed. I hiss when I see the splintered shaft of an arrow buried in her side, the blood bubbling around it.
I touch the skin above the wound, and she writhes under me, coming in and out of delirium. She is still reactive, and that is a blessing at least, but I know this is not a regular arrowhead. It was coated in a poison designed to inflict pain.
I’ve seen it before. Crow’s head.
The plant has beautiful purple flowers, but the entire plant, especially the root, is poisonous. If even a small piece of the root is ingested, it can kill someone in an hour. I’ve seen it used by the mountain bandits, soldiers dying from their poisoned arrows when they do not reach a physician in time.
I gingerly palpate her side. The flesh around the wound is hardening, black vessels spreading outward, the poison seeping into her body.
“Tell me,” the princess asks, her face streaked with tears. “How bad is it?”
“She’s been poisoned,” I say. “I can pull out the arrowhead and stop the bleeding, but I also have to draw out and neutralize the poison before it kills her.”
“Anything you need.” She draws herself up. “Anything you need and it is yours.”
Despite the urgent task at hand, a darker part of myself recognizes that this is my chance to get the answers I need. I told Kang I would ask for the head of the Shadow. And now I have not only her identity but her life in my hands.
“Why was Ruyi in Sù?” I ask.