Witch Fall (11 page)

“I wanted you to know that we may be enemies, but I am also your friend,” he whispered. “I have always been your friend.”

She wasn’t sure what made her do it, but she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. His mouth opened in surprise, but then he took hold of her face and kissed her. His lips were soft and gentle, but she felt a slight tremor somewhere deep inside him, as if he was holding back.

He pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. “Lilette . . .”

The way he said her name with such longing—had he learned to build armor around his heart too?

Every part of her ached for more. He rolled a lock of her hair between his fingers. “I never knew it came in the color of winter sunlight.”

“I’ve never seen winter.” Lilette’s voice came out breathy and soft.

“The light is thinner, the colors washed away.”

She pressed her lips together to keep herself in check. “Han . . .” This—whatever this was—didn’t fit in with her plans of escape, or Chen’s plan to marry her.

Han let her hair slip from his fingers before he stepped back. He tipped his chin toward his mother’s house. “You need to get back. Can you make it?”

She felt hollow without him next to her, and now words had abandoned her. She nodded. With a rush, he launched himself at the wall, his footing and handholds sure.

Lilette whipped around at the sound of voices in the distance. They were too far away for her to understand their words, but they were definitely calling for someone. And of course that someone was probably her.

“Lilette,” Han whispered. She turned back to him. He’d reached the top of the wall and paused, his face in shadow. “Don’t try to escape again.”

Without answering
, she slipped into the shadows.

Han terrified me. He was violence personified in muscle and scowls. But Lilette seemed drawn to terrifying things. ~Jolin

Voices called Lilette’s name. Cold waves of fear pulsed through her. She was dressed in a eunuch’s clothes, with kohl in her hair, and bruises on her body. No explanation she could give would satisfy Chen. She looked around, hoping to find something, anything, to help her. And then she saw the lake. Creators’ mercy, this was a foolish idea—most of her ideas usually were. But she didn’t have anything else.

She stripped out of her eunuch’s robes, shoved them inside one of the boats at the dock, and waded into the lake until it reached her waist. The water was cool, but the bottom was muddy. Keeping her mouth and eyes firmly shut, she scrubbed the kohl from her hair, rinsing at least a dozen times.

Soaking wet with less-than-savory water, she crossed her arms over her nearly translucent smallclothes. Forcing herself not to limp, she moved toward the voices. 

It wasn’t long before she caught glimpses of torchlight flickering through the trees. One of them yelped in surprise when she burst into sight. “Are you looking for me?” she asked innocently.

He looked her up and down, his brows drawn in confusion. “Yes, honored madame. The heir has come to see you, but you were not there.” He whistled for the others. They escorted her back to Ko’s house.

Ko was pacing in front, her hands wringing together. She froze when they came into view, her expression giving away nothing, and Lilette wondered if her friend had betrayed her.

The chief eunuch huffed into sight, his strange, hunched-over gait exaggerated by his wide steps. “Where have you been?”

She gestured to her dripping clothes. “Swimming.”

His eyes narrowed. “Do you know what you have done?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” he sputtered. He opened his mouth to say more, but Chen stormed into view. The chief eunuch clenched his jaw, his throat working around the words that seemed to choke him.

Chen still wore his battle armor, though with its condition he clearly hadn’t been in the midst of the fighting. His gaze pierced Lilette to the core. He took in her barely clothed state, and she had to resist the urge to cover herself with her hands. “You were not to leave Ko’s home,” he reminded her.

She bent into her three kowtows, then blinked up at him.

“I came to share our decisive victory with you, but you were gone. Where did you go?” Though his words were soft, the tension beneath them frightened her more than shouts would have.

She rose to sit on her heels. “It was so unbearably hot. I went for a swim.”

Chen frowned. “In the lake?”

“I used to go swimming at night all the time.” A blatant lie. She’d always been too tired to bother. “I miss the water.” At least that was true. She let her eyes fill with tears—genuine ones.

He motioned to the eunuchs. “All of you go.” He jabbed a finger at Lilette’s personal eunuch and Chief Wang. “You two wait for me inside with the other concubine.”

Everyone filed quickly away. Chen took Lilette’s arm to pull her outside the house and out of earshot. He pinned her against a tree. Pain lanced through her injured side. She forced herself not to react, not to cry out.

“You were trying to escape.”

“No,” she gasped, her head swimming with pain. “I was—”

“Lilette, there are things even I can’t protect you from. If you’re caught, do you know what my father will do to you?”

“The same thing you did to Laosh?”

Chen released her as if she’d burned him. “I spared her a public execution—and the torture that comes with it.”

Lilette reeled her anger in.
Trust,
she reminded herself.
If he trusts me, opportunities to escape will come.
“I’m sorry.”

He blew out through clenched teeth.

“I promise I wasn’t trying to escape. I just went swimming.”

He studied her, his dark eyes glinting. “Are you willing to prove it?” He stepped toward her, his gaze trained on her lips.

Lilette forced herself to tip toward him and press her mouth against his. His mouth was wet and cold. All she could see was soldiers lined up behind the keepers, hear the dark, pounding chant. See Chen watch impassively as Jolin was bludgeoned. As the kiss went on, Lilette couldn’t stop the bone-deep tremors that started inside her.

Finally, he pulled back. As if daring her to stop him, he touched her through her thin smallclothes. “The lords from the other islands are due to arrive before midday for the war council, and a feast is already scheduled. The perfect opportunity to prove yourself.”

“But the kiss—”

“It helped.” His grin was wolfish. “But you still have a long way to go.”

“Prove myself how?”

He tipped her chin up. “By becoming my wife.”

She’d played right into his hands. “No.” The word slipped out before she could stop it.

“Think of all the good you could do as empress.”

She searched his eyes. “Why are you doing this?”

His expression closed off and he stepped back. “Because it’s the best thing for my country. And believe it or not, it’s the best thing for you.”

Lilette clenched her hands into fists at her sides. Still, if she lived in the palace, all she’d have to do was slip into the gardens to free the witches. “Is no even an option?”

“Of course,” Chen said. “I’m not a monster.”

She took a fortifying breath. “Very well.”

“What?”

She shifted her weight off her aching leg. “I said yes.”

He nodded to himself, a smile gracing his perfect lips. “You’ll see, Lilette. This is the best thing for everyone. And I will be good to you. I swear it.” He motioned for her to follow him. “The eunuchs must be awakened. They’ll have to work all night.”

“Wang,” he called as they approached the house.

The chief eunuch opened the door and gave a bow.

“For failing to keep an eye on the princess, her eunuch shall have five lashes,” Chen declared. “You will have seven. Lose her again and it will be both your heads.”

“Yes, Heir,” the chief eunuch said.

“Now that’s taken care of, we have a wedding to plan. Wake all the eunuchs.” Chen cradled Lilette’s cheek and kissed her again. He pulled back, his breath on her lips. “Until then, my sweet wife.”

It took everything she had not to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand. She gave him what she hoped would pass for a shy smile.

Chen rubbed his thumbs along her collarbones before motioning the chief eunuch to walk with him. “She’s far too thin. Is she eating enough?” 

Wang bowed. “I will personally see to her diet, Heir.” Over his shoulder, he shot Lilette a look of such hatred that she winced. Her personal eunuch trailed after them, his steps quick.

Lilette entered the house, then sidestepped Ko’s eunuch and pushed into Ko’s room. She slid the screen closed, scrubbed her lips with her sleeve, and spit onto the floor. Breathing hard, she ground out, “Did you tell them I had gone?”

Ko shook her head. “The heir came to visit you.” Her mouth tightened. “He would have bedded you.”

Lilette pressed her hand against her mouth, her heart racing. If she didn’t escape by tomorrow night . . . but she would be in the palace then. She’d only need to slip into the garden. Faking submission these past few days would surely pay off. It had to.

“Why did you come back?” Ko asked quietly.

Lilette winced. “I was caught.”

Ko’s eyebrows flew up.

“Han intercepted the guards. He let me go.”

“It’s a good thing, or all three of us would be dead.”

Lilette let that soak in, realizing how close they’d all come to being caught. She lifted her smallclothes, revealing purple-black bruises that the shadows and her thin film of clothing had hidden. “Han said you had a salve?”

Ko rooted around in a chest while Lilette examined her shin. To her surprise, it hadn’t bruised, but she could feel a wide knot under her fingers.

Ko smeared the salve onto Lilette’s abdomen before wrapping it with an old sash. She handed her a jar of paste. “Take a fingerful of this. It will help with the pain.”

Lilette took the jar, but hesitated to consume any.

“I think,” Ko said after a moment, “it is very dangerous to be your friend.”

A cavern seemed to open up inside Lilette. Over the course of her life, she’d lost everyone she’d ever grown close to. Why would Ko be any different?

“Lang and I have risked our lives for you. My son has risked his life—too many times. Promise me you’ll keep him out of this.”

The cavern yawned and stretched. A blush crept up Lilette’s cheeks. Did Ko know something had happened between Han and her? Though it sent a stab of pain through Lilette’s belly, she forced herself to say the words. “I swear.”

She put a fingerful of the paste in her mouth and pulled a face as the bitterness fanned across her tongue.

Chen was an evil man with a thirst for blood and no hint of compassion. He was beyond redemption. ~Jolin

Lilette awoke when her eunuch opened the screen. There were more eunuchs behind him, dozens of them—so many they filled Ko’s home.

As she pushed herself up to a sitting position, Lilette winced at the twinge in her leg. Judging by the light, it had to be midmorning.

Her eunuch came inside, a tray of food in his hands. He eased to his knees and kowtowed. Moving as one, the rest followed. Lilette caught sight of Ko kneeling as well. Lilette frowned. From this day on, she would be a princess. There were only three people in the empire to whom she would kowtow.

Her eunuch rose and set the tray before her. She could smell breakfast—sausage, tea, and fried rice flour—and felt sick with hunger. She took a bite of fried sausage roll and closed her eyes in pleasure. She studied her servant’s hollow eyes and drawn face. “Have you tended to your wounds?” she asked softly.

He stiffened. “I have been bandaged, Princess.”

She flinched at the honorific, and her side protested the sudden movement. She wondered at the aspirations of eunuchs. Did they desire to bask in the leftovers of their madames’ glory? Her eunuch certainly seemed thrilled with the idea of moving to the palace with Lilette. “Have you taken anything for the hurt?”

He continued working. “Softening the hurt would also soften the punishment. It is not allowed.”

She tipped her head to the side. “I am the princess. I allow it.”

The eunuch was still for a moment. “Your wishes are mine, Princess.”

He left, presumably to do as she had requested. One of the few things she would miss when she escaped this place was his cooking. She wished she could take him with her. But he was accountable to the chief eunuch, and therefore the heir, so she couldn’t trust him.

Ko came in a moment later. “You dishonor him.” Lilette opened her mouth to protest. “As he bears the hurt, his honor is returned to him. You treat him as a weakling.”

Lilette made to go after him, but Ko’s hand on her arm halted her. “If you retract your order, you lose face.”

Lilette swallowed a groan. She had more important things to worry about than her eunuch’s feelings. Ko left without another word.

Knowing what lay ahead of her, Lilette forced herself to eat. As soon as she finished, the eunuchs removed the tray and proceeded to undress and bathe her. They were gentle with her bruises, though none commented on them. She was not allowed to help. Every time she tried, a look of shame came over the eunuch’s faces.

They rubbed rare oils into her skin, dusted her face with rice powder, lined her eyes and brows with kohl, and painted her lips lobster-shell red. She was draped in yards of red and gold silk—all of it painstakingly hand-dyed. They combed her hair into elaborate rolls and fans.

After they had finished, Lilette stared down at herself. She wore combs in her hair and brooches on her clothing—all of them priceless heirlooms. Her silk robe alone was worth more than Fa would have seen in a lifetime. And she had to admit that a part of her reveled in the beauty surrounding her.

The crowd of eunuchs left the room. As if he’d been waiting for them to finish, Chen stepped inside with six more eunuchs, four bearing elaborately carved trunks with ivory and jade inlays. The other two carried smaller chests.

At a signal from Chen, the eunuchs opened the trunks and bowed out of the room. Inside the larger trunks were silk robes in every hue. The smaller two chests held silk-lined trays, each filled with priceless jewels in a rainbow of bright colors. Unable to help herself, Lilette ran her fingertips across the glittering stones. There were ruby brooches, diamond and pearl hair combs, mother-of-pearl and sapphire bracelets, and cabochon ruby set at the end of a dagger of solid gold. Under cover of her billowing sleeve, Lilette grabbed the dagger and slipped it inside the folds of her sash.

“These have been in my family for generations.” Chen came up behind her and reached around her body to pick up a ruby brooch that dangled from a chain. He attached it under her sash. She held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t feel the dagger there.

She let out a breath when he moved back, observing the brooch as it dangled above her knee. “I remember my grandmother wearing this one—it was her favorite.” He smiled as if at a fond memory, and Lilette struggled to imagine him as an innocent child curled into his grandmother’s lap. “When you come into the palace, you shall do so in grand style.”

“The palace,” she echoed, her thoughts sticky and slow in her head.

He bent down and kissed her softly. “There will be a great feast in our honor, and you will move into my apartments.”

Creators’ mercy, she had to find a way free before tonight. Chen reached behind his neck and undid the clasp that held his amber pendant. He tied it around her neck, the metal still warm from his body. The gold dragon flared against the red of her wedding robes.

One side of his mouth pulled up. “Yours isn’t finished yet. But you should wear the royal pendant on the day you join us.” He fingered the stone. “This one has been a part of Harshen for generations.”

Lilette wanted to rip it off and throw it against the opposite wall. Her eyes slipped closed as she took a deep breath. “That’s very kind of you.” And it was. He was making it hard to hate him. But she was a very determined person.

He kissed her again before motioning to the eunuchs waiting at the door. They surrounded her on all sides, reminding her that she was a prisoner here. Lilette paused at Ko’s threshold, searching for the familiar warmth on her face, but there was only fear and dread.

Her heart wrenching in her chest, Lilette turned away and walked down the stone-lined path, her shin and side aching dully. The emperor’s concubines came out to kowtow, then sat on their heels and watch the procession, some of them whispering behind their painted silk fans.

Lilette kept her head erect, her eyes straight ahead. As she approached the harem’s gates, they swung open. What lay beyond made her stutter to a stop.

The elephant was surrounded by elite soldiers in their finery. Even more overwhelming was the presence of the empress, one of Chen’s many stepmothers. Chen went before her, bowing. She bowed back.

Memory overwhelmed Lilette. She was on her island again, the day Chen had come for her. She was surrounded by soldiers, unable to choose for herself as her villagers had died.

Her breaths came faster as she realized how much the two days resembled each other. She had fought back, her villagers had fought back. And they had lost. She had to find a way for this day to be different.

One of the eunuchs at her side bent low. “Princess?”

Remembering herself with a start, Lilette approached the empress. The eunuchs slid to the side, bending seamlessly in their kowtows.

A half second late, Lilette joined them. When she was finished, the empress motioned for her to rise. “I am Empress Yuwen. You will bring honor to our family.”

Lilette bowed again, but her throat dried up and she couldn’t speak.

The empress motioned for Lilette to join her. “I have already seen to your apartments and ordered the finest silk for you to choose from. We will review your wardrobe tomorrow.” She continued on with the dishes to be served at the feast, but Lilette had stopped listening.

She stepped up next to the elephant, which had been painted with gold patterns. Black silk draped it from front to back, tassels hanging from every point. Tentatively, Lilette reached out and laid a palm on the creature’s side. It was rough and warm, with a thin bristling of hair. The animal turned to look at her, long lashes covering intelligent eyes set in a mottled pink-and-brown face.

She felt a sudden kinship with the elephant. So strong, so powerful, and yet draped in finery and forced to submit to the will of those much smaller and less worthy than herself.

Chen slapped the elephant’s shoulder and cried, “Lift leg!” over and over until she complied. He pulled back his robes, stepped onto the elephant’s raised leg, and swung up. Three steps later, he was settled in the howdah.

A eunuch gestured to a palanquin. “If the princess will stand here.”

She stepped onto it and gripped the bars on either side. Smooth as the wind through her fingers, eunuchs gripped the poles and lifted her above their heads.

She was now level with the sedan chair. Chen pushed aside the curtains and held out his hand. Though it grated her, she took it and stepped onto the elephant’s back. She could feel the animal’s warmth radiating through the thin trappings. In awe, she sat on the silk-lined wooden chair.

Chen’s wife had ridden this same elephant on Lilette’s first day in the city. And before that day had ended, she was dead. If that pattern followed through, Lilette would be dead by Chen’s hand tonight. She cringed.

The boy sitting on the elephant’s neck kicked the backs of its ears and ordered, “Go! Go!” The elephant lumbered forward, its wide gait making Lilette sway from side to side and sending the tassels swinging. A thrill raced through her. Before her loomed the palace gates. Standing in front of them was a contingent of elite six rows wide and thirty deep.

The gates swung open moments before Chen and Lilette reached them. The elite surrounded them. Calling out commands, the boy directed the elephant into the city, his foot kicking the elephant’s ear when he wanted the creature to turn.

People lined the streets and cheered, throwing orchids and lotus blossoms onto their path. The flowers’ delicate fragrance filled Lilette with a sense of foreboding.

The elephant picked up a cluster of white flowers with her incredibly long nose and tucked them in her mouth. The boy scolded the animal.

“No,” Lilette called out loudly enough to be heard over the crowd. “Let her eat them.”

He looked back at her in shock before he turned to Chen, who nodded his permission.

“What is her name?” Lilette asked.

“Jia Li,” the boy said before turning away. The elephant continued munching happily as they made a circuit around the streets.

Chen took Lilette’s hand. She had to force herself not to pull away. Even with the shade of the roof above her, she was stiflingly hot under the layers of clothing. Sweat trickled down her face, and she worried that the rice powder was running.

Finally, they turned back toward the palace. For a fleeting moment, Lilette wanted to slip from the elephant’s back and run. She closed her eyes and listened to the cadence of the marching soldiers around her, the cheers of the people. She had nowhere to go.

They finally reached the compound, where the gates stood open. A long red carpet, surrounded by the elite, led straight to the palace steps. Around the elite, hundreds of commoners filled the courtyard to overflowing. There were no cheers or cries of approval. Instead, each and every person, down to the smallest child, slipped into a kowtow. Such a sign of respect made Lilette uneasy. She’d done nothing to earn it. Not yet.

The palace compound was huge, but Jia Li’s massive strides ate up the distance. Lilette rubbed her feet on the elephant’s back, silently thanking the animal for carrying her. Jai Li flapped her ears as if she understood, and Lilette was tempted to smile.

“I’ll give her to you if you like,” Chen said. “You can take her out whenever you wish, as long as the elite go with you.”

Lilette refused to meet his gaze. “Was Jia Li
her
elephant?”

When Chen didn’t answer, she turned to face him. “Was she? Was she Sima’s elephant?”

His face paled. “Is that what she told you her name was?”

Suddenly uneasy, Lilette smoothed her robes. She’d forgotten that wasn’t the former princess’s name.

Chen’s gaze was far away. “‘Sima’ is Vorlayan for ‘the betrayed.’”