"I did not kill Quan Kou."
"Really?" A sarcastic reply tinged with a not-so-subtle undertone of violence. "Who did then?"
"Bandits. I imagine the surviving agents of my detail made a report." An uncharacteristically girlish giggle comes from behind me. I can feel the hilt of a jian press roughly against the base of my spine.
"Oh, the agents made a report alright. A report that praised you to the high heavens for decisive," she spits out the word with a vehemence that is superhuman, "action. But would you like to know what I think?" Quan Linwen continues before I can respond, "You, like all the others, are a coward. A coward who was moved to desperate action to save her own skin."
Rant finished; Quan Linwen leaves arrogantly. Fatima and Xiaoyue are left shocked. "Your Highness! You can't let such a crass and hateful woman be responsible for your safety."
"I agree with Xiaoyue, Your Highness. Leaving someone like that in charge of your security endangers our alliance with the Han. You ought to write to your husband to ask for a different bodyguard." How am I supposed to write to a man when I don't even know where he is?
Just as I'm about to retort, one of the palace's eunuch servants comes barging in. "Your Highness," the eunuch pauses a second to draw in a breath, "Princess Cilanru wishes to see you."
"Princess Cilanru? I don't recall a princess of that name existing."
"Princess Cilanru is not of our Great Han, Your Highness. She is a princess sent by the Xiongnu tribes to our north in response to His Imperial Majesty's Decree of Flowers." What was the Decree of Flowers again?
Reading my thoughts, Xiaoyue whispers into my ear, "The Decree of Flowers was issued by His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Ling, earlier this year to the Han Empire's vassal and tributary states. Each kingdom was ordered to send a princess to Luoyang to join the Hall of Blossoms, a newly created division of the harem reserved for the next emperor." Interesting. With this decree, the Emperor has theoretically secured the geopolitical position of his successor.
"Please let Princess Cilanru in." The eunuch skitters away. Alright princess, let's see just who you are.
KAMU SEDANG MEMBACA
The Foreign Empress
Fiksi SejarahA cold and potentially fatal marriage, an imperial court embroiled in assassination and conflict, a hidden conspiracy that could shatter not just a four-century-long peace but the empire itself. In the midst of it all, a girl whose struggle to survi...
