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My hands trembled on the reins

There had been no later, because Bao had died It was a moment etched in raceful, unrepentant arc, the deadly sleeve of his robe flaring wide A spray of poisoned darts

The dragon’s helpless roar

Bao whirling, his broken staff in two pieces in his hands, intercepting the barrage

Bao, dying

One dart, a single dart, had gotten past hile of his jaw It had been enough

I breathed the Breath of Ocean’s Rolling Waves, theof all the Five Styles I let the memories wash over me

I should have known; of course, I should have known Master Lo had as good as told , he said Emperor Zhu had knohat he meant For the first and only tiift with hiive a part of yourself that ht live?

I remembered my frantic reply

Anything!

I should have known, but I didn’t When Master Lo Feng placed his hands on Bao’s uny into hio away, until I saw the stone doorway that represents the portal into the afterlife for the folk of the Maghuin Dhonn For a ht was not unwelcome

Then my diadh-anam blazed and doubled…

… waking inside Bao

Bao came to life with a startled shout, thrust out of the realms of death Master Lo passed fro to his chest, his eyes closing forever

What would I have done if I had known, if I had grasped what should have been obvious? I cannot say And in truth, it does not matter

What was done, is done

On that day, my stubborn peasant-boy went away from me He told me he did not blaiven the opportunity to choose, he would have chosen to spend his life with me

But he died without being given that chance, and what Master Lo did in restoring his life, dividing the divine spark of ether in a way that only a second death could undo

And Bao needed to find a way to choose this, to make it his own To reconcile the hard choices and uncertainties that had yoked enuine desire and love, that it wasn’t merely Master Lo’s art at work

So I let hio

And I waited for him to come back to me All the while I travelled Ch’in and served as the Emperor’s ser-of-e returned in triuardens of the Celestial City, I listened to poetry with the princess and waited for Bao

He didn’t come

Instead, I sensed hi the twinned fla away from me, toward the outskirts of the empire, toward the Great Wall that kept the Tatar horde at bay

It was the princess—Snow Tiger, my brave, lovely princess—who rereatest gift of all, the fragile gift of trust In the beginning, I had been nothing but an unwelcome burden to her; her necessary inconvenience, she had called ed between us by the end, and I carried private, tender memories of her that warmed my heart

But nothing, nothing could replace what I had lost And yes, I had a choice So I had set out to find my stubborn peasant-boy

If Bao would not coo to him

At least, I hoped so

TWO

I took a rooht There was a time when I would have eschewed rownday’s ride, the notion of a hot meal and a roof over my head appealed to me

The ostler at the stable gaped at the sight of ed not to attract over ly well-off young wolances, but at a quick, stealthy glance, with ht, black hair, I’d inherited froolden hue, fairer than eline father’s milk-white skin

I had his eyes, though Green as grass, green as the rushes grow And I had a eline beauty, coupled with the unta ht but what I was: the Emperor’s jade-eyed witch

The ostler barked at a young stable-lad in an unfa toward the inn proper I settled my battered canvas satchel over one ten steps before a solidly built ed woman, clearly the proprietress of the establishaze raked les, and the Emperor’s medallion

I bowed in the Ch’in manner, hand over fist, and spoke in the Shuntian scholar’s tongue, the only one I knew “Greetings, Honored Aunt I seek lodging for the night”

A sn witch, are you not? The one who freed the dragon?”

“Aye,” I agreed “I am”

She clutchedive you hospitality No charge, no charge at all You must call me Auntie Li”

“You’re very kind,” I said politely “But I can pay”

The proprietress snorted, squeezedof the sort, child I’reedy old ho knows that folk will pay to hear tales of the Ee me”

I sht, Auntie Li”

She was right, of course A silence fell over the common room of the inn when she ushered me inside Men paused, teacups halfway to their

But I was used to it

I’d been stared at a great deal in my short life In Alba, I had been my mother’s well-kept secret—not due to any sense of shame, but simply my mother’s own taciturn nature Folk there had found it startling that a wohuin Dhonn, a descendant of Alais the Wise, had borne a half-D’Angeline child