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Luce stepped closer, kneeling to see the object that had had such an effect on the girl The oracle bone was nothing more than a tortoiseshell, but it was small and polished and pristine When Luce leaned closer, she saw that so in soft black strokes on the smooth underside of the shell:

Is Lu Xin true to me or does she love another?

Fresh tears welled in Lu Xin's eyes, a crack in the cool resolve she'd shown to Luce He asked the ancestors, she whispered, closing her eyes They must have told him of my deceit I--I could not helpabout Daniel A secret love she'd hidden froh

Luce's heart went out to Lu Xin She understood with every fiber of her soul precisely what the girl was feeling They shared a love that no king could take away, that nobody could extinguish A love more powerful than nature

She swept Lu Xin into a deep embrace

And felt the floor drop away beneath them

She hadn't , and her vision shifted uncontrollably, and she saw herself fro on for dear life to her past Then the roo the oracle bone in her hand It was done She'd becoo three-D? Bill said, reappearing in a huff Can't a gargoyle enjoy a nice cup of jas her own grave? Have you even thought about what's going to happen when the guards knock on that door?

A knock sounded sharply on the great bamboo door in the main chamber

Luce jumped

Bill folded his arh, affected shriek, he cried out, Oh, Bill! Help me, Bill, what do I do now? I didn't think to ask you any questions before I put myself into a very stupid situation, Bill!

But Luce didn't have to ask Bill any questions Knowledge was rising to the front of Lu Xin's mind: She knew that this day would be , but by soe clash between ar's council waiting to escort him to war He was to lead the troops in battle

But the king was dead and stuffed in a wardrobe

And Luce was in Lu Xin's body, holed up in his private cha Heavy knocks echoed throughout the room We await your orders

Luce stood very still, freezing in Lu Xin's silk robe There was no King Shang His suicide had left the dynasty without a king, the teeneral, right before a battle to icide, Bill said

What do I do? Luce spun back to the dragon wardrobe, wincing when she peered in at the king His neck was bent at an unnatural angle, and the blood on his chest was drying a rusty brown Lu Xin had hated the king when he'd been alive Luce kne that the tears she'd cried weren't tears of sadness, but of fear for ould become of her love, De

Until three weeks before, Lu Xin had lived on her fa through her river valley on his shining chariot one afternoon, the king had gli the crops He had decided that he fancied her The next day, two militiamen had arrived at her door She'd had to leave her fa fisher's su his pair of pet cor a bit of rope loosely around their necks so that they could catch several fish in their ently coax the fish from the depths of the funny birds' beaks, Lu Xin had fallen in love with hioodbye to hiht

It had been nineteen sunsets since Lu Xin had seen De, seven sunsets since she'd received a scroll frohboring farms had run away to join the rebel ar'sfor the deserters

With the king dead, the Shang men would show no mercy to Lu Xin, and she would never find De, never reunite with Daniel

Unless the king's council didn't find out that their king was dead

The wardrobe was jaht her eye: a large curved helmet It was heavy, ht seams At the front was a son carved into the 's birth year

Bill floated toward her What are you doing with the king's hel her black hair inside it Then she opened the other side of the wardrobe, thrilled and nervous about what she had found

The sa a heavy tangle of goods into her arms She donned a pair of wide leather pants, a thick leather tunic, a pair of chain- but that she'd have toon on the helmet was embroidered on the front of the tunic It was hard to believe that anyone could fight a war under the weight of these clothes, but Lu Xin knew that the king didn't really fight--he only led battles from the seat of his war chariot

This is not the tio out there like that

Why not? It fits Almost She folded over the top of the pants so that she could belt thehtly