Chapter 8 · free to read
Four poisons. Four antidotes. And a man on a throne waiting to hear which of them I could name.
I had answered flawlessly. It was the only answer available to me, and it was the worst thing I could possibly have done.
The Dowager's poison had a sheen I would know in my sleep. I had never held the tribute-grade original beside it. Now I did.
Tribute lotus out of Pei's province. And by dawn the one pair of hands that had carried it was floating face-down in the palace well. They were tidying. Which meant, at last, that they had begun to be afraid.
Artwork and narration generated with AI.