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  Hongchou's eyes went wide the moment he heard it. "I'll keep watch again tomorrow," he said. "The moment that person steps out, I'll fetch you at once." He paused, recalling the detail carefully. "That clairvoyant the uncle carries -- it's gilded, thicker than yours, and folds away. He told me it was made for seafaring, so it probably sees farther too. What if you sent word to the big manager in Beijing, asked him to write to the uncle, and had him bring you one just like it?" Wang Xi felt the pull of the idea before she could stop herself. The uncle Hongchou meant was Wang Chen -- her half-brother on her father's side. He was seventeen years her senior. Before Wang Xi drew her first breath, Wang Chen had already been traveling the trade routes with their father, sharp-eyed and dependable, the family's acknowledged heir. Her mother was younger than her father by more than a decade, far more beautiful, and thoroughly adored after t...

Beneath a churning sea of clouds, the wind howled across the mountain face. Rock split under the gale. The pines clinging to the cliffs bent and groaned, and the night felt like the edge of some forgotten hell. A dark shape punched through the cloud cover and plummeted. A gray shadow accelerated after it. Thirty feet from the ground, the gray figure caught the dark one. Their combined weight drove them faster, not slower. Then — a sharp crack at the gray figure's waist, and two red ribbons exploded outward. They snapped taut in the screaming wind, stretching twenty, thirty feet in an instant, each more than three feet wide. They caught the air like wings dipped in blood. The wind held them. Slowed them. Just before impact, the man in gray drove his palm downward. The blow struck the snow-packed earth with a thunderclap. A bowl-shaped crater blew open. The ice layer fractured outward in spider-web cracks. Between the ribbons, the gale, and that single devastating palm strike, t...

Qingshan Cliff. The rope was cut. No one was coming down from the sky tonight. Chi Yun and Shen Langhun's expressions shifted at the same moment. But just then, the mist rolling off Biluo Palace began to thin. A flame caught at the top of Lanyi Pavilion, throwing a small circle of light across the dark. Someone had hung a wooden plaque from the eaves while no one was looking. No words on it. Just a small bottle dangling from a cord. Chi Yun recognized it immediately: the "Xinggui Nine Heart Pills" Tang Li had taken from the Yu Family Sword Shop. The masked men scattered across Biluo Palace lurched into chaos. The women in white screamed orders, but couldn't stop the surge toward the base of Lanyi Pavilion. They were almost at a stampede when one of the masked men shouted, "Hold! It's a trap! Wait! Wanyu Yuedan, come out and speak!" The mountain wind moved through the Sa Sa trees. A clear, unhurried voice answered. "As you can see, these are the ...

They rode hard through what remained of the night. Shunyin gripped Mu Changzhou's arm and kept her eyes on the road, scanning both sides as the dark terrain blurred past. His breathing was close against her right ear. His heartbeat pressed through his chest into her back. She made herself focus. The path held. The mountain shadows fell away behind them, and in the slow hour before dawn, a pale thread of light stretched across the horizon. She pressed his arm. He reined the horse in cleanly. Behind them, Hu Bo'er and Zhang Junfeng pulled up at almost the same moment, both exhaling. The two archers had stayed close the whole way. The group had come through without a scratch. "We're out." Hu Bo'er let out a low sound of disbelief. "That was luck. Real luck." Mu Changzhou looked down at Shunyin. She met his eyes and found a quiet smile there. They were close enough that their breath nearly met. She glanced back at the others, then shaped the wor...

The Imperial Ditch ran silent on both sides of the main street, white sunlight splintered across its surface, willows hanging low, cicadas screaming in the heat. Summer had barely started and already the city baked. Vendors pushed carts through the lanes at dawn, calling out fruit and vegetables to neighbors who were still awake enough to care. By the time the sun climbed, the streets emptied. Even the vendors gave up and sat in the shade, too hot to move. A horse burst through the city gate at full gallop. Hooves cracked against the stone like rapid gunfire. The rider wore a blue robe soaked black with sweat, a sealed bamboo tube strapped to his back, pheasant feathers jutting from it — the military signal for extreme urgency. He reported through gate after gate until the tube reached Yuan Changshi, the emperor's chief attendant, who received it sun-scorched and salt-stained. Inside the throne hall, court was still in session. When word spread that a military dispatch had arrive...