Footfalls pounded closer from the other side of the wall. I wished there had been bushes or trees so I could hide, but there was only a terrace and kylin statues. I darted to a statue and couched behind it, my hands around my knees. Men’s voices grew louder. Torches sputtered in the air. I was surrounded. My eyes became damp, and I held my breath.
It seemed ages had passed before the men finally left. I dashed from behind the statue and ran. A few times, the voices of the men were so close, I crawled on the ground so they would not notice me. When I found trees, I pressed myself against a trunk, waiting for the men to pass, and ran again. The distance to the Eastern Palace seemed farther than the earth to the sky, and I wished I could turn into a crane and fly over the halls’ roofs.
Finally, I glimpsed the roofs of the Ninth Heaven Hall, a building near the Eastern Palace. Seeing no one around me, I dashed behind the building.
I froze. Smoke. Layers of smoke. Rising from dried leaves on the ground to the elms, birches, and oaks decorated with rows of lanterns celebrating the festival. Still hanging, the lanterns were blazing fireballs.
I coughed. Smoke choked me, or perhaps it was my fear.
Something growled in the smoke. I froze. Animals. Everywhere. Deer darted into the chrysanthemum bushes; monkeys squeaked across the mulberry trees; hunting hounds snarled in the corridors of the Ninth Heaven Hall; a rhinoceros paced in the front yard; a leopard scoured the flower beds; a wolf with glinting eyes perched on a man-made mountain in the center of the yard. And overhead spiraled falcons, vultures, and many owls.
They must have come from the imperial stables and corrals. That meant the rebels had attacked there already.
My legs trembling, I raced down a trail near the trees. Body after body lay still on the ground. The Gold Bird Guards. The Emperor’s men.
“Hell is rising,” someone screamed.
Eunuchs, servants, palace maids, and ministers poured out of the darkness. A servant who had served in the feast hall earlier fled. He carried a gold statue—loot, most likely—high above the crowd. A eunuch bumped him from behind, and the servant smacked him with the statue. “All is for the taking. Hell is rising!”
I could not turn back. Tongxun Gate was closer. Once I reached the gate, I could run all the way to the Eastern Palace. I pulled up my skirt and rushed down the path along the wall.
I stepped on something marshy. My arms grew rigid. I forced myself to look down. A cluster of coiled ropes. No, too soft. My throat tightened. Snakes?
I faltered.
Angry growls came from behind me. I spun around, my heart pounding. Two dogs raced past me to the coil. One dug in and pulled out a string of ropes, while the other gnawed the other end. I stepped back, feeling sick. The ropes were not snakes.
Stumbling, I trudged to the back of the hall toward the gate. There, again, clouds of smoke draped in front of me like a vast canopy. I could not breathe, my throat burned, and my legs were weak. Something furry swept by my feet. I did not look down.
Finally, I reached the gate, a formidable building with an arched tunnel. Elated, I ran toward it. The gates were left ajar, and I held on to the bolt and pushed it open.
“Hold!” a voice shouted at me from the other side of the gate, and a torch appeared. The fire almost singed my hair. I had yet to cover my face when a man in a bloody tunic, unlike any outfits the Gold Bird Guards wore, grabbed my arms and locked them tightly behind my back. “Here’s another!”
A rebel!
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I struggled, kicking him as hard as I could. “Get away from me. Let me go!”
“You’re not going anywhere.” The man dragged me to a vast open area in the Eastern Palace. Everywhere, I saw people. Their faces smeared with blood, their heads drooped as they knelt. I could not see who they were, but I would never forget those black hats, colorful skirts, and tattered clothes. They were ministers, scribes, palace ladies, eunuchs, servants from the kitchen.
My knees weakened.
Prince Yo had won. The Emperor had lost.
But that could not be possible! The Emperor had never lost a war! He always won! He was Li Shimin, the greatest conqueror of all land and seas! He had flattened the mountains in the west; he was feared even by wolves in the prairies. And now…now defeated in his own home?
I shivered. What would happen to me? To us? To everyone in the palace? And Pheasant. What about him? Did he get away? Did he… A figure, limbs splayed in a weird angle, sprawled against the wall. His head cocked to one side, blood gushing from his slit throat, and his robe, his familiar white robe, was soaked in a pool of blood. Pheasant? My heart wrenched, and I wanted to scream. Then I saw his face. He was only a scribe. I breathed out in relief. But where was Pheasant?
“Move!” A hand pushed me forward.
I stumbled. The torches leaped and wavered before me, burning my face. Anguished groans and frantic screams filled my ears, each sound a stake thrust into my heart. When I was stopped again, I raised my head. I faltered.