My heart tightened. “Who?”
“You know whom I’m talking about. Empress Wende’s youngest son,” Jewel said. “He has grown up to be such a handsome man. So delightful and charming. Do you know he lives in the Eastern Palace with Taizi, and the Emperor allows it?”
Only Taizi was supposed to live there, and the other princes, those older than fifteen, lived in the wards outside the palace. I said honestly, “I did not know.” After all, I had thought he was a groom of Taizi, who was always surrounded by many men.
“Wouldn’t you say he is a man of many girls’ dreams?”
There was something in her voice that made me pause. Suddenly, I recalled that Jewel used to live in the Inner Court. So she must have known Pheasant when he was young. I looked at her levelly. “Well, you seem to like him, Jewel, very much. Is there something I should know?”
“Oh, Mei. How clever you are.” She chuckled. “Certainly I like him. Without a doubt. He’s the Emperor’s son! Everyone likes him. He has the softest heart and is the gentlest soul of all. Even his half brother, Prince Yo, doesn’t complain about him. Can you imagine that?”
“I certainly can’t.” I cleared my throat, thinking about what she had told me when we bathed together a few years ago. “But, Most Adored, I wish to ask you, you never did tell me who exiled you to the Yeting Court. If you had done nothing wrong, like what you have said, why were you exiled?”
The smile on her face faded. “Exiled?” Her voice was suddenly stiff. “Where did you hear that?”
She was going to deny it? She had told me herself.
A cry came from the crowd. I raised my head, searching. Howling, Prince Yo hurled something into the air. A dark shadow hit the Emperor. He staggered back, covering his face.
The crowd quieted in shock.
“What’s this?” The Emperor wiped his face. His voice was shocked. “You threw horse dung at me?”
“I told you he’s crazy! Why don’t you listen to me?” Prince Yo shouted.
“Do not question me!”
“You’re blind. He pissed on me. He did it first. Why did you not say anything about that? Why do you blame only me, not him?”
I sucked in air and heard the crowd gasp as well. Prince Yo had gone too far. He needed to stop. But he fumed, his thick eyebrows twisted dangerously. He looked ready to throw himself at the Emperor.
“He’s a freak,” the prince shouted again. “Like his dead mother. Can’t you see it? I’m better than him!”
The Emperor pointed at Prince Yo, his hand shaking. “Out of my sight. Out! I don’t want to see you again.”
Prince Yo was not finished. “I have had enough of his shit. A champion wrestler. So what? Give me two years. I’ll make him weep like a girl. I beat him in the polo game. Didn’t you see that?”
“I said out, now!”
Prince Yo spat. “Fine. I’m going.”
“Stop,” the Emperor roared, his whole body trembling. I had never seen him so angry. “That way.” He jabbed to his right. “That way you go. Do not come back.”
“Where?”
“Shandong Prefecture.”
Gasps rose around me. Shandong Prefecture was one thousand li away from Chang’an City. The Emperor was exiling the prince.
“Yes. You go. Go! Take him. Take him now!” The Emperor was fuming with anger.
“He’s drunk,” Jewel said, her voice faint as though she had lost all her strength.
I was too shocked to speak. I had no sympathy for Prince Yo or his brash behavior, but to ruin his life by banishing him, a mere twenty-year-old, to a remote land, separated from his mother and the rest of his family, was most harsh and unforgiving.
“Father.” Pheasant stepped up to him. “Let’s not rush into decisions.”
“This has nothing to do with you, Pheasant.”
“I brought you here.” He looked chagrined. “I shouldn’t have.”
“He hit me with horse dung and spat at me.” The Emperor turned to Prince Yo again. “You will leave by dawn’s light.”
Pheasant looked as though he would speak more, but two guards had already wrung Prince Yo’s arms from behind.
“The One Above All.” The Pure Lady rushed out of nowhere. Her cat leaped from her arms, and she dropped to her knees. “May I plead on behalf of my son, his impudence and stupidity—”
The Emperor threw up his hand to silence her. “Take him.”
“You can’t do this to me,” Prince Yo screamed. “You can’t!”
The guards dragged him away, and he disappeared into the night’s darkness. The Pure Lady rose stiffly, her tall frame sharp and unbending like a spear. She had enjoyed much attention and esteem with the ascendancy of Prince Yo in the court these days, but in a moment, she had lost her son and her hope of becoming the Empress.
And Jewel looked as though she had been struck dumb. Her carefully chosen ally had fallen. I wondered what the Noble Lady would say when she heard about it. She would probably sigh, but out of relief rather than sadness.