His small rat eyes fixed on the gold. “Exiled? I did not hear of that.”
I closed my fingers on the gold. “Well then, I will give this to someone else who will be more helpful.”
“Well, it must have happened many years ago. Who would remember?”
I turned.
“Wait, wait! Come back! I don’t know why she was exiled, but I know she is not who she claims to be.”
“What?” I turned around.
“She is not called Jewel. I remember some old eunuch mentioned it once. He died years ago. A sick man, you know what I mean. Yes, Most Adored. She was in the Yeting Court for years, always alone too. She had a different name then, but somehow she told people her name was Jewel. No one really cared then…”
She had changed her name? How clever! It was easy to do in that forgotten court where no one knew her. “What is her real name?”
He frowned, scratching his head. “It’s…Slender Willow? No…Silver Lotus? Wait…Snow Blossom!”
I handed the gold ingot to him.
My heart racing with excitement, I walked fast to tell the Noble Lady. She would be shocked, and pleased, to hear Jewel’s real name.
“Snow Blossom?” The Noble Lady’s eyes were wide. “Her real name is Snow Blossom?”
I nodded. That was why few people remembered her. She had been a minor concubine in the Inner Court nine years before, and she had changed her name. After so many years, with her white hair just like the other old Selects in the Yeting Court, everyone just assumed she was one of them.
But why was she banished? What was she trying to hide?
? ? ?
“Mei, there you are!” Plum put down a handful of roasted sunflower seeds on the table and pulled me to the corner as I entered our bedchamber. “I must tell you something. Most important news! Very shocking indeed.”
“What news?” I asked.
“They found a body this afternoon, buried in the leaves under a bridge near the Archery Hall. A body! A guard’s body!”
“Who’s the guard?”
Plum popped a sunflower seed into her mouth and spat out the shell. “He was the head of the ninth Gold Bird Guards division. His nickname was Fifth Girl.”
Traditionally, when a boy was born, his parents addressed him as a girl to avoid evil spirits snatching his life, and that nickname usually stayed with the person well into adulthood.
“How did he die?”
“Some said he was drunk and involved in a brawl, so he was killed by accident,” Plum said, her face pink with excitement. “But some people also said there was no brawl, and Fifth Girl was not drunk, because he never drank, so they said he was killed for no reason.”
I frowned. “So how did he really get himself killed?”
She went to the door to make sure that no one was coming to our chamber and lowered her voice. “It is because of the prophecy, Mei. Everyone is talking about it.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes! You should listen to them! No one has ever died in the palace before, they said, but ever since the shooting stars, two guards”—she put up two fingers—“not one, died without a reason. What else could it be?”
She reminded me of the other guard, nicknamed Black Boy, who was shot for stealing horses. Something told me that what Plum said was true, but I did not want her to keep talking and get into trouble.
I picked up a handful of seeds from the table. “These smell good. How do they taste? ”
Plum did not appear to hear me. She looked around to assure no one was eavesdropping on us, even though we were alone. Her face pink with excitement again, she said, “Here’s another thing, Mei. Have you heard of the ballad?”
“What ballad?”
“They said the children on the streets are singing this, and the grocery eunuchs heard it. It goes:
“This morning, a crooked branch grows on my mulberry tree,
It dips low to my well and begins to sing a story, that I must tell thee.
Once upon a time a phoenix shed hot tears in the mountain of flame,
the fire burns a young crane that flies over, leaving no name.
Now the old dragon shuts his eyes and sleeps under a stone,
and the crow sings on his throne.”
I sucked in air. Of course. That was why the Emperor made those cryptic comments about lies and truths when he’d summoned me that night.
“You said the children on the streets are singing this?”
She nodded. “If the Emperor finds out who started it, he will—” She made a gesture of slashing her neck with her hand.
My mouth was dry. Whoever started the ballad could also be the man predicted in the prophecy, the man who would end the dynasty’s reign.
“So do you think the Emperor knows who his foe is, Mei?”
I shook my head. He did not. If he had known, there would have been only one death, not two.
“You don’t think Fifth Girl is the one?”
“He could be.”
“I don’t understand, Mei.”