Chapter 4

Once Xie Lin had given me the weakening powder, he took no precautions against me at all.

One day, while he was away, I ventured out of the tent. Everyone in the camp treated me as though I were invisible.

I hurried to a corner of the camp and whistled through my fingers.

Lu Wei and I had kept thousands of messenger pigeons in the army. They were scattered across the region, circling above the border between our countries. I had trained them all to answer my commands.

Sure enough, scarcely had the whistle faded when a pigeon landed beside my hand. A letter was attached to its leg.

Lu Wei had sent word after all.

I unfolded it, expecting instructions for an escape. Instead, it read:

I hear you are being treated courteously as a royal hostage. Why not use this opportunity to become our agent inside their camp?

His Majesty is certain to hold me responsible for the danger Jinyu suffered. Only a great military achievement will spare me punishment.

Zhaoning, lure the enemy deeper in. Be patient and work toward our goal. Once you help me succeed, I will ask the emperor for your hand.

So that was it. He wanted me to stay in the enemy camp and help him redeem himself.

Three more days passed. Then I heard he was breaking camp and returning to the capital.

“Apparently Princess Jinyu can’t bear the hardships of the frontier. She’s insisting that Lu Wei take her back to the capital.”

I heard one of Xie Lin’s officers say it inside his tent.

They were going back already? What about me?

Another month passed. The officer who gathered intelligence reported, “News of Princess Jinyu’s capture has spread throughout Yue. A princess taken alone into an enemy camp—the entire court is questioning her chastity.”

He made no attempt to keep it from me. “To preserve her reputation, Lu Wei has asked Yue’s emperor to grant him her hand as a reward for his military achievements. They’ll be married soon.”

His military achievements? The ones I had planned for him from behind the scenes?

He had once said that the day he returned to the capital in triumph, laden with honors, would be the day he restored my identity as a princess and asked to marry me.

I did not enjoy being a “prince.”

I was a princess. I wanted the world to know that a princess could distinguish herself in the army too.

And now?

All those years of effort at his side had bought my sister a wedding.

When Lu Wei asked for her hand, did he remember that he had left me in the enemy camp for over a month?

He did not.

That evening, seeing me lost in thought, Xie Lin summoned me. “Little slave. Help me change.”

I came back to myself. In the flickering candlelight, his bearing, his looks, his strategies and victories seemed every bit the equal of Lu Wei’s. No—this emperor far surpassed that general.

Lu Wei was marrying the princess. My father had left me to fend for myself since childhood. No one was coming to save me.

I had to save myself.

I approached Xie Lin. Instead of helping him change, I pulled the pin from my hair.

My ink-black hair spilled down like a waterfall.

Then I told him I was a woman.

“Your Majesty doesn’t like men. Do you like women?”

He took my hand. “Everyone calls me a tyrant. Aren’t you afraid?”

“You kill those who betray you, those who deserve it. I won’t betray you. Why should I be afraid?”

“I know you received a pigeon from Lu Wei,” Xie Lin said. “What did his letter say?”

“He told me to lure the enemy deeper in.”

I looked at him and did not step away.

That night, we became lovers.