Chapter 1

Blood sprayed three feet into the air.

The young woman’s innocent face drained of color before she had even lost her smug, delighted look. She let out a scream.

An alert guard kicked her behind the knee with a thud.

The proud little immortal, so ignorant of manners and rules, landed squarely on her knees before me.

Her severed arm fell at Pei Jie’s feet, splashing blood over the hem of his robe.

“She is the immortal phoenix of Yaotai, the auspicious guardian of our Great Yong! How dare you maim her over a joke and force her to kneel to you?”

Pei Jie lost all composure and shouted at me.

The woman who had always styled herself the divine phoenix of our nation’s fortune clutched her severed arm and rolled on the floor in agony.

Gone were her usual lofty arrogance and her satisfaction in looking down on every living thing.

I scoffed.

“An auspicious guardian? Her?”

As Pei Jie held her and suddenly looked up, a guard drove a silver demon-slaying needle into the crown of Feng Jinwu’s head.

Before everyone’s eyes, the self-proclaimed phoenix immortal screamed and writhed on the floor. In her struggles, her true form emerged: a common pheasant with a jumble of scarlet feathers.

Pei Jie froze.

“Our auspicious phoenix turns out to be a mongrel bird deceiving the imperial family.”

I tossed aside my bloodied sword. Looking at her gleaming scarlet plumage, I gave an order.

“Since her looks matter so much to her, I shall indulge her. Pluck out every feather she is so proud of.”

I glanced at Pei Jie’s pallor and trembling. My lips curved in mockery.

“Make them into feathered shuttlecocks. One for every guest, as a favor from my birthday banquet.”

“After all, they’ll carry a touch of Yaotai’s mongrel-bird magic. You’ll have something to boast of when you take them home to kick about.”

“A pity there aren’t more feathers. A feather duster would be excellent for beating some sense into those blind fools.”

Pei Jie swayed as though an invisible hand had struck a cold slap across his face.

Holding the sickly, trembling bird, he looked up at me. His voice shook.

“She is an immortal descended to earth. Even if she isn’t a phoenix, you shouldn’t humiliate her like this over a joke.”

I gave a soft laugh.

“One who benefits the people is an immortal pursuing enlightenment. One who brings disaster is a demon in human shape. She set fire to an imperial residence and endangered the emperor. What right has she to call herself an immortal?”

“Besides, a joke I do not find funny is an insult and a provocation.”

Others joined in.

“You weren’t upset when she insulted Her Highness. Now Her Highness is teaching her manners, you’re frantic. You won’t even honor your marriage for her sake—is she your father or your mother?”

“Have you gone eight lifetimes without eating chicken? Is that why you can’t bear to let this one go?”

“Why not beg Her Highness to have it roasted and give it to you?”

The relentless jeers made Pei Jie’s pupils tremble.

The insulting portrait was thrust into a brazier.

My maid stared at the silvery ash left after the flames had swept over it. Her voice was sharp.

“When Yuncheng was in danger, tens of thousands of lives hung in the balance. Her Highness rode through the night with three thousand soldiers to relieve it. She faced the enemy and took their commander’s head. In the end, all three thousand of her elite soldiers died for their country. That terrible sacrifice forced the enemy to retreat thirty li.

“Her Highness fought for her life and suffered seven blade wounds. When they pulled her from the heaps of corpses, she was so drenched in blood that they could no longer recognize her.”

The slightest of those seven wounds had cut across her cheek, destroying her once lovely face.

But every person in Great Yong knew that it was no disfigurement. It was a badge of her courage in battle, a testament to the soldiers who had died, the price of survival that tens of thousands in Yuncheng would remember all their lives.

It was no joke for her husband to dismiss, no insult for a mongrel bird to fling at her.

Pei Jie’s face stiffened. He could find nothing to say.

I slowly settled back into my broad wooden armchair, took the handkerchief a servant offered, and wiped nonexistent dirt from my hands.

Then I looked up.

“Pluck her.”

“No!”