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ONE

As the city of Shuntian dwindled in the distance behind me, a mixture of dread and exhilaration filled me

I was all alone in the vast empire of Ch’in

It was by choice, hter would have spoken a word in her father’s ear, and his Celestial Majesty would have provided ed me to let her do so, and I suspected there would be ti wo alone in a country halfway around the world from my home

Home

It was a bittersord I no longer knehat itcave in the Alban wilderness where I was Moirin, daughter of Fainche, child of the Maghuin Dhonn

That was still true; in a sense it would always be true The folk of the Maghuin Dhonn carry our diadh-anams inside us, the divine spark of the Great Bear Herself that gives us life and guides us It is the part of our soul that connects us to Her To lose it would be like dying, worse than dying

I knew, because I had lost half of mine

Not lost, exactly In fairness, I had given it away, although I hadn’t knohat I was doing at the time

MyI rode flattened his ears and tossed his head, sensing hts “Peace, brave heart,” I murmured

He settled On the lead-line, the pack-horse plodded patiently behind us

They were gifts froifts My rich silk robes were eles rattled onon a silk chord, was a jade medallion carved with the Eon on the other It would grant e anywhere in the empire of Ch’in

Your jade-eyed witch soothes the dragon

Memories

The chestnut sidled and pranced beneath h the Five Styles of Breathing

The Breath of Earth’s Pulse, drawn into the pit of the belly and the depths of the groin, inhaled and exhaled through the mouth

The Breath of Ocean’s Rolling Waves, drawn in through the nostrils to the h the mouth

The Breath of Trees Growing, circulating energy to the li nourishment with the world

The Breath of E the heart and war the blood

The Breath of Wind’s Sigh, pulled and expelled through the nostrils into the space between ht

I breathed the entire cycle as I rode, and while the discipline calmed and centered me, with every breath I drew, a memory assailed me Stone and sea! There were so many of them

Master Lo Feng

He had taught ht me all that I knew of the Ch’in manner of meditation and harmony he called the Way It had servedbehind e to serve as a coon whose indomitable celestial spirit was housed within her , I would never have been able to help free the princess and the dragon froether in the midst of a bloody civil war

Nor could I have endured the afteric in the service of E the memories of hundreds upon hundreds of men who had conceived, built, and wielded the terrible weapons known as the Divine Thunder I carried the ghosts of thoseof brass and sulfur, blood and smoke and horror

I returned to the Breath of Wind’s Sigh, willing it to carry away the lingering acrid tang

My diadh-ana to its separated half so the memory, I let myself think about Bao, the stubborn Ch’in peasant-boy who had walked aith half my soul inside him

Bao hadn’t liked me much at first, nor had I cared for hipie, Master Lo called hiwith disdain under a shock of unke pot of bone-marrow soup over his shoulder on a bamboo staff

That had been in Terre d’Ange, the land of my father’s birth, the land tohich I first set out in pursuit of huin Dhonn Herself

In htaway in the form of Raphael de Mereliot, the healer with the charift with ic to heal others Raphael, the Queen’s favorite courtier and lover

We had wrought ether

And it had nearly killed me

If it hadn’t been for the Queen herself, it very well ht have killed me Jehanne de la Courcel There, at least, was a otten le when I came between Jehanne and Raphael And yet in the end, it was Jehanne who had rescued me from Raphael’s ambition, and Jehanne whom I had cooddess of desire, and his line was ancient in her service Naaly inas Jehanne’s companion

It had hurt to leave her It had been too soon When , Jehanne was carrying the King’s child, and she was frightened I wished I could have stayed until the child was born

I couldn’t regret leaving, though Not after the purpose I had served in Ch’in I had seen the dragon, once restored, launch hi silver coils gleaainst the blue sky I had ridden in his claw; I’d seen him summon the rain and drown the terrible weapons of the Divine Thunder, ending the war I’d seen er restored to honor

And yet…

Bao

My diadh-anahts circled back to hiun to harbor a fondness for hiether in Terre d’Ange while Master Lo Feng taught us the Five Styles Mayhap it was the first time I’d won an almost-smile from him

It was on the long journey on the greatship to Ch’in that ed between us Thrust into constant companionship, Bao and I had becolimpse of the co that lay behind his insouciant exterior And Bao…

I don’t knohat Bao felt for uarded with one another, neither of us certain how much our relationship owed to convenience, proxiement

If things had fallen out otherwise, it ht have been different

But once we reached Shuntian, the i us to be circumspect in our behavior Later, we had said to one another; later Over and over, in stolenquest, we said this to one another When this is all over, if we live through it, ill talk Later

A lu me to s hard