Chapter 4

Yin made her way past skillfully embellished pillars and jade statues. Her limbs were weighed down under the layers of traditional royal garments. Gold stitching swirled against navy blue fabric, deliberately matching the jewelry that covered her hands, neck and hair.

"Lady Yin." The two armed soldiers stationed at the doorway bowed their heads.

She nodded, waiting as they slowly opened the towering double doors, unveiling a room filled with servants surrounding a central figure. Moonlight filtered through silk-draped lattice windows, creating blotches of brightness on the marble tiled floor. Elaborate scenes were carved into the walls and ceilings, creating a sea of dips and turns in the smooth rosewood.

"You're so slow." She wrinkled her nose in playful disapproval.

"Good things take time." Kai, who was in the middle of having his face powdered, turned around. "You have no idea how much my back hurts right now."

He looked her up and down and furrowed his carefully drawn eyebrows. "How are you done so fast?"

"I took time too. But unlike you, I don't wait until the last minute." Yin replied. "My hair was done after breakfast."

"Did you not move your head for the last four hours?"

"I did." She grinned while moving her head from side to side, feeling the gravity pull on her headpiece as the gold chains dropping down from both sides rested on her shoulders. "But my hair didn't move an inch."

"I am incredibly jealous." He shook his head, or he attempted to, but his maid held his head in place, refusing to allow him the opportunity to ruin her work.

"You should be." Yin adjusted her robe. "Are you done yet?"

"Almost."

After a few more moments of frantic maids grasping and adjusting small details from all sides, Kai rose from his seat.

He had yet to choose an empress, so per Jiang custom, he would arrive with the highest ranking female of the same generation–his sister, the Princess.

They walked arm in arm, the two sets of footsteps muffled by the navy carpeted hallway to the palace entrance. Yin traced her eyes along the soaring marble pillars that lined the corridor. They had been in this same hallway dozens of times as children, but it wasn't a feeling Yin could ever get used to.

An array of palace officials, nobles, and servants bowed as they entered and took their carefully laid out places. The air tasted like rice wine and uncertainty, the atmosphere rigid as they waited.

Hui and the other guards smiled at her from the shadows. Yin smiled back before glancing at her mother, who had taken Kai's right side, with Yin on the left. Her attire was just as lavish, but her expression was unreadable.

"Emperor Li has arrived!" The announcement was piercing and accompanied by the subsequent rhythmic booming of the nearby drums.

Slowly but deliberately, in came the emperor Li Xian and his envoy. While Jiang traditional robes came in navy blue, the Li dress head to toe in white. Gold embellished their clothing just like in Jiang. However, unlike their neighbors, the Li decorated their skin with gold as well. Golden Li tattoos were a symbol of family and status. The emperor's was the most intricate, but was fully hidden beneath layers of silk and cotton.

His brother Prince Li Jun stood noticeably taller beside him with an ever so slightly clenched jaw. While his brother the emperor was the picture of his father, large eyed and square jawed, Li Jun was the opposite. His features were thin and lifted, consisting of pronounced edges and sharp angles.

Yin furrowed her brow, she couldn't help but think the Prince Li looked oddly familiar. However, the sentiment wasn't unprecedented. All the royal families on the continent were bound to have run into each other at some point at weddings, coronations, and other similar events. She shrugged it off, it had to have been one of those. Besides, how else would she have seen the Prince of a nation that hadn't stepped foot on Jiang soil in nearly a decade?

Kai stepped forward, Yin and the rest of the Jiang cohort trailed behind.

"Welcome Emperor Li." Kai greeted. "Great Jiang welcomes you and your people."

"It is a pleasure to be here." Emperor Li Xian bowed his head. His voice was smooth and deep, kind but not enough to be friendly. "We thank you, Emperor Jiang, for having us."

"The pleasure is all ours I assure you." Kai replied, gesturing to the inside of the palace. "Let us eat, I'm sure you're all hungry after your journey."

Emperor Li smiled and nodded back at Kai, who in turn, bowed his head before leading everyone to the main hall of the palace.

After everyone was seated, servants rushed out to deliver drinks. The envoy had taken up all but few of the many seats set out. The throne room was now a sea of white and navy, united only by an ever present shade of gold sewed onto robes and adorning hands and necks.

"As a token of gratitude, we've prepared our country's traditional dance." Emperor Li said to Kai. "If you'll allow it of course."

"It would be an honor." Kai responded.

A few of the noblemen took their places with Prince Li in the center. The room was still tense, however this time it was with anticipation.

"Why is it that the men are dancing?" Concubine Ling leaned over to Yin.

The men unexpectedly removed their shirts, eliciting gasps of bewilderment from the Jiang audience. Gold ink swirled against against their backs in mazelike patterns, each one unique in design and placement. While the rest of them were inked only on portions of their back, Prince Li's tattoos covered the whole surface, grasping at his upper shoulder and waist.

"How vulgar." A few of the court ladies whispered with flushed faces.

"Well I suppose that answered my question." Said the concubine.

"I heard it'll be quick though." Yin leaned over and whispered. "Not that I'd mind if they took their time of course."

"How daring of you princess." Concubine Li chuckled, fanning herself slowly. "Well, I can't say I blame you."

Yin locked eyes with the prince. His gaze was abrupt, burning through the distance between them. She stared back at him, the eye contact too long to be merely coincidental. The unsettling feeling that they had met before returned.

The sound of drums echoed throughout the hall as they proceeded. Yin and the others in the throne room watched as the mens' bodies leaped and twisted in the air. Their feet pounded on the ground, precise and rhythmic as their skin grew slick with sweat. She was mesmerized. The closest comparison she had to their movements was the sparring she partook in on the training grounds. Yet, even the beauty of swordsmanship couldn't do this display justice.

Yin kept her eyes on the Prince who had been in the center for much of the dance, setting a firm pace for the others beside him. Occasionally, she caught him looking back at her with his sharp, upturned eyes for moments at a time before turning away. She felt a tinge of jealousy when she realized how long his eyelashes were.

The stupid man from the market!

For some odd reason, when his eyes returned for the last stretch of the dance, it stayed.

She smirked at the sudden realization, eliciting a slight but pointed eyebrow raise from Prince Li, who had yet to look away.

With the last drumbeat echoing in the air, the hall erupted with applause. The men fixed their robes, much to the dismay of many of the court ladies, and scattered. Enthusiastic compliments from many of the Jiang nobles who had been hiding their disgust during the performance filled the hall. Their pompous, backhanded praise tainted the once magical atmosphere with artificiality.

"How...unique!"

"I truly admire their confidence!"

"They don't look so barbaric now do they."

Prince Li walked over to the seat next to hers as the two emperors exchanged a long and tedious chain of courteous back and forth.

"That was splendid!"

"It's an honor being able to show this to you."

"It's our honor to be able to witness it!"

"It's our honor to bear your witness."

"It's ours to witness you bear our-"

Yin internally rolled her eyes as she rose from her seat, bowing before the Emperors with a jug of wine.

"Emperor Li," She said while pouring him a cup. "I hear the Li kingdom is famous for their swordsmanship."

"Yes it is," He replied. "Is the princess interested in Li swordsmanship?"

"I would be," She said, employing a sheepish tone. "But I'm afraid I can't even lift a sword, let alone know how to wield one."

That was a lie of course, but as with every other noble in the room, the less he thought she knew the better. First impressions were important, and it was vital that the Li emperor think nothing of her this week.

"Of course, the Princess is beloved by the royal family." He said, smiling. "You won't need to learn."

She smiled back and curtsied before making her way back to her seat. She had done what she needed to do.

Next to her, a fully clothed Li Jun sat looking straight ahead, holding a cup of wine to his lips.

"Prince Li Jun."

His eyes flicked to her while the rest of his body remained unmoving.

"Yes princess?" he replied disinterestedly, his voice soft in volume only.

"Have we met before?"

A long pause ensued. Yin discreetly searched for a hint of recognition in his cold gaze, but she failed. Prince Li set his cup down on the table and reached for one of the side dishes.

"Have we?" He said, placing a piece of fish on his plate. "I don't seem to recall."

"It's a good thing I do." She said, placing a piece of tofu on her plate.

"I have a common face." He swallowed, refilling his cup with more wine. "I'm sure you have the wrong person."

"No it was you." Yin said firmly. "I'm sure of it."

"What makes you so confident?"

Yin paused to sip on her wine, it tasted sweet before a slight burn throbbed against her throat. Her alcohol tolerance wasn't as high as she hoped it would be, but it was much better than it was before thanks to years of practice with her brother.

"What were you doing in front of that carriage at Beilan market?"

"That's none of your concern Princess." He responded, quicker this time as he downed another bite of fish.

Yin took a larger slice out of her own fish and leaned over to place it down next to two pieces of lotus root on Prince Li's plate. Her chopsticks lightly tapped at the painted porcelain. He finally turned his body to her while raising a brow, his expression a mix of perplexity and amusement.

"So you admit that you were there." She grinned. "It was you."

Prince Li remained silent, his lips slightly parted before he turned away, filling his mouth with wine to replace the words he was unwilling to say.

"Thank you," Yin said, the smile refusing to part from her face as she watched him. "For answering me so honestly Prince Li."

She quickly glanced at the center of the floor where palace musicians, clad in silk, had filtered in, carrying an assortment of string instruments. With the resonant ring of the guzheng signaling their first piece, the buzzing of conversation in the hall quietened.

When she looked back at Prince Li, he was turned further away from her.

All the other pieces of food remained untouched on his plate. Yet, in place of her fish

was an empty space on the porcelain. She smiled to herself, seeing it was occupied only by a soft, oily sheen—one that corresponded to that on the chopsticks resting in his hand.

Her smile widened when she saw the subtle up and down movements of his jaw, followed by a slight bob of his adam's apple.