Page 26 of The Scarlet Alchemist

Any time we stopped in a city, Yufei and I kept our hats on and our heads low, walked behind Wenshu, and pretended not to speak Chinese. If anyone asked, he told them we were tribute girls from southern Asia who Wenshu was delivering to the Emperor. Few would dare try to steal the Emperor’s slaves, after all.

For long stretches of time, there was no water. We grew dizzy from the heat, our skin parched and pink. I fainted only once and managed to dismount Kumquat first, whereas Wenshu toppled off Turmoil twice. We all but fell into the Cháng River when we finally reached it, and from there onward, the roads were always paved and lit with lanterns, a tavern never too far away, for this was the path that postal couriers took to Chang’an. We’d had to sell Kumquat and Turmoil about a day’s walk from the capital because only nobles could ride horses through the city streets.

I knew when we’d arrived because the golden walls of the city glistened from far in the distance, brighter than any star. Though Guangzhou had walls too, they were barely my height, made of rammed dirt, and were mostly meant to mark the city limits and stop the sheep from wandering out into the fields to eat all the crops. But the walls in Chang’an were made of golden desert sand packed into bricks, three times my height, as if to keep something out. A moat was carved into the earth surrounding the walls, like the whole city was a lonely island floating in black waters.

We filed into the line to pass through the gate, where imperial guards interrogated weary travelers before letting them into the city. People at the front of the line gave the guards handfuls of gold coins, though I couldn’t make out how much. As we drew closer to the gate, the guards started yelling at a couple in white robes, shoving the woman to the ground.

“We don’t need more beggars in Chang’an,” the guard said. “If you can’t pay, get out!”

The couple hurried away, the line shuffling ahead. Wenshu’s fingers twitched as he counted the remaining coins in his satchel. We had a few more sewn into our clothes, but this wasn’t the best place to undress, and we needed that money if we didn’t want to sleep on the streets for the next few months. We’d already far overspent what we’d estimated just to get here in one piece. We couldn’t arrive in Chang’an with nothing at all.

The family in front of us passed through the gates, and soon the guards loomed over us, palms outstretched.

“How much?” Wenshu said, his voice even as he unhitched his satchel, like the price was inconsequential.

“Fifty for men, thirty for women, twenty for children,” the man said, jerking his open palm toward Wenshu with impatience.

Wenshu pressed his lips together and pretended to count, but I knew from his face that we didn’t have enough. How could we have come all this way just to be sent away at the city gates?

I slipped a hand up my sleeve and yanked the thread binding two pieces of gold to my clothes. I’d never attempted alchemy on money before—it was said that the capital gold was made from unstable materials, and the punishment for counterfeiting coins was death.

But as Wenshu grew pale, eyes darting around while cataloging his options, I decided there was a first time for everything.

I clenched the coin in my hands, crushing it against my new trio of copper rings. I used the copper catalyst to thin the gold, splitting the coin in half and reshaping the pieces into smaller coins that I hoped looked passable.

I didn’t even have a chance to check before the coins multiplied again, bursting from my fist and spilling down my sleeve, rolling in the red dirt. Everyone turned to stare at me, then the coins at my feet. Wenshu’s gaze fell to my right hand, where my copper rings had mysteriously disappeared, his face sinking into a tight grimace. I could almost hear his searing thoughts:Did you really do illegal alchemy standing right in front of the city guards?

He sighed, then grabbed my arm and threw me to the ground.

“You stole from me again?” he said. “I knew I was missing some.”

“Forgive me,” I said, bowing deeper into the dirt. Hopefully, the guards would think I was just a disobedient wife and not trying to counterfeit coins.

But the guards didn’t seem inclined to investigate further. From my spot on the ground, I heard Wenshu drop my coins in their hands and tie up his satchel. I watched his feet moving, Yufei shifting from foot to foot, horses and pigs passing by.

“Come on,” he said at last, yanking me up by the back of my dress. I stumbled after him until we passed the guards, then I took his wrist in one hand and Yufei’s in the other.

“Run,” I said in Guangzhou dialect.

“What?” Wenshu said. “Why?”

“Hey!” the guard called out. I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of the guard holding a handful of ash spilling through his fingers. That answered one question at least: fake gold only lasted a few minutes.

“Run!” I said again, and this time they listened, darting around horses and carriages and carts, shoving our way through married couples and families, stumbling across spilled fruit and splashing through murky puddles.

People shrieked behind us as the guard thundered his way through the crowd. I jammed a hand into my bag of stones, fishing around for something useful while trying not to crash into anyone. Yufei grabbed my arm just in time to yank me away from a child chasing after a ball. Ahead of us, a man was pulling a cart of cabbages out into the street. I grabbed three chunks of amethyst in one hand and slammed my other palm into the cart.

It burst into wood splinters, cabbage leaves flying up into the air and raining over the crowd, cabbage heads rolling into the street. The guard tripped over a spinning cabbage and landed face-first into a puddle. I hardly had time to laugh before Yufei pulled both me and Wenshu into a side street, tucking us behind an abandoned cart. Only moments later, heavy footsteps rushed past us.

We panted for breath, cuffing sweat from our foreheads.

“Sorry about pushing you down,” Wenshu said. “It seemed preferable to beheading.”

I waived a hand in acknowledgment, wishing I had some water.

“I think we’ve made a good first impression,” Yufei said, sagging against the wall and feeling through her bag for oranges that she knew weren’t there.

“I’ll check if the coast is clear,” I said, rising to my feet even though my legs felt like paper, then hobbling to the mouth of the alley.

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