Page 45 of The Scarlet Alchemist

The prince smiled and shook his head, tearing off another leaf. “The ducks were a present from my father when I was younger. I cried for days when he told me I couldn’t be a healer and had to be a prince instead. Father said my metal element was unbalanced and made me eat so much ginger that I cried even more.”

“Most little boys actually want to be a prince, you know.”

The prince shrugged. “That’s what my father said, but apparently I was insufferable.”

“Was?”

He scowled, but there was no anger behind it. “I’ll have you know I am very reasonable.”

“‘Reasonable’ would be eating these fat ducks,” I said.

He shot me a flat look. “I could have you beheaded.”

“I thought we already agreed that you wouldn’t do that,” I said, tossing a piece of lettuce at him.

“Circumstances have changed,” he said, brushing the leaf from his hair. “My ducks are no laughing matter.” He tore off another piece of lettuce, but I shook my head.

“If you overfeed them, they’ll lay too many eggs. You’ll have a hundred ducks here before you know it.”

He pressed a hand over his heart. “If only I were so lucky.” Then he stood up and stuffed the leftover lettuce into the bread basket. The ducks started swimming away, probably realizing their food source was leaving. The surface of the pond settled and went still, reflecting the darkening sky, the blurred images of cattails and silver grass, and a shadowed figure on top of the wall.

I looked up from the water to the masked man straddling the dirt wall, backlit in orange light, nocking an arrow and angling it down toward us.

I backed away instinctively, one hand in my satchel, and bumped into the prince. He fell backward with a surprised shout as an arrow lodged itself in his bread basket.

My fingers closed around three pieces of amethyst, which I crushed against my copper rings and hurled at the base of the wall. The archer’s next shot arced up into the sky as the wall shifted and crumbled beneath him. He fell backward off the other side with a crunch.

I grabbed three more stones and stepped forward, my heartbeat loud in my ears, but the flash of blue silk through the settling clay dust and panicked shouting on the other side of the wreckage told me that the guards were handling it.

“Not again,” the prince said, sitting up. “Are you okay?”

“Again?”I said, hands shaking as I closed my satchel. “This happens often?”

“Often enough,” he said, gathering up the lettuce that was starting to roll toward the pond. He didn’t sound particularly upset, only tired. “Thank you for your help, but the head alchemist made me a boiled leather undershirt, so please don’t take any arrows on my behalf. My organs are safe.”

My face grew hot. “I wasn’t! I just happened to be standing in front of you! As if I would sacrifice myself for you!”

“Still, thank you,” the prince said, smiling. “I think I should send you home before anything more exciting happens. Nightfall is not the safest time to be at the palace.”

He picked up the remaining loaves of bread and looked down at them in thought for a moment.

“Do you want this?” he said.

I frowned. “Why would I want your bread?”

“You said I never helped you,” the prince said, shrugging, “so maybe this could be a start?”

“Help me?” I echoed, feeling numb. “With bread that you yourself won’t eat? That you were going tofeed to the ducks?” My voice rose the more I spoke, and the prince shrunk back. I had fought my way to Chang’an, even saved the prince’s life a moment ago, and yet he didn’t see me as anything more than a peasant.

“I thought...” he said quietly, speaking toward the dirt as if he knew my gaze would scorch him. “I just thought it would be better than nothing. I didn’t mean to... I can get you fresh bread if you want.”

I grabbed one of the loaves from him and ripped it in half, my hands trembling.

“Zilanxiaojie?” the prince asked hesitantly.

I hurled both halves into the lake. The ducks descended immediately, swarming around the food, their wings beating frantically, snapping at each other as they fought for scraps. Was that how the prince saw me? Just an animal who would eat whatever garbage he threw to it?

The prince wilted, somehow growing even smaller. “I didn’t mean to insult you,” he said. “Since we weren’t giving it to the ducks, I just thought it was better than wasting it. I didn’t—”

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