Page 51 of The Scarlet Alchemist

“Are you unwell?” the prince said, his warm hands cupping my face.

“No,” I said at last, the word dry and cracked as it fell from my lips. “No, this just...this happens sometimes.”

“This isn’t the first time?” the prince said, frowning. “Zilan, have you seen a doctor?”

“Zilanxiaojie,” I said reflexively, rising to my feet even though my joints felt loose. “We can’t stay out in the open like this.”

The prince’s lips pressed into a tight line, but he took my arm and helped me up the rest of the stairs without further comment.

“I think I should take you back to your siblings,” he said, once I stumbled up the last step.

“And then what would happen toyours?” I said, pushing him back when he reached for me again. “I’m fine.”

As if to prove it, I turned and stormed forward into the tunnel. The prince sighed and hurried after me.

The darkness of the tunnel fell swiftly over us, like a cool curtain of night.

“This way,” the prince whispered, his voice pulling me deeper into the heavy shadows. Eventually, the pale light from the city behind us grew so small that I could no longer see it, and my eyes adjusted to the stony darkness. The prince stopped at an iron gate that stretched all the way up to the rounded ceilings, then quickly unlocked it and shouldered it open with a rotting creak that made both of us wince.

The gate swung shut behind us, the lock latching, and a cold sense of finality washed over me. I felt like I was back in Huizhou, trapped inside the cage, hands reaching out for me from all sides. But there was no time to think too deeply on it because the prince was already moving into the next tunnel, one hand against the wall.

“I’m sorry about the darkness,” he said. “I was in a bit of a hurry and forgot to bring a candle, but I know the way.”

“How can you possibly know the way?” I said, scurrying closer to him when his footsteps drew farther away, irrationally afraid that I’d be left alone in here.

“I have to,” he said. “These tunnels are a way to escape if the palace is ever attacked. Our enemies would be lost in the maze forever, but my family and I could escape in minutes.”

He drew to a stop as the wall beneath his hands curved away and let out a disconcerting sound of contemplation.

“Don’t tell me you made a wrong turn,” I said.

“I did no such thing,” he said, too quickly. “I am pausing to appreciate the beauty of these tunnels.”

“While your sisters are locked in a dungeon?”

“Yes, I suppose that’s unwise. We should go to them now, which means we should go...left.”

He turned sharply down the left tunnel, walking faster.

“I can’t believe I’m risking my life for you, of all people,” I said.

We walked farther and farther into the darkness until eventually the air grew cooler and tasted less like dirt. We emerged in what appeared to be a vegetable cellar, behind a fortress of barrels crammed full of potatoes. The prince unlocked the gate and pushed it open, shoving barrels out of the way until we could cram ourselves through.

“I told you I knew where we were,” he said, locking the gate behind us.

“The fact that the door was barricaded with potatoes means this wasn’t the way you came,” I said.

“Well, no, but I know where we arenow.”

He headed deeper into the cellar, waving for me to follow him. We passed barrels of carrots, shelves stuffed with bunches of green onions, bags of taro roots, sacks of rice. I hoped that most of it was to feed the servants and wasn’t wasted on the royal family, who mostly ate gold.

We emerged into the garden, where the prince’s ducks rushed toward us, expecting food. He shushed them and dashed through the closest door, keeping tight to the walls. I barely caught a glimpse of a guard disappearing around a corner before the prince hurried down a long, narrow path, deeper into the palace grounds than I’d ever been before.

The sounds of ducks splashing in the ponds and the stomping feet of guards grew quieter, the lanterns lighting the pathway spaced farther and farther apart, shadows stretching wider between them. The sloped roofs of the central palace loomed overhead, towering higher the closer we came.

The prince suddenly yanked me down another path, crushed me against a dirt wall, and clapped a hand over my mouth. Before I could protest, I heard footsteps crunching nearer. The prince’s hand fell away and he pressed himself closer to me as a guard approached, both of us wrapped in deep shadows, as far as we could get from any lantern. His arms caged me against the wall, cool clay against my back and his warm chest and racing heartbeat flush against my front. I turned my head away so my face wasn’t buried in the fabric of his coat, but I could still hear him swallowing nervously, could see the tense line of his throat, his hair blowing across my eyes with the whispered scent of soap and rice water.

The footsteps reached the mouth of the pathway and the prince held his breath, tucking my face against his throat. Maybe it was the sudden warmth in the cool night, but something about his closeness made me want to melt into him, to forget about the danger around us and trust that, for this one moment in this city with teeth, I was safe.

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