Page 75 of The Scarlet Alchemist

The servants swooped in and cleared all the bowls but mine, and I caught a glimpse of the Empress watching us from across the table. I looked away, trying to focus instead on the absurdity of serving decorative dinner courses. I hoped they at least let the servants eat the rice.

Next, bowls of soup were brought out and promptly ignored.

“I’m curious, was your father very tall?” the Empress said, her gold eyes searing from behind the cloud of steam rising from the food. “You’re almost as tall as Hong.”

“I don’t know,” I said, staring at my reflection in the soup. “I don’t remember much of him.”

“He left you?” the Empress said, raising an eyebrow. When I didn’t answer right away, the Empress shook her head. “You can’t rely on foreigners. Though I’m curious, as I’ve never had the opportunity to meet a Scotian. I hear they have eyes the color of amethyst?”

“I don’t—”

“Of course you don’t know,” the Empress said, sighing. “You’re uneducated. I bet you never even left Guangzhou until now, you poor thing. No matter, I can figure things out for myself.”

She gestured to a servant, who pulled a length of string from his pocket. The servant held the string to my shoulder with one hand, then took my wrist and laid it flat across my arm, all the way to my fingertips. I sat still and limp, too confused to protest.

“One quarter chi,” the servant said, dropping my arm.

“Mother, is this necessary during dinner?” the prince said.

The Empress waved her hands like the prince’s words were flies to swat away. Another servant appeared, hefting a scroll under one arm and unrolling it before the Empress with a bow. The Empress squinted, gaze dancing across the lines of text.

“That’s above average,” she said, turning to me. “You’re like a crane, Scarlet. You could practically fly away.”

“You measure all the concubines?” I said, forgetting that I wasn’t supposed to speak unless the Empress asked me a question first. But she only smirked as the servant wound the string around my head.

“Of course not,” she said. “Just thehùnxie.”

A hollowness opened up in my stomach. I thought of the bones in her menagerie, the pelts, the discarded remnants of her animal experiments. I barely heard the servant call out my next measurement before he wrapped the string around my waist.

“Mother,” the prince said, slamming his palm against the table, soup sloshing over the rim. “That’senough.”

The Empress raised an eyebrow. “Your defiance was cute when you were a child, Hong. Now, it’s unwise.”

He moved to stand up, but I grabbed his hand, yanking him back down. He was sweet to be angry, but for me, this wasn’t worth dying over. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt fresh outrage at something like this, rather than stale and bitter acceptance.

I laced my fingers with the prince’s, anchoring him to his seat.

“It’s fine,” I whispered. “One more day, remember?”

He let out a breath, unclenching his jaw, and leaned his forehead against mine. The closeness made me tense, but I didn’t dare pull away with the Empress watching.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I wish I could—”

“This is the least of our problems,” I said.

He nodded, pressing a hand to my cheek, then leaned back. The Empress watched us with narrowed eyes, then whispered something to her servant, who made another note on the scroll before rolling it up once more.

Servants leaned between me and the prince, setting down sparkling trays, and I realized that the time for decorative food was over. The real dinner was about to begin.

Servers placed trays overflowing with gold nuggets and pearl garnish in front of every seat but mine. I couldn’t help leaning closer to the prince’s plate, for I had never seen life gold up close before. It had a ghostly glow around it and strangely perfect symmetry to each piece, like it was a dream of gold rather than actual gold.

I drew back as the servants set a steaming bowl of stew in front of me. I hadn’t eaten enough meat in my life to know for certain what kind it was, but it smelled of scallions and citrus. Another servant set a plate of sausages in front of me, and yet another set down a bowl of soup that smelled of salted pork with bok choy bobbing on the surface. There were so many dishes that a servant had to shuffle them around to make room for more. How could anyone eat this much food in a single meal?

The Empress raised a handful of gold to her mouth and bit down with a sickening crunch, like all of her teeth were shattering. But rather than pain, her eyes rolled back in ecstasy. She surged forward into her palm, her tongue lashing out to lick the stray pieces from between her fingers, beneath her honed nails. Her hands glimmered from gold residue as she snatched another fistful from the table, cramming it into her mouth.

I turned to the prince, but his palms and chin were stained with gold as well, the residue splashing down the table and pooling around his feet. He seemed to have forgotten I was there, his irises suddenly pure, blazing gold.

It felt like the room around me was melting, hot sweat pooling under my clothes as the sound of crunching scraped my eardrums. I didn’t feel hungry anymore, but I couldn’t just stare at the Empress and I knew better than to ignore free food. I raised a spoonful up to my lips with a shaking hand.

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