Page 40 of The Nightblood Prince

The old lady took the seat across from me and sighed. “I know her family was poor. The butcher is kind to her, and he said that her husband is—was—a gambler and she was…well, she was a woman withfew options. She had two daughters once upon a time, and had to sell both to cover her drunk husband’s gambling debts. One to the palace to be trained as a seer, and the other…well.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, forever grateful that in some ways I was lucky the Emperor of Rong had found me first and promised me to his son, who grew up to be a good man. If someone else had found me first, someone who was not as kind…I shuddered to think how my life would have turned out. “Has either of her daughters ever visited her?”

The old lady shook her head. “I know nothing. However her place isn’t far from here. West of the village. When the sun comes up, walk in the opposite direction and you will find her.”

I didn’t wait for the sun to rise. The village wasn’t very big, and I found the small cottage to the west soon enough.

The cottage was small, behind a short fence covered in vines. The door to the garden was unlocked, so I stepped inside. Everything was quiet, and the house was dark.

I looked around for the chickens the old lady had mentioned. I saw their pen though I heard nothing inside. The garden was overgrown with dead plants. Snow covered everything, with no signs of footprints coming in or out.

My stomach twisted tight. There was a familiar odor that grew stronger and stronger as I approached the door and contemplated whether it was too early to knock, only to realize…the door was already unlocked. There was a slight gap where snow had blown inside and built up.

Run,my better instincts told me.Run, and don’t look back….

I tried to push the door open, however something was blocking it from the other side. Something heavy and limp and—

I screamed.

A corpse, long dead and half rotten, fell into view.

I quickly covered my mouth. I recognized that stench now, one I had known only from my dreams.

From the state of the corpse, the stargazer’s mother had been gone for a while.

And there were words written in dried blood on the pale walls:?????.The Will of Heaven Will Not Be Defied.

Bile burned the back of my throat. I couldn’t afford another dead end. I should go inside, look for a clue telling who had done this to her. For my last lead would require me to venture more south than I wanted to go: behind the battlefields and into Lan’s borders.

My stomach retched again, and I stumbled back. I had seen enough.

I ran back to the village just as the sky began to brighten. I should find the butcher. He knew the stargazer’s mother well. But I didn’t know where the butcher was and could find only the old lady, who sat by her now set-up stall.

“Sh-she’s…,” I stuttered. “She’s…”

The world fell away.

A flash of colors.

A vision.

Red-eyed soldiers wearing the deep blue uniform of Lan, running against a darkening twilight sky that was impossible to distinguish as morning or night.

Screams. The same earsplitting screams that filled my nightmares.

“Run!” I screamed. “They are coming tonight!”

The stray villagers on the street turned toward me. “Who?” someone asked.

“Lan’s army!” I shouted for the people in the market to hear. The sun was coming up. They were going to attack either now or tonight. “You have to run! We don’t have time. We—”

“Shut up!” someone shouted from inside the inn. “We are trying to sleep!”

“No, you have to believe me! Lan is going to attack soon. They are coming!” I grabbed the old lady. “Please, you have to believe me!”

She took me in, and her eyes lingered on my forehead, where the phoenix’s mark was barely covered by rouge.

“I am not leaving my stall.”

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