Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 111252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Sharpening his voice, Xiang continued, “It’s not our place to question. We need to move now.”
He didn’t give Junjie a chance to argue. Sticking to the shadows, even though all the guards were dead, they cut across the courtyard and approached the three-story central building with elegant tiers of roofs and dragons perched on the peaks of the curved eaves. Tonight, those dragons could only watch as the betrayers to the nation were eliminated.
They paused at the main doors to the central building. The guards lay dead, their throats torn out. Blood poured from the wounds, crawling in a growing pool across the floor. Jiang Chong had beaten them to the building. Rather than a blade, their new master preferred to use his bare hands and talonlike nails to cut down his enemies. With a nod from Junjie, Xiang slid open the door and rushed inside to find Jiang Chong facing the gathering in black robes and a wintry smile.
Four other men were in the room, rising from their chairs, their faces were panic-stricken and pale.
“Jiang Chong! I thought Crown Prince Ju killed you!”
A chuckle crawled out of his master’s throat. “You’d be surprised how often I hear that.”
But Xiang barely paid him any heed. His head whipped around at the voice of the speaker. “A-die?”1 slipped out before he could catch himself. What the hell was his father doing there?
“Xiang-er?”2
“Yes, isn’t this quite an illustrious gathering?” Jiang Chong purred, lifting his hands up to the tense gathering of conspirators. “We have the honorable Luo Jia Wei, Minister Li Guangli, and even Emperor Wu’s beloved brothers, Liu Ci and Liu An.”
Junjie pinched a bit of Xiang’s sleeve, pulling him a step back as others in their sect joined them. Figures hidden in black surrounded the four men. Other than Jiang Chong, only Xiang’s identity had been revealed, but it didn’t matter.
Xiang’s heart raced and his ears became clogged so that he could barely hear anything that Jiang Chong said. His father was here. How could his father be one of the conspirators? Li Guangli had sent his son to the Sword of the Heavenly Garden Sect so he could train to become a loyal, stalwart general under the emperor and protect the nation they so loved. His father had always been loyal to the emperor, right?
This had to be a mistake.
“You are all charged with conspiring against the Dragon Throne and have been branded traitors. Your lives are forfeit,” Jiang Chong announced, sending a biting cold straight to the pit of Xiang’s stomach.
“Lies!” Luo Jia Wei shouted.
With a smirk, Jiang Chong pulled a red scroll from his belt and held it up above his head. “I carry an edict from the emperor.”
Liu An gripped his brother’s shoulder and stepped in front of him, as if wanting to shield him from Jiang Chong and the hideous order that held their lives. “Emperor Wu is dying. There’s no point in hiding any longer that illness has gripped him since the start of winter.”
Liu Ci dropped into his chair as if his legs had given out and passed a hand over his graying hair, pulling loose a couple of strands that now stuck to the sweat glistening on his forehead. “We’re worried about the emperor and the nation.”
Xiang dared to slide his gaze to his father to find that he’d been staring at him this entire time. His face had turned so ghastly pale, but there was still some fire in his eyes, hints of the stubborn man who’d spent a lifetime maneuvering his way through the court to attain a prominent position. The man who’d plotted out the course of his children’s lives with the same ruthlessness.
Straightening his spine, Xiang gripped the edge of his mask and pulled it below his chin as he met his father’s stare. Li Guangli wanted him to be a great protector of the Dragon Throne, and that was what he’d become.
Li Guangli’s muscles flexed in his jaw, and his eyes snapped from his son to Jiang Chong. “The emperor has lost his way. The man who brought Confucian reforms to our government, expanded our lands, and even solidified our trade routes to the west through taming the nomadic tribes is gone. For years, our people have been mired in endless battles that have gained us no ground and high taxation that has driven the peasants to revolt. He listens to false claims of conspiracy and witchcraft that ended in the death of loyal Crown Prince Ju.”
“Even the emperor must understand that his time is dwindling,” Liu An pressed.
“And what?” Jiang Chong interrupted, his tone almost laughing as he tucked the edict in his belt. “The emperor’s brothers are plotting to steal the Dragon Throne before it has even lost the heat of Emperor Wu’s body?”
Liu Ci dropped his trembling hand on the arm of the chair and sighed. “My brother and I have no desire to rule, but since the death of Crown Prince Ju, Emperor Wu has not named a new heir. He has two level-headed sons, Liu Dan and Liu Xu. Either of them can chart a strong path forward for the nation, but if he passes without a name on the Dragon Scroll, the nation could fall into turmoil.”