Plum Blossoms Falling as Snow Falls

As the snow fell, Shen Yuan was kneeling atop the city gate tower.

She wore a torn wedding dress, the golden-thread phoenix embroidered on it with one wing askew. Ropes dug into her wrists, and beads of blood seeped out, dripping onto the flagstones where the wind dried them at once. Below the tower stood ranks of soldiers, black as ink, their torches joined into a single line like a river of fire. Xiao Zhi's black-armored army was to the east, Xiao Yan's Imperial Guards to the west. The moat between them was sealed with a thin crust of ice, reflecting the flames in broken streaks of gold and red.

Shen Yuan looked down at the river. She remembered her mother saying that water was a way to survive.

Shen Chong stood three paces behind her, his voice like a rusted blade. "Yuan'er, don't blame your father."

She didn't turn around.

For eighteen years, ever since the night her mother died, she had been living in someone else's game of chess: marrying in place of her elder half-sister, spying for her father, warming the regent's bed, and thinking of everyone but herself. But no one had ever asked her, "Shen Yuan, what do you want?"

The torches blazed and fluttered in the wind.

Shen Yuan lifted her head. She saw Xiao Zhi galloping toward her through the flames, the panic on his face for the first time, the snow filling the sky, and the soldiers crowding the city. Suddenly, she smiled.

That smile stunned everyone.

She abruptly broke free of the ropes, snatched up a torch, and turned to set fire to the fuse behind her. Sparks hissed upward like a golden serpent flicking its tongue.

"Everyone, stop!"

Her voice cleaved through the wind atop the tower.

"Anyone who takes another step, and I'll burn this tower down. We'll all die together."

Firelight illuminated her face. Tears on one side, a smile on the other.