Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

Author:Julie C. Dao
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2017-10-10T04:00:00+00:00

The eunuchs burst into her chamber late that night. Xifeng blinked as they stood over her bed with a glaring lantern. “Search her and all of her things,” Master Yu commanded.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Xifeng sputtered, slapping their hands away. She leaned on her pillow, hoping they wouldn’t reach beneath it and find her mother’s treasures. But they didn’t need to, for one of the eunuchs pawing through her clothing on the chair gave a shout of triumph.

“You said it was a gold ornament, Master Yu?” he asked smugly. From the tunic she’d worn all day, he had pulled an exquisite gold hair comb in the shape of a crescent moon.

“That’s it,” Master Yu said. “Take her.”

Dandan and Mei sat up in their beds, their eyes round as the eunuchs grasped Xifeng none too gently and propelled her toward the door.

“Let me go! I haven’t done anything!” she shouted.

Master Yu slapped her soundly across the face, and a stabbing pain shot across the still-raw, ruined half. “Don’t you dare speak to me, you vile little peasant,” he spat. “You need to learn some manners.” He led them out into the courtyard. Several ladies-in-waiting and eunuchs trailed after in their nightclothes, drowsy eyes growing alert at the sign of trouble.

Though it had stopped raining, the ground was still wet. The eunuchs pushed Xifeng down, the damp stone tiles scraping her bare legs. The moon shone upon the long, evil-looking whip Master Yu held in his hand. She struggled, but the eunuchs tightened their grip, and she searched desperately for a friendly face. She only saw a lovely, moon-pale face that made her cheek sting again, this time in memory: Lady Sun, staring placidly back at her.

The destruction of Xifeng’s beauty had not been enough. She must have had someone—Dandan or Mei?—plant the comb on Xifeng while she was sleeping. Xifeng’s head swiveled left and right, but Kang was not there. She had not a single friend to save her from this humiliation.

“Strip her,” Master Yu ordered, and the eunuchs tore her tunic from her. She knelt, naked and hopeless, hugging her thin arms across her breasts as they pushed her face into the ground. Every muscle in her body shook as she closed her eyes in despair at Guma’s betrayal, at the spirits of magic who had lied to her and made false promises to bring her to this torture.

She gave one last, hopeless wrench in the eunuchs’ grasp. They each gripped a shoulder and stretched her back bare for the whip.

“One hundred stripes ought to do it, Master Yu,” Lady Sun commanded.

The eunuch’s reply held a note of shock. “One hundred, my lady? I assumed . . .”

“You dare to question me? One hundred.”

I’m going to die tonight, Xifeng thought. She would be nothing but a puddle of blood and shredded skin on the cobblestones. She squeezed her eyes shut, fiery tears rolling down her cheek. Help me, she begged the creature, her only ally, please help me.

Master Yu stepped behind her.

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