Xiao Tian kept insisting the emperor had promised the death-exemption token; he wanted to press the advantage while the moment lasted. The emperor laughed in exasperation and finally said, “I never thought you, Xiao Tian, could turn so shameless.”
“A sovereign should not make light promises,” Xiao Tian replied.
“Fine, fine. I yield. Is it just a pardon token? Consider it granted.”
“You won’t even offer thanks?” Xiao Tian prompted, looking at Yi Qing.
Yi Qing sank to her knees and gave thanks.
“All right, you three can talk here. I must be going—if I stay any longer I don’t know what else you’ll extort from me!” The emperor snorted and turned for the door.
At the threshold he couldn’t help glancing back. “Yi Qing, is he really not dying?”
“He’s not going to die.”
“Good. Keep yourselves in check—there’s still a child in the room,” the emperor said, then left.
He’d barely taken a few steps before he popped his head back in again. “Stay put. Apart from me and my little eunuch, no one’s to come in. And keep your voices down, hm?”
Yi Qing watched his receding figure and couldn’t help thinking the emperor must be the incarnation of some fussing pilgrim—endless fretting, endless rules.
“What happened to you?” she asked Xiao Tian. “How did you let yourself get like this?”
“There was an assassin last night,” Xiao Tian said. “He struck without warning at the emperor. I was protecting him, but then a eunuch at the emperor’s side drew a blade… I ended up like this. Yi Qing, how did you save me?”
His belly had been torn open; he should have been beyond waking. He felt heavy, his head swimming, but he knew he hadn’t died.
“I want to know how you found me,” Yi Qing said coldly. “When did you realize I hadn’t run off?”
Baozi went slightly pale, but Yi Qing’s gaze never left Xiao Tian; she didn’t notice his flinch.
“I’m not telling.” Xiao Tian allowed himself a rare, teasing smile. “You owe me an explanation—why did you leave without a word?”
The face he had longed to see, the one he hadn’t been able to find, had become an obsession. Nights brought him nightmares of pirates and storms; he could neither eat nor sleep.
Baozi looked between them, bewildered.
“I meant I’m investigating General Xiao’s death, not saying I killed him,” Xiao Tian hurried on. “The emperor and General Xiao were closer than you might guess—closer than the relationship you saw between him and me.”
“You mean the emperor extends his favor to his allies?” Yi Qing pressed.
Xiao Tian nearly choked on his words. “It’s not about love exactly, but…yes, something like that.”
“You never explained before.”
“Because I hadn’t figured out how to make you believe me.”
“Do you expect me to believe you now?” Yi Qing’s voice sharpened.
Xiao Tian softened. “I can’t argue with you… I just don’t want you wandering off again. If you run into danger next time and Baozi gets taken with you, what then?”
She paused, then said slowly, honest and without affectation, “You should know I only trust myself.”
“What makes a place a home in a world this large?” Xiao Tian asked, looking at her. “Think of Baozi. I know what you still fear—some of it because of me. If anything happens in future, I’ll take the burden. I won’t let you be dragged into it. Trust me. Besides, look—I’ve already got the emperor to grant you the pardon token.”
In truth, what an emperor could do in secret might be limited; a token wouldn’t stop covert action. Still, Yi Qing met his gaze and something in his sincerity burned her. She lowered her eyes. “If that’s settled for now, then we’ll take it one step at a time.”
She meant it. She wasn’t pretending.
A first escape can succeed because the pursuer doesn’t suspect; making a second escape would be much harder.
“When can you move?” Xiao Tian asked about his wound.
“At the shortest, seven or eight days. At worst, eight months,” Yi Qing said precisely. “To return to full strength will take two or three months.”
“You can recover fully?” Hope lit his face. He had already prepared for the worst.
“If you expect me to wait on you for the rest of your life—” Yi Qing sneered.
“Uncle Xiao is hurt,” Baozi said, stepping forward to grasp Xiao Tian’s exposed hand, pitying. The message was clear: don’t be harsh on him.
Yi Qing blinked. People say a new wife can push aside a mother; here her son had clearly been softened by Xiao Tian’s presence.
Watching the large and the small settle together so peacefully, Yi Qing yawned and, giving in to fatigue, stretched out on the divan to catch a little sleep.
“Uncle Xiao, who would dare try to kill the emperor?” Baozi asked. “This is the palace—how could an assassin get in?”
“The emperor’s already ordered an investigation,” Xiao Tian said, looking at the child with warmth. “Most likely someone covets the throne.”
“The emperor reduced taxes—he’s a good emperor,” Baozi said solemnly.
Yi Qing opened an eye at that and asked, “Who told you that?”
“Master Lu and Uncle Xiao both told me.”
She snorted inwardly. Both were loyalists—hardly objective. A new emperor from the common people, with shaky foundations—she had long thought him ineffectual. Yet Xiao Tian’s words suggested the emperor truly wanted to honor General Xiao’s memory; he’d been forced to set it aside by court pressure. To be in such a position as emperor and be so hamstrung was, to Yi Qing, pitiable.
Xiao Tian went on explaining the state of court politics like a storyteller; his voice was almost hypnotic, and soon Yi Qing slipped into real sleep.
He watched her sleep, a gentle smile touching his lips. “Go tuck your mother in so she doesn’t catch cold,” he told Baozi.
The boy obeyed dutifully.
“Baozi, if you could go back to the Xiao residence, acknowledge your ancestry and live at the manor—would you want that?” Xiao Tian asked.
The child thought seriously. “Would my mother want it? Would Uncle Xiao want it? If you both say yes, then I would.”
Xiao Tian felt a quiet contentment and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Then go back. With the Xiao household to shelter you, your mother and I will both look after you.”
“So we can all be together?” Baozi asked.
Xiao Tian nodded, smiling.
“Then I want that!” Baozi declared. “I want to be with Mother and Uncle Xiao. I want a little sister—” He clapped a hand over his mouth mid-sentence.
Xiao Tian’s smile deepened at the child’s shamefacedness.
“Uncle Xiao, you rest. I’ll take care of you,” Baozi announced in his solemn little-man voice. “You must rest well.”
“All right. Want to lie down with me for a bit?”
“No—I’ll poke your wound.”
They were speaking when the emperor’s little eunuch came in.
“General Xiao, Consort Xue has come with the eldest prince to see you.”