The Last Concubine

from the tower onto the stones below,” Ning said with satisfaction.
    Lan’xiu moaned. Ning came to him and put his arms around him.
    “Don’t mourn her passing, Lan’xiu. The woman was evil. Ci’an preferred to force the soldiers to execute her, to cause them the guilt of her death.” Ning hugged Lan’xiu tightly. “She would have killed you if she could. She did kill Alute and perhaps the three girl infants in her house. If I had been there, I would have cracked her skull and hurled her into the gates of the underworld myself.”
    “Oh, Ning. It seems tragedy and bad luck follow wherever I go. Perhaps I should leave here and Hüi’s life would return to balance.”
    Ning gave him a shake. “Don’t be silly. You are not to blame for this. Your beauty may have excited her jealousy and hatred, but Ci’an would have done murder whether you came here or no. Besides, you did not come here of your own volition, nor did you set out to inspire envy.” He released Lan’xiu and laid him back against the pillows. “If you were to leave now, Hüi would follow you and bring you back, so it’s too late for you to do anything silly like that. He wants you well so he can hear the squeak of your bed frame once again.”
    “Have you been listening at the door?” Lan demanded, frowning.
    “Not at all, it was a figure of speech,” Ning said, looking out the window. “That stupid Dr. Mu is also dead.”
    “Don’t tell me he fell from the tower as well,” Lan said with a hint of dread in his voice.
    “No, he was beheaded. His crimes were too great for the general to overlook. He not only supplied Ci’an with the poison she used, they were having an affair,” Ning announced. “The rumor is that Ci’an’s son is his. The boy is certainly a weakling that a strong man like the general could not have bred.”
    “Ci’an? With that funny little man?” Lan’xiu shook his head. “How did you find all this out?”
    Ning blushed a tiny bit and got up to fiddle with the drapes. “I asked Captain Wen. He commands the household guard.”
    “You have been hiding a romance from me?” Lan teased.
    “He has been very useful,” Ning said haughtily. “He was the one who came to our aid when Ci’an attacked you.” Then he grinned and climbed off his high horse. “Perhaps it is a romance at that.”
    Lan’xiu laughed and laughed. “Who would have thought? My brother betrays me and sends me to a certain death, and we both find love. It is a funny world.”
    “It is fate,” Ning said solemnly. “Now you must sleep. And try not to worry. The general is worried enough for all three of us.”
    “He worries over me?” Lan asked, his eyes veiled by his lashes but his face delicately pink.
    “No, he’s addicted to playing checkers and he needs a new partner,” Ning growled. “Go to sleep.”
    He pulled the quilts up and tucked them about Lan’xiu’s shoulders and put out the lantern.
     
     
    T HE next day Lan’xiu left his bed. Shakily, but he made it to the bathing room without aid, where he looked in the mirror and yelped in dismay.
    “Ning, I do believe Hüi must love me a little bit if he has been looking upon this face with affection! Why didn’t you let me bathe?”
    “You will not bathe now. I will help you wash. You mustn’t get the stitches wet,” Ning scolded.
    “I beg you to wash my hair. And comb it dry. I think it has blood in it,” Lan said distastefully, feeling the stiff braid where his curls were escaping.
    “We’ll see,” Ning said grimly.
    The fires under the bath had been lit earlier, and embers glowed nicely there. A delicate curl of steam arose over the waters as he supported Lan’xiu to get into the tub, which was only half-full.
    Lan gave a sigh of relief as he sank into the shallow waters.
    An hour later, dressed in a becoming dressing gown of deep blue, his hair braided and put up with hair sticks, his eyes ringed with black liner and his lips reddened, Lan’xiu sat in a chair by the window, looking out at the blue sky. A bird in flight made him sigh with gladness and regret that he could only see bare branches and the tiled roofs of the household.
    He looked up and smiled when Hüi Wei came into the room, accompanied by Jiang.
    “Princess,” Jiang said. “I came to look at your wound and change the dressings. You haven’t been getting it wet, have you?”
    “Ning was very careful,” Lan’xiu answered. His eyes were on Hüi’s face, and his heart soared when he