the dance of candlelight. Her dragon flickered to life with glowing eyes and a swish of scales.
‘Yes, that one,’ she said with satisfaction, resisting the urge to grasp it in her hands. Her lantern was merely a wick of flame inside delicate paper, easily destroyed if she wasn’t careful.
Li Tao paid for it and handed the hook over to one of his men as they continued through the streets. At a corner stand, he bought her candy made from a nest of spun sugar wound around and around a stick. The fine threads melted against her tongue, warm and golden.
The town was a small one, but for the moment, it was the world. She was sorry when they reached the edge of it. The drums were still beating and the moon was climbing to its highest point.
They returned to the horses at the outskirts of town. The men untied the reins from the post and started readying the mounts for the return home. She blew out the candle inside the lantern, folded it carefully along the spines and then paused to look at the moon away from the lights of the festival. Li Tao stood beside her until his guards began to pace.
Once again, he touched his hand to her back, fingers curving around her waist. This time there was no excuse for it other than that he wanted to. She could barely breathe.
She wanted to tell him then that he was fighting a losing battle. That death wasn’t the only way. He needed to swallow his damned pride and find a way to compromise with the Emperor. But Suyin had already chosen her course. Her message would reach Emperor Shen before long. She had done what she needed to save herself as long as Ru Shan wasn’t discovered. As long as Emperor Shen felt honour bound to respond to her plea.
‘We need to return,’ he said. ‘The roads will be dark.’
To her regret, Li Tao removed his hand, letting it fall away. He stood like a dark tower over her, barely illuminated by the light of the moon. She passed the tip of her tongue over her lips. The taste of burnt sugar lingered. Ling Guifei was never without words, but it was the hundredth time that night she had found it hard to speak.
He swung up into the saddle and lowered his hand to help her up. Her temple rested against the heated skin of his neck and she could feel his pulse beating as she pressed close.
‘Ride slower this time,’ she admonished.
He was nothing but shadow. A solid shape in the night. She wound her arms about his waist and he tensed before exhaling slowly.
‘I will,’ he said.
Chapter Seven
The three days of the celebration came and went, but Suyin tried to hold on to the warmth and the laughter. The dragon lantern remained on her dresser, lifeless without the fire inside.
Time became muddled in the circular routine of the household. Her existence had whittled down to the long wait. There were days she even found herself waiting for the sound of Li Tao’s footsteps in the front hall or the glow of a lamp in his study. She hadn’t seen him since the night of the festival.
Only because his presence disrupted the rhythm, she told herself. When he was there, she had to change herself, act differently, think differently.
She caught the pungent scents floating from the kitchen during her morning stroll through the gardens. When she wandered inside, the scene that greeted her brought back a lost splinter of time from another kitchen: a cramped, dingy corner of her family home by the river. A place that no longer existed.
The stove radiated an oppressive heat. Even with all the windows and the door thrown open, the air in the kitchen boiled to a swelter as the midday meal neared. Cook admonished her the moment she set foot inside.
‘Be careful, everything is hot!’ he said. ‘This is no place for Lady Ling.’
He tried to shoo her away, telling her food would be brought as soon as it was ready. There was more affection in his scolding than all of the compliments bestowed on her in Changan. She convinced him to let her stay by begging him to put her to work.
Cook had several pots boiling over the wood stove. A wispy steam rose from the baskets stacked beside her while she dug into the bundle of flour. This lumpy concoction had no resemblance to steam buns that she