Chapter 4

Piece by piece, he told me everything that had happened in the thirty thousand years I was gone, every small moment of Ellie's life.

When he came to the worst of it, the blood rose in him and he nearly passed out more than once.

Only then did I understand. The Emperor had not broken his promise.

Before her eight hundredth year, Ellie truly had been the most treasured, most joyful girl in all the Four Seas and Eight Realms.

For her sake, for the matter of her marriage, he had even sent invitations to eligible young men from every realm.

He had gone so far as to declare that whoever Ellie chose for a husband would be named the next Heavenly Sovereign.

What came after was the most tired story of all.

Ellie went down to the mortal world on a whim, to test herself, and in a moment of danger Les Stewart saved her.

The rest followed as if it were only natural.

Up to that point, it might even have passed for a lovely tale.

A pity, then, that Les had long since set his heart on another woman: Julia Pruitt of the Fledgling Fowl tribe.

In the early days of the marriage Les still had the patience to play the devoted husband. But once the Emperor withdrew into seclusion, he showed his true face.

The lowest ash-fledgling of them all had climbed into the household and dared to set her foot on the neck of my Crimson Phoenix tribe.

Watching the guilt written across Cyrus's pale face, I felt the power of the Demon God stirring inside me, straining toward the surge.

"It isn't your fault. The fault is theirs."

"Rest easy. Tomorrow, at that vile woman's birthday banquet, every debt they owe my daughter, I will collect it, one by one."

Early the next morning, Les sent someone to deliver a dancing robe.

I gave it a single glance. Gaudy, cheap. I tossed it aside.

Without a trace of powder or paint on my face, I set out for the banquet.

When I arrived, the hall was warm with good cheer. Les stood with Julia Pruitt on his arm, receiving the congratulations of the Four Seas and Eight Realms.

Julia wore a gown of bright crimson feathers and sat in the seat of the sovereign's consort, the Phoenix Feather Hairpin in her hair blindingly bright.

That seat should have been Ellie's. And this ash-fledgling dared to soil it.

I forced down the power of the Demon God rioting in my chest and walked forward.

Around me the whispers came in fragments.

"So that's the consort no one favors? They say she's the last of the Crimson Phoenix bloodline. The Emperor used to treasure her beyond all reason, and look at her now, ground under the heel of the Fledgling Fowl tribe."

"To be consort and end up like that, it's pitiful. I heard the child she went through so much to bear was thrown into the Sovereign's cauldron and refined, alive, into an elixir."

"A useless little punching bag. All she does is hide in her rooms and weep day and night, until she's gone half blind."

"That's nothing. Look at the hairpin in Julia's hair. Those are the tail feathers only the Crimson Phoenix bloodline carries. The pain of having your feathers torn out, neither you nor I could bear it, but she had no choice but to bear it."

Every word fell into my ears like a needle, pricking, fine and deep, into my heart.

Les followed the crowd's gaze to me, and his brow furrowed.

"Why aren't you wearing the dancing robe Julia prepared for you with such care?"

"It's Julia's birthday today. You show up in white to curse whose luck?"

This white was worn for Ellie. It was worn for Les and Julia. And it was worn for every guest in this hall.

I did not answer him. I only said, mild and even,

"Didn't you want to see the Dance of a Hundred Birds?"

"I'll dance."

The words left me, and I sprang into the air.

The same people who had sneered at me a moment before drew sharp breaths, thrilled beyond themselves.

"The Dance of a Hundred Birds? They say it's the supreme secret art of the Crimson Phoenix tribe. When it's danced, the birds of the world gather as one, heaven and earth tremble, and spiritual energy pours out on every side."

"Thanks to Julia's good fortune, even the likes of us get to be bathed in that spiritual power."

"Look, such pure spiritual energy. Today, who knows, some of us might ascend to godhood on the spot."

Even Les could not keep his eyes from being drawn to me.

I looked down on their stupid, greedy faces from above, cold, and my feet moved faster and faster.

They still did not know how close they were to death.

And just as the whole hall was lost in the dance, a shrill voice cut through it.

"Ah! My face! My face!"