“Ah,” said the magistrate, who, contrary to the emperor’s words, was not a fool. “But that peach was given to you by the Queen Mother to give you time to become worthy of immortality. Do you think she would be pleased if the first thing you do upon receiving it is to order me to my death?”

At that, the emperor hesitated, for there was truth in his words. He grunted with annoyance. It occurred to him that he had yet to eat his peach and that he should consume it before any more disasters occurred.

“Just take him away,” the emperor thundered. “And bring me my peach!”

And so the official was taken away and the emperor finally received his peach. And while the emperor ate it with much delight, even he must have wondered how much sweeter the peach would have been if he had gotten the first bite.

“But Emperor Zu did not live an extra nine hundred and ninety-nine years,” the stonecutter said. “He was the last of the Min emperors, killed by the soldiers of Emperor Shang.”

“Well, that just proves Emperor Zu was right,” Amah said. “The peach could keep him from getting old or sick, but he could still be killed. Even immortality is not invincibility.”

“That’s true,” the stonecutter said. “I wonder what happened to that official. Executed later, do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Amah said slowly. “I wonder.”

“I wonder how many extra years that official stole with that one bite,” the stonecutter said, laughing as he brought the rice bowl to his face. “Perhaps he is alive still and wishes he had taken another bite!”

“Perhaps,” Amah said, but she did not laugh as she swallowed her rice.

CHAPTER 28

Yishan and Pinmei stepped onto the Long Walkway. In the distance, there was the glow of many campfires. Without a word, Yishan pointed to them. Pinmei nodded in agreement. Just as she had thought, the soldiers would be easy to find.

The screaming wind had quieted to moans, but it did not calm Pinmei. Instead, she felt as if the sky were in a fitful slumber and about to awaken in a rage.

They scurried down the corridor in silence, the sound of their feet hidden by the lamenting wind. Pinmei found herself looking from side to side. Western side. Eastern side. No one crosses over to the western side, Yanna had said. You’d be killed if you did. Pinmei veered toward the eastern side as much as possible.

As soon as the silhouettes of tents came into view, they left the covered pathway to make a wide circle around the camp. As they crept closer, Yishan shook his head at Pinmei, and she drooped with sudden heaviness. There were only a dozen or so tents, nowhere near large enough for an emperor’s army. It was just a small troop, as Yishan had guessed. Still, we have to check, Pinmei thought.

The glow of the fires and the moonlight reflected on the snow made it almost as bright as morning, and they ran behind one of the tents to stay hidden. They could hear the rumbling snores of soldiers inside, like the growls of waiting beasts.

“Her tent would be guarded,” Yishan whispered in her ear.

Pinmei nodded, and they both began to run, going from tent to tent, deeper and deeper into the camp. As they stopped to rest at another tent, Yishan nudged her and nodded toward a tent surrounded by the others. It was larger than the other tents and an imperial flag flew from the cask in front of it. But it was the two guards whom the children’s eyes were fixed upon.

“Do you think Amah’s in there?” Pinmei whispered.

“All we can do is check,” he whispered back. “We’ll run to the back of the tent, I’ll sneak in, and you stand guard.”

“How are you going to get in?” Pinmei whispered. Even from a distance, she could see the tent was anchored closely to the snow-cleared ground, the cloth tightly stretched without a wrinkle.

Yishan put his hand in his bag, which Pinmei had thought he was carrying, like she was, out of habit, and pulled out a small knife. He grinned at her. “Picked it up at your hut,” he said. “Forgot to tell you.”

Pinmei rolled her eyes at him. Then, after glancing around, they ran.

Pinmei held her breath the whole way. Was Amah in the tent? Could they reach her? Would someone catch them?

But they arrived in the shadow of the tent, and no one seemed to have noticed them. Yishan took out the knife again, and it glinted as it caught the light of a nearby campfire. Pinmei peered over his shoulder as he placed the tip of the knife against the taut tent.

But then, from nowhere, someone reached out and grabbed his hand!

CHAPTER 29

“Shhh!” a voice whispered in Pinmei’s ear.

Pinmei swallowed her yelp of surprise and whipped her head around to look into familiar eyes. Yanna!

“What are you doing here?” Yishan whispered fiercely. Pinmei could only stare. Yanna looked nothing like she had earlier. She was no longer wearing her servants’ dress; instead, her clothes were all black. Her hair was hidden on top of her head with a tightly knotted cloth.

“Me?” Yanna whispered back with incredulous amusement. “What about you two? Why are you trying to sneak into the commander’s tent?”

“Commander’s tent?” Pinmei said. She looked at the tent, and the ice butterflies in her stomach froze together into a crushing boulder. “We thought the tent was… We’re looking for… prisoner… the emperor we thought maybe…”

Yanna’s smile disappeared. “I was looking for prisoners too,” she said, her face sad. “They aren’t here. The emperor has sent them off to the Vast Wall already.”

“Who are you looking for?” Yishan asked. “Your father?”

“No.” Yanna shook her head. “I’m here for the king. I’m looking for his son.”

“His son?” both Pinmei and Yishan said in unison, and Yanna quickly hushed them.

“The king sent him into hiding in a village north of here,” Yanna said. “It was that village where the emperor collected his latest workers.”

Which was why the queen was crying when we came, Pinmei realized. His son and the people who hid him must be the “close friends” the king had meant when he had spoken with Lady Meng. Suddenly, she understood the king’s ashen face and stricken eyes.