The Dragon Men

had taken personal possession of Alice’s wire sword and wore the battery pack, though he had to wield the weapon with his left hand. The Jade Hand glowed softly at his right. Alice stared at it. The thing they had come for was so close she could almost touch it. She tried to keep the fear under control, but every step took them closer to torture and death. The iron spider on her left hand felt chilly despite the heat of the August night.

“I thought there were no men in the Forbidden City after sunset,” she murmured to Lieutenant Li. “Are all these soldiers eunuchs now?”

“No,” Li murmured back. “The emperor would appear to have made some changes.”

A soldier snapped something at them, presumably an order to be quiet, and Alice fell silent. Her mouth was dry, and she desperately wanted a drink. As they marched through the streets, the machinery sounds grew louder and were punctuated with the occasional explosion. They passed an enormous well with a freestanding windlass over it, and Alice noticed a sad look pass over Lady Orchid’s face. Alice wanted to ask about it, but she didn’t dare.

Lady Orchid still held the Ebony Chamber, and Cricket walked next to her. The boy looked frightened and was trying not to show it, a feeling Alice understood. She scanned the skies. Empty.

Not far from the well, they reached what had once been a wide expanse of lawn. The grass was chewed up, and divots of earth lay everywhere. Many of the stone walkways had been shattered into rubble. Dragon Men, their salamanders glowing in their ears, worked like mad among dozens of animal-shaped machines that stomped and roared and clawed and breathed fire and shot rockets into the air. Piles of ammunition stood with enormous kegs of gunpowder near stacks and stacks of raw metal, and forges glowed like scattered demons. Lady Orchid put a hand over her mouth at the sight, and Alice understood that this had once been a place of tranquility and beauty. Heaven had become hell.

At one end of the lawn stood a wide marble three-sided staircase that led up to a tall, multiroofed building-a pavilion of some sort. Large chunks of the pavilion had been carved out, either blasted away or pried loose. Two stone dragon statues guarded the top of the stairs. Their jade eyes and teeth had been pried out. Su Shun led them to the front staircase, which faced the ruined lawn. Su Shun mounted the steps partway to the top, turned to face them, and held out the Jade Hand. Instantly, the soldiers forced everyone down to their knees and pressed their faces to the stones at the bottom of the stairs. The soldier who forced Alice down was none too gentle about it. He rapped her forehead against the ground hard enough to make her dizzy, and she couldn’t help crying out in pain. The soldier pulled her upright, though she was kept on her knees. Her face burned. Su Shun stood on the fifth step, his half-brass face a hard mask. He said something sharp, and two soldiers hauled Lady Orchid up the steps to him, Ebony Chamber in her grip. The gold dragons crawled across it. Cricket shouted something and tried to run after her. Su Shun snarled, and one of the soldiers twisted Cricket’s arm behind him. He howled and struggled. Alice wanted to snatch him up and run, but there was nowhere to flee to. Then Lady Orchid spoke to him, and he stopped. Su Shun flicked out the Jade Hand and cracked her across the face, sending her to her knees. Cricket yelled again, but the soldier easily put him on the ground, too. Alice trembled with outrage but kept her wits about her. Nothing would be gained by protest. Not yet.

Su Shun reached down and plucked the Ebony Chamber from Lady Orchid with the Jade Hand and set it on the stairs above him, then said something to the assembled soldiers and Westerners.

“He’s telling us to translate for anyone who can’t understand a proper language,” Phipps said in a tight voice. “He wants everyone to understand what is happening here.”

“The weak and corrupt dynasty is at an end,” Su Shun boomed, with Phipps translating a moment behind him. “The final remnants of the dogs we called the Qing kneel before a true emperor, not an opium smoker who kowtows to the West, but a warrior who conquers it.”

“You are not the emperor, Su Shun.” Lady Orchid was kneeling on the stairs, but her back was straight and her demeanor was proud. “You can kill me and you can kill the son of Xianfeng, but that will not make you emperor.”

Su Shun flipped the switch on Alice’s sword, and it growled to life. He moved the wire blade within an inch of Lady Orchid’s throat. The Imperial Concubine didn’t turn a hair, and Alice was impressed despite herself.

“Let us find out,” Su Shun said.

But Lady Orchid couldn’t be stopped. Her voice rang throughout the courtyard, and even the Dragon Men paused in their work to listen. “Sitting at the emperor’s table and eating from his dishes does not make a good emperor, Su Shun. It only makes a fat general. We all know that the Ebony Chamber guards the name of the true heir to the throne. It does not guard your name.”

The flesh half of Su Shun’s face flushed a deep red at Lady Orchid’s words. Alice didn’t understand the reason for it-the insult about eating at the table seemed mild to her. Perhaps it was worse in Chinese than it was in English.

“And now your head will bounce to the stones while your son watches.” Su Shun drew back the sword. Cricket continued to struggle in the soldier’s grip.

“And now you will be nothing but an empty suit of lacquer,” Orchid retorted. “Before all these witnesses, all these soldiers, all these Dragon Men, I say you are afraid to open the Ebony Chamber with the Jade Hand.”

The trap snapped shut. Alice could see the understanding on Su Shun’s face. He himself had arranged for many witnesses for the proceedings here, and those witnesses would spread far and wide what Su Shun did next. If he refused to open the Ebony Chamber with the Jade Hand, everyone would whisper behind his back about it, and his shaky hold on the throne would erode and vanish like farmland in a desert. If he did open it, there was every reason to believe the paper inside would bear Cricket’s name. Su Shun had lost. Lady Orchid raised her chin in triumph despite the sword vibrating beneath it.

Alice held her breath. Su Shun held the humming sword. A flicker of movement would send Lady Orchid’s head tumbling down the steps. The tendons in Su Shun’s hand stood out like wires. Abruptly he swept the sword away.

“We will. . open the Ebony Chamber,” he said.

Wisely, Lady Orchid said nothing, though Alice could read the exultation in her eyes. Alice herself felt as if she might float away with the sudden release of tension. Su Shun slowly turned to the Chamber on the steps above him. The gold dragons on its glossy surface glimmered and shifted in the bright lantern light, and the phoenix latch seemed to flicker and dance with a life of its own.

“I believe the combination is eighteen,” Lady Orchid supplied helpfully. “It is already set. Naturally, the general would not dream of changing the numbers.”

A thundercloud crossed Su Shun’s face, and for a moment Alice wondered if Lady Orchid had gone too far in addressing him as general and obliquely saying he might try to lie. But Su Shun pressed the Jade Hand to the phoenix latch. A clear click sounded across the courtyard. The Dragon Men and the soldiers gave up all pretense of politeness and craned their necks to see. The lid of the Ebony Chamber popped open. Su Shun’s jaw moved back and forth as he ground his teeth, but he reached inside. Alice felt as if she might fly apart.

There was a long pause. Then Su Shun laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed some more. He pulled the Jade Hand-empty-from the box and knocked the container sideways so everyone could see inside.

The Ebony Chamber was empty.

A sigh went through the assembled people. All the fear came rushing back. Alice’s stomach churned, and she nearly vomited on the stones.

“Before these witnesses, I proclaim the emperor declared no heir.” Su Shun raised the growling sword to the sky, and his voice was rich with reclaimed luster. “Since I bear the Jade Hand-”

“No!” Lady Orchid rushed at Su Shun, her fingers formed into claws. She swiped at the fleshy side of his face and scored furrows. But he caught her wrist with the Jade Hand and twisted. She dropped to one knee.

“Your filthy hand struck the emperor!” he howled. “Let it pay the price before you die!”

He swung the wire sword around. The snarling blade sliced through Lady Orchid’s right wrist as if it were paper. Lady Orchid screamed. Her hand dropped to the staircase with a horrible plop. Su Shun released her, and she held the stump before her eyes, too shocked to believe what she was seeing. The blade