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water for her bath and added flowers and oils to perfume her skin. Most importantly, while performing these duties, she managed to be invisible.
    Everyone expected eunuchs to gossip and bribe one another. Many families had made an industry out of mutilating their young sons and gaining a foothold in the imperial court. The first persons to be ordered out of the Empress’s chamber when she had secrets to divulge would always be the eunuchs, unless she deliberately invited my spy to share planted information with me. On occasion, she would forget the constant, silent servants, especially my plain, steady girl with no looks to distract from her duty.
    Over our daily tea, I discussed plans with my nurse. Her question, as always, was, “How will she eliminate you?”
    We both knew that my tryst with the Emperor would not be a secret to her. She had too many spies throughout the palace, as well as too many enemies who would delight in telling her exactly what the Emperor did with his new woman, regardless of my status in the court. Empress Lei would be determined to rid herself of me before I could hinder her plan.
    It would be twofold. First, she wished to convince the Emperor to name her firstborn son as heir apparent instead of my husband. She must accomplish this shift of power before I managed to conceive an heir for the Crown Prince, for the assurance that the Emperor’s bloodline would be continued would certainly make it exceedingly difficult for him to disavow his son.
    Now that I possessed the Emperor’s ear in his bedchamber, she had to be nervous that my favor would keep him from agreeing to this change in power. Not only must she eliminate me before I conceived—whether the Emperor claimed my child as his or his son’s—but she must also find a way to neutralize Ping. All without angering the Emperor so severely that he ordered her death.
    Unfortunately, she would have a great deal of leniency in that regard. He had come to the throne through his auspicious union with her powerful family, which silenced his strongest critics. Without her and her family, he would find himself exposed and challenged. War would prove too costly both to the coffers as well as his allies, and my warlord cared little for politics.
    Simplest, of course, would be for the Empress to poison me and persuade him that her son was the best choice for heir apparent. I would agree with her on the latter. By all accounts, Ping would be a miserably ill-prepared Emperor.
    To my nurse, I replied, “I think it time to change my tea’s formula.”
    “I agree.” She smiled in that all-knowing way that told me she’d foreseen the same danger and already taken steps to protect me. I picked up my cup and inhaled its contents, but my nose could not make out the exact herbs she might have used. “Her ways are known. The most common antidote is simple to prepare and harmless to ingest. Just in case.”
    “Just in case.” I smiled back and drank the steaming brew. Ah, more bitter than usual, but a price I was more than willing to pay. “Let’s see if anyone in the Imperial Physician’s employ might be persuaded to inform us if any unusual orders are delivered to Her Majesty.”
    My nurse grunted and gave a small, telling jerk of her head toward my cup. “Already done, my lady.”
    A slight scuff of a slipper outside my chamber alerted us to visitors. Few would care to speak to me. I gazed steadily into my nurse’s eyes and took deep, calm breaths to center myself. The game had begun with the first lash of the bamboo. I could not falter. Lifting the cup to my mouth, I drained every drop.
    “Her Majesty Empress Lei arrives.”
    I rose gracefully but not quickly, making it clear whose chambers these were and who exactly was the visitor, despite her status. Yet I would not make pitifully weak slights to Her Majesty. I might have been from humble ancestors compared to the ancient and prestigious bloodline of her family, but I had been taught to honor