When Li Zhu woke, someone outside the door was wiping up blood.
A cloth dragged across stone steps, rasping. One voice said it wouldn't come out; another cursed him and told him to fetch two more buckets of water. Somewhere far off a person was weeping, but the sobs had barely begun to rise before a shouted order crushed them down.
He opened his eyes. Overhead was not the yellowed ceiling of his rented room but a canopy embroidered with clustered flowers. A bronze crane stood beside the lamp, candle wax running down its back.
"Your Highness is awake?"
The boy who lifted the curtain and came in wore a eunuch's livery, perhaps fourteen or fifteen, his eyes red and swollen. Li Zhu was about to ask what production this was when a needle seemed to pierce his temple.
Chang'an. The imperial convoy moving east, commoners weeping, refusing to leave. His father's hand trembling after drink, his mother's handkerchief hidden in her sleeve. And one name that everyone spoke of in lowered voices.
Zhu Quanzhong.
The man everyone now called the Prince of Liang.
"What year is it… now?" he asked.
The eunuch stared. "Tianyou, first year. Whatever is the matter, Your Highness? It's me, Zheng Fu."
Li Zhu threw back the quilt and got down from the bed. His foot touched the floor and his leg gave way; he nearly fell to his knees. Gripping the bedpost, he looked into the bronze mirror. A pale-faced boy looked back. Small hands, slender wrists, shoulders and back not yet filled out.
The name and the station, though, slammed into his mind with perfect clarity.
Ninth son of Emperor Zhaozong: Li Zuo, Prince of Hui. Thirteen by the Chinese count, not yet twelve in truth.
He had been an ordinary man who went to work, read novels, and occasionally sighed over historical tales. He could name a few of the outlaws from Water Margin, and of the late Tang he remembered only the broad strokes: Zhu Wen murdering the emperor, holding the child-emperor hostage, and in the end not even sparing the deposed boy.
That boy was him now.
"Where is Father?"
Zheng Fu's lips trembled.
Outside the courtyard came the clink of armor plates, and someone barked: "By order of the Commissioner, all courtyards are to bar their doors! No one is to move about!"
Li Zuo rushed to the door. His hand had barely touched the bolt when, through the crack, he saw the tip of a scabbard. The soldier gave him no salute; he only shifted his body across the doorway.
"Your Highness, go back."
He stopped.
Save his father? Give orders to the guards? His palm was not even as long as the soldier's sword hilt. What this palace had in abundance was men who killed on command. What it lacked was anyone who would obey him.
From deeper in the palace came a broken cry, and then no sound at all.
Li Zuo slowly backed into the room and only then discovered that his legs shook too badly to hold him. He had once fretted, from outside the book, over ruined emperors and ministers. Now that it was his turn, he couldn't even push open a door.
Then, in the candlelight, several lines of pale gold text floated into view.
[The Great Tang's Imperial Star has fallen.]
[Tiangang–Disha Heroic Spirit Record: first awakening.]
[Salvation compensation: one already-registered spirit of your choosing may be summoned free of charge.]
[This summons may be a normal descent into the world, or a possession of a vessel; only one of the two methods may be chosen.]
He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them. The words were still there.
"Water Margin?"
Zheng Fu bent toward him. "What did Your Highness say?"
"Nothing. I want to sit for a while."
Zheng Fu withdrew to the outer room. His footsteps did not go far, so Li Zuo made no sound and only asked in his mind.
Lu Junyi. Can I choose him?
The Jade Qilin. That name he certainly knew. With a fighter like that standing at the door, at least he wouldn't have to fear a single blade.
[You may. Choosing possession requires a suitable vessel.]
Then possession. Make him a guard in the palace.
[The available vessel is in a frontline camp, gravely wounded and near death. After possession, he must still make his own way to Luoyang, and his injuries cannot be fully healed.]
Li Zuo's rush of hope stalled. How far was the front from here? By the time the man arrived, would he himself still be alive?
What about Wu Yong?
[Wu Yong: the currently available vessel is in Yangzhou, a scholar gravely ill.]
One at the front, one in Yangzhou…
A soldier outside the door coughed heavily. He stopped breathing at once, staring at the shadow in the crack, not daring to let even a complaint make a sound.
Then what if I don't use possession, and just have Lu Junyi appear in this room?
[You may, but he would have no household registration or military registration in this world.]
He looked toward the outer room. Zheng Fu was right behind the curtain, there were men standing at the door, and at night others came in to refill the lamps. Suddenly a burly man appears: where would he hide him? Even if he called him a bodyguard, the garrison would simply take him for an assassin first.
He glanced at the crack in the door. The scabbard tip was still there.
[The first guidance can help compare your current options. Use it?]
Yes.
[Currently recommended for priority consideration: Star of the Earth's Chief, Zhu Wu the Divine Strategist.]
[A suitable vessel is in Luoyang, formerly assigned to outer palace-guard duties, now relieved of duty by illness.]
Zhu Wu. Li Zuo thought a moment and recalled that there had seemed to be a strategist by that name on Shaohua Mountain, but nothing more.
After possession, can he use his military rank to get near me?
[His existing military registration and some of his memories will be retained. No added authority. Whether he can reach you, you must arrange yourself.]
Two lanterns swung past outside the window paper. Footsteps went from near to far, and another squad took them up.
Li Zuo stared at the word "Luoyang." The front and Yangzhou were both too far. The men outside would not wait for him, and Zhu Quanzhong certainly would not.
Choose Zhu Wu. Possession.
[The vessel's original consciousness has dissipated. Confirm possession?]
Confirmed.
[Star of the Earth's Chief, Zhu Wu: possession complete.]
[Identity in this world: Shen An, Warehouse Warden of the Xuanwu Army's outer armory.]
[First summons used. Possession privileges and the novice talent guidance are permanently closed.]
No pillar of light, no general pushing open the door to kneel. In the room there was still only him, and outside there were still those soldiers.
Li Zuo asked urgently, Which barracks is Shen An in?
One more line of small text remained in the summoning record: Sickhouse on the east side of the outer armory; currently unfit for duty.
Where was the outer armory? He searched the original owner's memories and found only a few courtyards he had never once stepped beyond.
He memorized the location three times over.
At last, from far away, came the sound of mass weeping. Zheng Fu knelt outside the curtain, forehead pressed to the floor, not daring to lift it.
Li Zuo knew he had come too late after all.
His father was dead, and the strategist who had only just become his own still lay on another man's sickbed.
He clutched the small gold pendant, warm against the inside of his collar.
Outside, water was splashed over the steps once more, and little by little they were washed clean.
Li Zuo stared at the door, and a thought welled up in him, half fear and half hatred.
They could wash the blood away. They would never wipe him away as clean as that.