A Magic Steeped in Poison

Mingwen arrives, saying that Yang has requested that Ning come to the kitchens to say goodbye. Ning follows her to the kitchens and offers to help prepare for the banquet being held in Shao’s honor. For several hours, they work. As they finish cooking and sit to eat their own meal, another servant rushes in, shouting that something has happened at the banquet.

Moments later, Yang appears. She is horrified that Ning is still there after she asked Mingwen to make sure that Ning got out of the palace safely. They all realize that Mingwen has betrayed them. Mingwen cries, saying that they accused her of stealing the jeweled pin that Ning gave her and threatened her family if she did not comply.

Yang leads Ning away, but soldiers corner them. Among the soldiers is Governor Wang of Ning’s province, who accuses Ning of conspiring with rebels, murdering Zhen’s handmaiden, and poisoning the banquet, killing many officials—including Marquis Kuang and the Esteemed Qian. He arrests her and orders the soldiers to arrest Yang and the kitchen staff as well.

Soon, Ning is separated from the others and dragged elsewhere. Suddenly, more soldiers join the crowd, dragging her along. They are not dressed in palace uniforms, and their regional accents seem wrong. Finally, Ning notices that they carry swords decorated with black pearls like the dagger that Kang gave her. Others wear black pearl brooches or pendants.

The soldiers lead her to Chancellor Zhou. The Chancellor sentences the kitchen staff: Mingwen is accused of stealing the hairpin and of helping Ning escape and is sentenced to 60 strikes with a cane, which will likely kill her. Yang is accused of conspiring with Ning and is sentenced to death by hanging, with the rest of her family banished.

Ning demands to speak to Zhen, but the Chancellor refuses. She insists that she is innocent. The chancellor retorts that he has evidence against her. A guard presents her packed bag, no longer filled with her clothes but with jewelry, books about poison, and the shattered pieces of her mother’s shennong-shi box. She begins to despair but reminds herself to keep fighting for Shu’s sake. She announces that the soldiers of Luzhou are in the palace and are under Governor Wang’s command. The Chancellor scoffs. When he looks nervous, Ning realizes that he already knows this. The Chancellor sentences her to death, and a guard drags her to the dungeon.

The guards shove her into a cell with Wenyi. He has been severely beaten and his legs shattered. Wenyi explains that the Chancellor spoke freely in front of him, thinking he was no longer a risk. The chancellor admitted to poisoning the emperor.

Wenyi gives her two pieces of paper hidden in his robes. One is a letter for Zhen, detailing all the atrocities that the General of Kailang has committed along the border near his village. The second letter is for his mother. Ning promises to deliver it if she survives. Wenyi warns her that Shao will be loyal to whoever has power and should not be trusted. The monks at Yeliu remain loyal to the princess, but Hanxia Academy cannot be trusted either. Regretfully, he adds that Kang tried to speak on his behalf when the guards dragged him away. Then Wenyi passes out.

Sometime later, Ning wakes in the dark. Ruyi approaches and unlocks her cell, explaining that Zhen lied about her death and sent her away to recover. The Chancellor had Zhen locked in her rooms so that she would not know what is happening.

Ruyi asks if Ning is loyal to Zhen. Ning retorts that she is loyal to “the leader who will protect their people from harm” (332). Amused, Ruyi decides that this is enough and says that they must escape the palace. Ning demands that Ruyi help Wenyi first, but he is already dead. Ning silently makes a list of the dead and promises to avenge them.

Ning can sense magic rippling through Ruyi and intuits that Lian is using magic to boost Ruyi’s strength and endurance. Ruyi leads her past dead guards and into the tunnels. They reach Zhen, who is preparing to leave. Ning immediately digs through Zhen’s belongings in search of tea ingredients to help Ruyi, who has pushed the magic too far and will collapse soon. Zhen acknowledges that Ruyi was barely healed when she rode a horse from Kallah to Jia, arriving just before the banquet. She wanted Zhen to leave then, but Zhen refused to leave without saving Ning.

Zhen adds that she realized the chancellor was involved after Ruyi was wounded, as he was the only other person who knew where she was going. She sent Ruyi away to give the chancellor an opening to reveal himself, but she did not expect this to happen so soon or so violently. As Zhen speaks, Ning clears the lingering magic out of Ruyi’s system. The Shift comes easily to her now.

They follow a tunnel to the palace gates, where a wine cart waits for them. Qing’er is hiding in the cart. He wants to stay and find Yang, but Zhen insists that his grandmother would want him safe. She promises to do what she can to save Yang later. They leave.

Zhen leads them to rooms above a teahouse. A man, Official Qiu, and his wife let them in, having agreed to hide them. Zhen introduces Ning to them as her new royal shennong-shi once she reclaims her court. Official Qiu confirms that the person Zhen asked for is waiting for her in an adjoining room. Zhen asks him to give Ruyi a place to rest and to keep Qing’er safe after they leave. He agrees.

Zhen and Ning enter the room where an astronomer waits for them. He explains that astronomers cannot read individual futures; instead, they read “the courses of kingdoms and empires […] paths of multitudes” (343) that contain many possibilities and diverge from each other as choices are made. He says that darkness is coming for the kingdom, “rising from the heart of Daxi” and that a “light from the north” (343) may help or may be smothered. However, he knows for certain that Zhen must leave Jia tonight in order to survive and fight later.

Zhen does not want to run. She asks what Ning thinks she should do. Ning tells her to retreat now so that she can regroup and return when she has a plan in place. The astronomer then tells Ning that she must do the opposite: “Stop running. Return to where it all began” (346). Before she can ask for more information, Official Qiu returns. Soldiers have gathered in the teahouse below, and they must run. A ferry is waiting for them at the river.

Zhen and Ning change into soldiers’ uniforms and carry Ruyi back to the cart. However, a soldier spots them and asks what they are doing. Ning quickly lies, saying they are retrieving wine for the soldiers inside. The soldier bustles them back inside. Zhen and Ning leave Ruyi asleep in the cart and carry wine bottles inside, where soldiers cheer and drink. Then Li Yuan, the General of Kailang, walks in.

He wears an imposing uniform, the tattoo for imperial banishment clear on his face. The general speaks of his impending victory to reclaim the throne and “restore Daxi to its former glory” (350). He pauses at each soldier, sprinkling a fine powder into their drinks.

Zhen panics, knowing that he will recognize her. Moving carefully, Ning steals a discarded pot of tea from a nearby table and adds ingredients to it, using the magic to alter their faces. The general reaches them and sprinkles the powder into Ning’s tea. She realizes that this is the powdered pearl Kang once told her about; it is believed to give the soldiers more strength and stamina. The general pauses, saying that Zhen looks familiar, then turns away, fooled.

A soldier bumps into Ning and drops a small bottle of powdered pearl. Ning keeps it to examine later. Another soldier demands more wine bottles. Ning and Zhen volunteer to retrieve them and disappear outside. They climb into the cart and drive away, their disguises still in place. As they ride away, Ning spots Kang on a horse, dressed in black and gold armor. Their eyes meet, but he does not react. Soon, they reach the ferry, and the captain takes them south along the Jade River.

On the ferry, Zhen and Ning speak. Ning tells her what she learned and gives her Wenyi’s letter, which details the atrocities on the border. Zhen decides to go to Yeliu. Ning feels torn, unsure if she should follow the princess or return home. Later, Ning stares at the embroidered fabric from her sister and suddenly realizes that the strange pink trees are not trees, but coral, and the grass is seaweed. The embroidery is a recipe. In the morning, she explains what she has discovered, and Zhen agrees to help her.

They reach the village. Ning leaves Zhen and Ruyi in her family’s grove of pomelos while she walks home. Her father is tending to Shu, who is delirious. Ning gathered ingredients, explaining the antidote. Shu’s embroidery told her what she needed. Based on the poem line: “The moon reflected in the sea,” she deduced that “[e]ach component of the poison has its own mirror in the antidote” (360). Shu worked it out but thought that the final ingredient was coral. However, Ning realizes it is actually powdered pearl, which the general gives to his troops to protect them from a poison that kills anyone else.

She brews the antidote and enters the Shift. She finds Shu lost in her delirium. Shu climbs a tree and Ning follows, knowing that if Shu reaches the top, she will be gone for good. A dark shadow descends and forms into a serpent with red eyes. The serpent recognizes Ning, saying, “I’ve seen you before. In the palace” (362). She suddenly understands why the poison was so powerful and undetectable to the shennong-shi. It was not created by a human but by something else entirely: something that despises the gods and the humans alike.

The serpent bites her. Shu grabs her, and they fall from the tree together. Upon impact, Ning returns to her body to see her father standing over them. Shu wakes, suddenly clear-headed. Then her father points to the bloody bite mark on Ning’s arm. Black lines crawl up her arm like vines, and Ning collapses.