Chapter 24: Imperial Edict

After four years under house arrest, Pace Zorn was eight. That day, he sat beneath the shade of Yellow Bamboo, boiling water and savoring tea. The courtyard gate suddenly burst open with a hard kick from outside. Pace turned. A proud, aristocratic seven-year-old boy strode in, chin high, with a four-year-old girl at his side, delicate as carved jade. Behind them trailed a small procession, pretty maids and powerful attendants alike, eleven or twelve in all. The boy stood around four-foot-seven,...