Red Spider Lilies
"I don't," Hushiyi replied. "Do I want to know? Don't think so."
"Oh, come on!" She tugged at his sleeve, like she used to when they were children.
Hushiyi sighed. His sister knew how to tug at his heartstrings.
"Fine, why?" He asked.
Yinyue pointed to a hill nearby with a yellowing green patch peeping above the white cover of snow and said, "Because of her. Our Grand Aunt."
The hill was the place where the late Grand Princess, aunt of their father, died from her injuries in battle against marauding tribes.
The military troops took her body back to Huangcheng for burial in the Imperial Mausoleum. Their Emperor-father never forgot the anniversary of her death.
In autumn, the hill would turn into a sea of blood red spider lilies. Hushiyi never cared for flowers. However, he noticed the unusual patch of red whenever Yinyue and him return to the borders for an inspection.
Little did he know the significance of the hill to Yinyue. Or that she arranged for the inspections to coincide with the blooming red spider lilies. To Yinyue, this was the hill she passed by in her first life as a bride for a marriage alliance with Gaoyang.
The late Grand Princess died before both of them were born. Hushiyi heard about the legends of the late Grand Princess.
Women, even imperial members, held and still hold an inferior status in the Empire. Society expected them to be filial daughters, obedient wives and good mothers. A woman belonged to her father before marriage, her husband after marriage, and her son when she became a widow.
"Our Emperor-father wanted to bury her with the full honours of a Grand Prince," Yinyue said in a wistful tone.
Hushiyi raised his eyebrow at her. The mention of his aunt made the atmosphere gloomy. Was Yinyue hinting at something? He hated any reminders of death, especially burials — Yinyue and he are still too young. They must live a long life.
"The conservative old farts in the Imperial Court will never allow a grand princess to be buried as a grand prince," he replied.
The historical records of Dayan noted the late Grand Princess's public mourning period — an unusual exception. No other female imperial member received a public mourning period when they died.
Hushiyi heard the rumours about how their Emperor-father threatened the imperial court officials with exile and execution if they refused to honour the late Grand Princess as a military hero.
In return, they agreed with reluctance to lay the late Grand Princess in a small burial mound together with those of legendary great generals from the distant past — a mark of the highest military honor.
"Father believes I'm a reincarnation of her," Yinyue said. "He told me that Yandi belonged to me."
Hushiyi felt a slight relief when he heard her words, although he questioned their Emperor-father's sanity. Yinyue had no reason to lie to him.
So, the Emperor treated Yinyue as a substitute for his aunt, their grand aunt. Better than some perverted gossip he heard about other ruling families in the Central Plains. But reincarnation?
"Do you believe you're her reincarnation?" Hushiyi asked.
"No," Yinyue replied. She was no reincarnation of the late Grand Princess. So what if she believed? It didn't matter. She crawled out of hell to relive her life again.
"But if what our Emperor-father believes gives me an advantage…why not use it?" She added.
Their Emperor-father showed her the scroll of the Grand Princess's portrait — a woman in armour on a horse pointing a spear like a commanding general.
Yinyue felt like she was staring into a mirror reflection of herself when she saw the scroll. The late princess was an uncanny replica of herself.
She wondered why in the first life, their Emperor-father never seemed to care for her if she resembled her grand aunt so much. He even approved her marriage to the far away Gaoyang state in her first life.
Maybe she wasn't aggressive enough in her first life.
Whatever the reason was, their Emperor-father made Yinyue Grand Prince in this second life. Not a Grand Princess, a rank below an Imperial Prince and above a Princess.
Only Grand Princes held the eligibility to ascend the throne of the Dayan Empire.
Their Emperor- father punished those who protested her Grand Prince appointment by sending them to Yandi. Among them were talented administrators.
Yinyue saw fit to use their talents, instead of making their lives a living hell. As long as they carried out their duties, she saw no need to ill-treat them.
Often, the ones who dared to display their dislike of her were the rare honest ones who dared to criticise bad ideas. She also threw the duty of managing them to Hushiyi.
Hushiyi held the rank of Imperial Prince, an automatic title given upon birth to all the Emperor's sons. In terms of rank, Yinyue outranked him by one level.
"Why didn't you go for the rank of Grand Prince?" she asked.
His lips trembled and forced a smile on his face. He rubbed her head to mess up her neat, swept backed hair. "Who would look after you, then?"
In the history of the Dayan Empire, Grand Princes killed each other. The last one standing became the ruler. He couldn't kill his own full blood sister, but he wasn't sure if she would kill him.
"I don't need a nanny," she replied.
"You keep getting injured. You're not an immortal and who's going to help govern when you're in bed rest?" he asked while patting her on the back.
She winced, and he withdrew his hand. He forgot about her wounds.
"Rest comes when I die," she replied.
His face fell at her words.
A sharp screech of a golden eagle interrupted them. The golden eagle swooped past them towards the back of the fortress pass. With a great fluttering of its great wings, it landed on its military handler below.
Those wings slapped the poor handler's head and then a peck, while he tried to untie the message from its leg. A message had arrived from the Black Mountains via the eagle.
"I'm sure we can find better messengers than golden eagles…," Hushiyi muttered. "Like falcons. Better behaved birds."
They couldn't use messenger pigeons. Too many predatory birds around the Black Mountains would end the pigeon's life before it flew halfway with the message.
"The other states use messenger falcons too much," she replied. "The people of the Black Mountains will shoot a falcon on sight."
Hushiyi studied her face. Yinyue looked like other girls of her age, except for her corpse-like complexion. If not for that white death-like complexion and lack of colour to the cheeks, Yinyue would be a beauty.
At her age, girls would practice music or doing art in more peaceful surroundings. Not engage in the killing fields, or governing a harsh barren territory. Or using predatory raptors as messengers.
Distancing themselves in the far away Yandi from the Capital's complicated politics appealed to him. To the Empress and the five rival Grand Princes, Yinyue was an eyesore who hindered their path to the throne. Their enemies cannot stretch their influence into the borderlands, save for a few spies.
Footsteps approached them. Below them, the loud creaking of the great gates opening followed by the noises of horses trotting while grunting, and wheels crunching on gravel.
"Report," Yinyue said to the arriving message handler without looking at him. Her eyes followed the leaving carriage with the accompanying soldiers disguised as traders heading towards the Black Mountains.
The flustered message handler bowed and said, "01 says the forests run deep in melancholy."
Hushiyi furrowed his eyebrows at the coded message. He didn't know what it meant. while Yinyue signaled at the message handler to leave.
"Why did you send out a decoy?" He asked, pointing at them.
"Someone is planning something in the Black Mountains," she said. "How big I don't know."
"Which one of our dear Grand Princes?" He asked.
Yinyue shrugged. Until 01 returned, she won't have confirmation of her suspicions.
The horse carriage and the entourage acted as decoys to divert attention from her presence. Her closest elite bodyguard, 01, already left with a team of fifty men, two days before.
"Time for me to leave for the meeting," she said with a sigh. "This will be fun."
Hushiyi knew from her tone that she kept something from him again.
For the previous meetings, she left disguised as part of a travelling trade party. This time Yinyue used a decoy. Someone must have blown her cover. But who?
Hushiyi smiled, masking his worries. The Black Mountains were beyond their control.
"Just be careful, sis," he said, watching her leaving figure while his smile faded into a frown.
He stood there, deep in his thoughts.
The neighing and grunting horses below alerted him to her group of ten, who broke out in a gallop through the winding mountain path. All cloaked with their hoods over their heads on galloping horses, stirring up a cloud of dust.
Her hooded figure, the smallest and shortest, rode on a magnificent war steed charging to the front. After the group made a turn around the path, they disappeared from his sight.