The Secret Chamber

The shuffle of feet and murmurs from the roof top alerted her to the midnight shift change of the hidden guards. Stillness of the night amplified sounds of their movements.

Most of Yinyue's hidden residential guards were not the elite bodyguards from the Shadow Pavilion, and not held to the same standard of stealth expected.

Other than the noises above, her study was silent, with flames flickering on the candles in the brass holder. 02 and 05 had left to rest on her orders, leaving her alone.

Yinyue got up from her chair, clutching the sheathed sword in her hand and walked towards the brass holder. She blew the flames out on all but one candle, shrouding the study in shadows. To those outside, it seemed like she had gone to bed.

She treaded silently into the left side room of her study. Against the faint light, she went to the large canopy bed placed against the stone wall. The bed had enough space for three people, with blankets and pillows neatly folded on top of a thin mattress.

Yinyue tossed the blankets and pillows to the side against the wall while listening in to the movements above. The hidden guards were still handing over to their counterparts.

She glanced at the bed base. Inside the canopy bed, there was a small latch tucked away inconspicuously among the elaborate wood carving.

Her fingers located the smooth surface of the latch and pressed down. A soft click and the bed base popped up slightly, leaving a tiny gap for the cold draught from the passageway to rush past. The scent of damp earth escaped from below the trapdoor.

She pulled out her flame stick in her other free hand and pulled up the trapdoor to enter the pitch black darkness which led her to the underground passageway.

After finding her footing on the stone slope, she closed the trapdoor above her, sealing it shut with a quiet click.

Her thumb popped off the cover of the flame stick and she puffed on it. The flame stick glowed into life, highlighting the rare but sturdy wooden frames holding the tunnel up. A bit of dust fell on her head as she wandered down the bricked walls with strange inscriptions on them.

Yinyue lit a torch at the side with her flame stick and a fire burst into life, illuminating a part of the ancient passageway before capping her stick.

She could hear the above soft marching sounds of her residential patrolling guards in her courtyard after walking a short distance.

Yinyue sniffed at the fresh air. She never figured out where the vents were hidden among the brickwork of the passageway.

The builders constructed the tunnel of the passageway from the entry at her study, under the courtyard, to a false boulder in the main garden within, near the hot springs.

The canopy bed entrance was the entry to the passageway, while the false boulder was the exit.

Yinyue had discovered this secret passageway to an underground chamber by accident when she first moved in three years ago. A draft leaking from the side of the bed caught her attention.

The passageway had laid untouched, thick with cob webs for years, if not centuries. Other than her, only Hua Dushen knew about the chamber when he came to help scope the tunnel out for hidden traps.

'Keep it a secret,' his voice repeated in her memory. 'Only to yourself, not even Hushiyi.'

Yinyue wondered where her maternal grandfather was. It's been a year since they last seen each other. Last she heard, he went travelling. Even Chiyin didn't know where he went.

She reached an entrance at the side leading to the secret chamber with a closed wooden door. At each side of the entrance, two stone statues of serpents stood, baring their fangs.

The stone serpents were as tall as her waist. She turned one fang of the serpent. The aged wooden door sprang open through the activated mechanism.

She pushed the door open to the pitch black darkness of her intended descent. Her hand popped open her flame stick again to light the torch.

One spark and fire sprang to life on the torch, brightening the four corners of the dark chamber, now her personal treasury.   

A rack of her weapons, from spears to swords, lined one wall. Three lamellar suits of armour hung on the other wall, made of different metals, glimmered.

The light cast a dancing shadow with each flicker of flames against both racks, bringing an eerie life to their existence.

Tall wooden shelves lined the rest of the walls. The largest shelf held airtight chests filled with rare dried herbs and labelled vials of herbal extractions and poisons. Scrolls and stationery supplies laid on the other shelves.

In the middle was a large study table and two wooden chairs.

When she and Hua Dushen found the way to open the chamber, a greyish skeleton of a person lying against the wall greeted them on entry. Hua Dushen said it was a man at one glance. Beside the skeleton was a clay vial. A type of archaic poison no longer in use, Hua Dushen said.

The piece of paper in the skeletal hand crumbled to dust the moment she touched it. Along with the bones. Yinyue glanced at the urn sitting at the side of the medicinal shelf and went towards it. That urn held the dust of the poor unfortunate man, together with what's left of his written words.

The owner of the residence before her was the late Grand Princess, aunt to her Emperor- father and grand aunt to her. She doubted the late Grand Princess had anything to do with the man's death. The bones were very ancient, enough to crumble at a light touch.

Based on the historical records, previous owners traced down to the first legendary ruler of the Dayan Empire. Over generations, owners renovated and extended the residence.

She reached out and dusted the fine layer of dust from the urn with one hand. The dead still needed to be respected. Especially if they never harmed her.

"There you go," Yinyue whispered, wiping her now dust covered hand on her black silk gown, leaving whitish marks.

Whoever that skeleton was, may have been an innocent builder of this chamber. If the powerful didn't want their tombs or secret chambers found, they killed the builders and the architect of the place after the completed construction.

The builders became wary of accepting any jobs, other than building residences or walls, because the practice of silencing them through death still continues. Yinyue despised that practice enough not to use it.

Yinyue sighed and slotted the sheathed sword into the weapons rack. She turned around and froze. The sheathed sword laid on the table. Yinyue swung around to check the rack, goosebumps rising along her arms.

No mistake.

It moved.

And she was alone.