Shadows Of Doubt

"Princess Yi Xin?" Miss Ding exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock. She looked from the blood-soaked girl to Liu Fen, who held her in her arms. "You're talking madness, Liu Fen. The princess has been dead these many years. How can you say this wicked assassin is her?"

Liu Fen paid her no mind. Her gaze was fixed on the Crown Prince, who crouched beside her, his face a mask of doubt and wonder as he studied the the unconscious girl. "It cannot be her," he muttered. "It is impossible."

Liu Fen felt tears sting her eyes. She clutched the girl tighter, as if to protect her from doubt. "It is her," she insisted. "She has the pendant. And the scar on her leg… I know it well. It is A'Xin. It must be."

The Crown Prince looked at her with a pained expression. "A'fen," he said softly, "we must not let our wishes blind us. If this is truly her, then where has she been all this time? Why did she not come back to us, or send word? Why was she among the assassins who tried to take my uncle's life?"

Liu Fen had no answers to his questions, and for a moment, her certainty wavered. Had she been mistaken? Was this not A'Xin, her dearest friend? The girl might have found the half louts pendant by chance. But the scar… could that be a coincidence too? Liu Fen refused to believe it.

"She can tell us herself, Your Highness," she said, looking at the girl whose face was growing paler by every passing moment. "But we need to tend to her wounds first." She looked around the filthy room, where dust and cobwebs hung from the ceiling. "And take her somewhere else."

"She has a fever, Your Highness," the physician said from behind them. "Her wounds need to be cleaned and treated. If you mean to question her, I must tend to her now, or she may not last the day."

The Crown Prince nodded. "Very well," he said, waving to two of his guards. "Fetch a stretcher to carry her. And remember," he added, his voice stern, "not a word of what you have heard here. The girl's identity is yet to be proven. Anyone who spreads false rumors will face severe punishment."

Liu Fen knew he feared his imperial father's reaction. The tragedy of A'Xin and her mother was a sore wound to His Majesty, and if word of this reached his ears, and it turned out that the girl was not A'Xin, but a mere assassin, he would be greatly troubled and possibly furious.