The heavy bronze gates of the Palace of Eternal Harmony slammed shut with a bone-shaking boom that rattled the carved jade roof edges.
Outside in the courtyard, freezing winter sleet slashed across the black dark rock flat stone slabs, hissing against the heated fire bowls carried by double lines of royal guards. Inside the palace ante-chamber, everyone could feel the scent of burning healing herbs, bitter pine-resin, and the faint, clear stench of rotting marrow.
Grand Secretary Han stood before the Emperor’s private bedchamber doors. He grabbed the purple-gold lacquer casket that housed the Grand Imperial Seal of the Golden Sun. His hands trembled so wildly that the jade tasseling on his official sash danced like autumn leaves.
“Your Imperial Highness, you can’t enter with unsheathed steel!” the old scholar cried, stepping forward to block the polished cedar doors. “His Royal Majesty lies unconscious. The court physicians are actively stabilizing his spirit veins! By old family decree, only the Council of Elders and the Grand Secretary may hold the royal seal during an interregnum!”
Crown Prince Zhao Lie didn’t stop his stride.
Flanked by two hundred elite Iron-Fang Executioners—hulking soldiers clad in lacquered black armor whose faces were hidden behind snarling wolf-visors—the First Prince moved like an avalanche of hardened steel. He didn’t bother drawing his saber from its sword sheath. With a casual flick of his armored forearm, Zhao Lie struck the elderly secretary across the shoulder.
