The words of the decoded verse still echoed in the tea garden when a courier arrived from the southern moat.
The courier wore soft felt slippers, running with silent urgency across the mossy lawn. Eight days remained before the Star-Fall Sanctuary warship’s ten-day deadline expired. Inside the citadel, the desperate imperial court had launched a sudden counterattack. The scout dropped to one knee five paces from the hammock, keeping his voice beneath a whisper.
“The Vermilion God-Emperor has opened the subterranean dragon-vein sluices,” the scout reported, bowing his head. “He is venting boiling Dragon-Vein magma through the Inner Palace moat to melt our allied siege lines. Imperial Fire-Marshal Lie Feng has also mobilized ten thousand Blazing-Drake cavalry on the inner battlement.”
Twelve-year-old Mina Vance stood beside the garden arbor, her small arms crossed beneath the wide sleeves of her pale blue robe.
Her dark eyes flashed with cold light.
“He wants to melt our siege lines before my Third Brother finishes his final week of sleep,” Mina said quietly. “He thinks our alliance has only one Spirit Domain master.”
Beside the trench wall, fifty paces from the courier, Patriarch Shen and Patriarch Mu were pacing back and forth with worried expressions.
