wicked interest, well aware of the picture she presented. ‘They also say I seduced the Emperor and brought down the empire.’
‘Nonsense.’ He found his pulse increasing to the rhythm of their exchange. His body warmed and he almost liked it. ‘I know what will bring down this empire and it has nothing to do with one man’s obsessive love for his precious concubine.’
‘The Emperor never loved me.’
The abruptness of her denial surprised him. Looking downwards, Suyin traced a fingertip absently over her teacup. A ripple of sadness crossed her face. The imperfection heightened her allure and disappeared so quickly he wondered if she had put it there for his benefit. He would go mad trying to decipher her.
‘They say things about you as well.’ She was no longer trying to charm him. Her voice sharpened to a dagger’s point. ‘About all the men you’ve killed.’
‘At the Emperor’s command,’ he replied evenly.
‘And they were all at his request?’
‘No.’
The lady carried herself admirably. It was only after his prolonged silence that she blinked away.
‘The Emperor died of illness in his bed, Governor Li. I had nothing to do with it, despite what the rumours may say. If …’ She faltered, staring at the dragon ring on his second finger. ‘If that is why you’ve come for me.’
There had been rumours that the August Emperor’s sudden death had been due to poisoning. She hid her hands beneath the table, but not before he caught the tremor in them. Deliberately, he folded his fingers over the insignia, hiding the ring from view.
‘You had the most to lose from his death. The Emperor was your protector.’
‘Emperor Li Ming was a great man,’ she declared, looking more vulnerable than he’d ever seen her.
‘Li Ming was a great man,’ he echoed.
It was best he think of her as another man’s woman, even if that man was already dead. It was best not to think of her as a woman at all. He let his gaze slide over her face, assessing her as he would an opponent. By cleverness or coincidence she invoked the name of one of the few men he respected. One of the two men to whom he had ever sworn allegiance. He had betrayed one for the other.
‘You said you knew what would bring down the empire,’ she continued in a more conversational tone. ‘What would that be?’
‘The empire will bring itself down. The imperial court has become removed from the reality of governing.’ The answer came easily. He’d seen the decay from within for too long.
‘And the warlords can smell the blood,’ she countered.
The Precious Consort had done much more than pour wine and play music during her reign in court. He watched her with more care.
‘Men who are accustomed to war find themselves restless during times of peace,’ he goaded. ‘They crave that taste of battle, the feel of death hanging over them.’
The barest of creases appeared between those pretty eyes. He found he liked catching her unaware.
‘How you must miss all those plots and schemes, Lady Ling.’
‘Miss them?’ The melodic quality of her voice sharpened. ‘I fought for my life every day in the palace.’
She tilted her gaze at him and he detected the steel beneath her elegant demeanour. A flash of armour amidst the softest silk. Endlessly elusive. No wonder men tried to capture her in paintings and flowery words. He, for reasons he couldn’t clearly discern, had simply captured her.
It was his eyes, she decided. That was why his adversaries feared him. Endless and black and set deep in a face devoid of any hint of kindness. The eyes of a man who was capable of anything. The cut of the scar across his features added to the sinister aura.
How appropriate that he spoke of battle. She could sense him circling, reading her the same way she tried to read him. The look he gave her now wasn’t warm … but it wasn’t cold. She could feel the blood rise up her neck. The low throb of her heart beat at her defences. Why did her body respond like this now? Why this man, when she needed her wits about her to survive?
He leaned closer. ‘Living with danger for so long changes you.’
Something about the remark felt ominously personal. A ghost of a smile lit his face, more in his eyes than his mouth. She traced a fingertip nervously over the tabletop. His eyes attended to her every move.
‘I don’t miss the danger. I was happy on the river.’ Or she had been, once.
‘Alone and abandoned? The beautiful Ling Guifei was not meant to fade into obscurity.’
‘Don’t call me that.’
Precious Consort Ling. Li Tao’s comment wounded her more than it should have. In the Emperor’s court even a pet name was elevated to an official rank. She was set apart from the world and would be for the rest of her life. It had been a long time since she’d had a conversation such as this one. She welcomed it, even as jagged and treacherous as it was.
She had resigned herself to exile with its loneliness and empty days. At least she had been free. Suddenly she was tired of crossing words with Li Tao, tired of guarding every look.
‘For as long as I can remember, every man I have met has wanted to bed me or kill me,’ she said bitterly. ‘Tell me which one you are so I know which face to wear.’
He straightened, incited by her directness. ‘Which sort of man is Gao?’
She frowned. ‘Gao Shiming?’ The sound of his name after all these years still made her go cold with fear. This was worse than she could have imagined.
‘What does Gao want from you?’
‘I don’t know. I’m nothing to him.’ She burned beneath Li Tao’s steady gaze and wondered if he had ever interrogated the men he’d been sent after. Or had he simply served as executioner under the Emperor’s orders?
‘So it is you and Old Gao challenging each other for the dragon throne,’ she said with forced casualness.
‘You sound bored.’
‘In the imperial court, every man is a conspirator.’
‘I have no interest in the imperial throne,’ he declared.
‘But I’m so rarely wrong.’
He smiled at her banter, but his expression intensified. ‘The empire is falling into ruin because it clings to the idea of one kingdom and one ruler. The Son of Heaven lording over the Middle Kingdom. That dream is over.’
She stiffened at his cynicism. ‘That sounds suspiciously close to treason.’
Speaking out against the Emperor with such scorn was enough to be deemed treason, but Li Tao also had an army at his command. He stood and she noticed he hadn’t touched the tea or any of the food. Cautious, even in his own home. She stared
