Chang'an, Palace of Eternal Trust.
Incense crackled in the bronze burner.
Empress Dowager Dou picked at crow's feet in the mirror, voice soft as a viper:
"Museum, where is the Prince of Linjiang now?"
Princess Guantao knelt, laughing like a wrinkled old fox:
"Mother, everything is locked tight. Court Lieutenant Wang Heng is mine, Yuqiu magistrate Zhao Buyi is mine, and that fat jailer Chen Piggy—he's the shadow I planted twenty years ago. Last year I gave him five hundred taels and a cart of cured pork. He swore on his pigs, 'Killing His Highness is easier than killing my own sow.'"
The Empress Dowager took out a thumb-sized jade vial carved with twin-headed serpents:
"Red-crown crane venom mixed with western fragrance. Takes three days to kick in, looks exactly like suicide by hanging. Have Piggy mix it in the food, then 'kindly' persuade the prince to eat his fill. Success—he gets hereditary county magistrate. Failure—he feeds the turtles in Cloud Dream Marsh."
Princess Guantao took the vial, giggling until her flesh shook:
"Then the historians can only write 'died of shame and hanged himself'. Little brat Liu Che won't have a shred of evidence to overturn the case."
The Empress Dowager stared at the strand of white hair burning to ash in the brazier and whispered:
"As long as Liu Rong breathes, he is a blade in Liu Che's hand. If the blade stays sharp, this old woman cannot sleep."