My head thrummed in a steady rhythm. I groaned. Maybe it was the punches or, more likely, the alcohol but either way, it was my own fault. I pushed myself up to sitting. I had to force my eye open.

  I sat on a dirt floor, surrounded by stone walls with a low ceiling. There was a small window on the eastern side where wispy sunlight streamed into the grey room. The too-bright light sent me reeling and I winced. Hou’s laughter agitated the pulse behind my eyes. He sat across from me, watching me with warm eyes.

  “Don’t,” I whispered, but the vibration of my hoarse voice made my misery worse.

  “Drink.” He scooted toward me and poured liquid into a small bowl from the flask he wore.

  “That better not be wine,” I warned.

  He laughed but stopped when he saw me grimace. “It’s water.”

  Lifting the bowl to my lips, I sipped gingerly at first. I recognized the cool water from Guan Yin and gulped it down as it refreshed me. The throbbing in my brain eased a little and I sighed. Hou Zi scooted next to me and pulled me close to him so that I could lean my head on his shoulder.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “In jail. Along with five other men, we have been convicted of murder,” he said.

  “Murder?”

  “Hm. People were killed after those stupid races.”

  Sleep tried to tug me down again, but I shook it off. “Convicted?”

  “We're going to be hanged tonight.”

  I turned to face him. “What?”

  His eyes flashed. “Want me to use my powers yet?”

  I'd told him more than once not to help me. He was proving a point that my stubbornness refused to acknowledge yet.

  “The other men arrested?” I asked, ignoring his question, and knowing that it irritated him.

  “To be hanged as well.”

  “Were my parents among them?”

  “I didn’t see them.”

  I sighed, leaning against the wall as we sat in silence for a few minutes. The water’s magic helped to clear my head. “You could escape at any time. Sleep in a soft bed, or eat more dates. Why did you stay with me?”

  “To make sure nothing happened to you,” he said. “And I didn’t want you waking up here thinking you were alone.”

  I hugged my knees to my chest. My words were trapped within my throat.

  “Jiang Li, you don’t have to do everything on your own anymore.” His voice was soft in my ear.

  I chewed my lip and closed my eyes. We sat there a long time, until my eyes opened, and I realized I had been sleeping. The sunlight had vanished. Outside was dark, shouts of people wafted in through the window. Hou Zi tore a piece of flat bread in between his hands and offered it to me. There was a pile of dates and almonds sitting on a linen napkin spread out on the floor.

  “The guards didn’t even notice I was gone. They're more worried about the crowd.”

  “What crowd?” I asked.

  “People demanding the release of the blue and the green they arrested.”

  I glanced at our robes. “Us?”

  He smiled wickedly. “I can be quite charming.”

  “No, you can’t.” I rubbed my forehead. “I am so confused.”

  “That’s what you get for drinking and fighting.” He shrugged. “Did my actions teach you nothing?”

  Again, the urge to punch him came, but instead, I chuckled. Hou smiled.

  “It’s good to hear you laugh, especially when you don’t want to.”

  I took a bite of bread. “Thank you,” I said softly, hoping he knew what I meant.

  Our door opened and four soldiers entered. Hou who scowled when I mouthed the word 'no'. With our wrists tied behind our backs, they shoving us out the door and ushered us onto a cart loaded with five other men. The cart lurched forward as I searched the bruised faces of the condemned men. There was nothing in their manner or eyes that resembled either Niu Qiang or Zhilan.

  “Are they here?” Hou Zi asked. I shook my head. “Should we go then?”

  “There are too many people watching, they will notice. There will be a better time.”

  “Fine. It’s not like a hanging will kill me, anyway,” he said. “But your little neck will snap easily enough and then Guan Yin will never release me.”

  I stared at him. “You’re not concerned with finding my parents or saving my life. You are worried that you will get in more trouble with Guan Yin.”

  He pointed to the circlet. “It chafes.”

  I shook my head and studied the faces in the crowd as we rolled by. I caught a glimpse of Niu Qiang’s brown eyes and stood in the moving cart, nearly losing my balance as I searched for him.

  “I saw Nui Qiang,” I said, Hou Zi stood beside me, but the crowd had swallowed him as we lumbered along.

  “Should we go find him?”

  Hundreds of people moved in the same direction as the cart, all going to watch the execution. There was no way to disappear from the cart without causing a commotion. The other five men watched us curiously but did not speak.

  “Not yet,” I whispered.

  The cart lurched to a stop, sending me tumbling into Hou. He caught me. The scent of ginger surprised me as I stared up at his smile.

  “Are you enjoying yourself right now?”

  “Why shouldn’t I?” he said. “The food is good, and they can’t kill me, no matter how they might try.”

  I glanced to our doomed companions and said, “Try not to be so happy for their sake, at least.”

  We were pulled from the cart and lined in a single file before being marched to the scaffolding. Hou and I were led to the far side and forced to stand on tall stools as they slung nooses around our necks. My heart hammered in my chest as the reality of dangling at the end of a rope kicked in. I glanced to Hou Zi who stood upon his stool and smiled as he scanned the crowd. Several voices called out to pardon him, pardon the man in blue. Others in the crowd demanded they pardon the man in green.

  “I guess I'm not the only popular one,” he said.

  At the other end of the row, the charges were read to the crowd before the first stool was kicked out. A pair of legs kicked and jerked in the air until they went still. The soldier did not wait, kicking over the next stool and moving swiftly our direction.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Hou?” I squeaked. “Now, Hou.”

  “What was that?” he asked. “I couldn’t hear you over the crowd. You’ll have to ask again.”

  I wanted to curse him but now was not the time. “Please get us out of here.”

  “Hm, how can I when someone doesn’t want me to use my abilities?” There was equal parts mirth and meanness in his tone.

  “Hou, please.” I said as the fourth man swung. “Get us out of here.”

  He tapped his foot, waiting. I knew what he wanted.

  “I’m sorry I stopped you. I’m sorry, please help me now.” The stool beside mine crashed over. The soldier stepped behind me.

  “I don’t want to die.” I begged.

  The soldier kicked the stool from under me. For a second, I was suspended in the air. The noose tightened around my throat. Pressure mounted in my head. Then, with a sharp gust of wind and a loud snap overhead, the pressure released, and I fell. I landed on the ground in front of the scaffolding as the wooden beams that supported it crashed down. Hou pulled me to my feet.

  He slipped the noose over my head and pulled untied my wrists as I gasped for air and the crowd closed in on us. The soldiers ran after us but found their way blocked as the crowd picked up a call for mercy, encircling us.

  A hand gently tugged my sleeve.

  “Come with me. The church will give you sanctuary.” Said a lean monk. He gestured to a church on our left. The crowd parted as we ran through the church doors. The monks barred the doors behind us.

  The monk bowed his head. “It is God’s will that you have survived the hanging. They can’t kill you now.”

  “A god’s will.” Hou said under his breath, smiling pointedly at me.

  “Thank you, father, for your kindness,” I said. Hou skipped around the perimeter of the church, looking upward towards the rafters.

  The monk frowned as he watched him until the sound of elevated voices came through the doors. “You are welcome to stay at the Church of Saint Lawrence as long as you need to.”

  “Thank you, Father,” I said again. I found myself strangely unaccustomed to interacting with people not trying to kill me. I bowed stiffly and moved toward Hou Zi.

  He studied the mosaics of men and a woman holding a child. The images looked inhuman to me, unlike the Chinese murals and depictions I had knew and mentioned this to Hou.

  “These images aren’t meant to look human because they depict divinity, and divinity itself can’t really be captured. Can it?” He gestured in a sweeping motion. “They need more monkeys.”

  I stifled my laughter by covering my mouth.

  “Can we go now?” Hou Zi asked.

  There was chanting coming from the streets, I smelled smoke. The monk informed us that the imperial guard had surrounded the church.

  “Not yet,” I said. “We are too conspicuous.”

  “I could change our illusions. We should head back to the inn,” he said.

  “Let’s spend the night and make our escape in the morning,” I said. “I think this is the start of something longer than I expected.”

  Hou Zi sighed, slinking off towards a wall, and laying down beside it. He was undisturbed by the escalating noise, or the dust that occasionally settled down from the ceiling. I stayed near him, finding safety in proximity. His face twitched and jerked, occasionally showing his teeth while he dozed, but he did not wake.

  #

  The following morning ushered in ongoing anger in the streets. The greens and blues worked together to save their comrades from execution. The monks reported fires burning, and people assaulting the soldiers. Later in the day, we hear that Emperor Justinian offered to commute our sentences from execution to imprisonment, but that didn't appease the mob. Then he offered to hold another set of races the following day.

  By evening we had been nearly forgotten and we slipped away when the monks began their rounds of evening prayers. Arriving back at the inn, our room was packed with jugs of wine and food. Hou dropped his illusion and wiped mine away. We were ourselves again.

  “I'll miss your beard,” he said, picking up a jug of wine and tipping it into his mouth. Catching my disapproving look, he shrugged. “It’s good wine, if you don’t like it, I’ll take it back to my home. Or I might just drink it now.”

  “We have to stay alert,” I said. “No drinking.”

  He frowned but corked the wine and set it down begrudgingly. I crawled onto the bed and fell asleep as the streets quieted. I dreamt of a tree growing in the middle of a cave, felt moisture on my skin and heard water falling nearby.

  The day of the races, the streets filled with people cast blue or green making their way to the hippodrome. The crowd needed no alcohol to incite their clamor.

  “I’m not going back to those races.” Hou said. “If you wish to go, I will wait for you elsewhere.”

  Having seen my father wearing a green sash, I was certain he would be there but was unsure of Zhilan. I had a sinking feeling that today was not the day, either.

  “Why do you think we are here so long?” I asked, watching the people stream by in the street below. “I’ve never been anywhere for more than a day before. I wonder if I’ve been looking at this all wrong.”

  “Looking at what?”

  “Maybe it is the event itself I should try to prevent. That would keep them from dying.” I said.

  “How?”

  I leaned my head on my hands. “No idea. It’s probably a silly idea.”

  He stood next to me. “Not silly, it just takes more planning.”

  I looked up at him, his eyes were trained thoughtfully on the hippodrome in the distance. Alone for five hundred years, I remembered.

  “What should we do today?” I asked.

  We spent the day walking through the local markets, listening to the whispers of increasing agitation toward the emperor. And whispers of violence.

  We watched the fishing vessels row in as we walked along the shores. It was cold, but the chill didn’t bother either of us. In heaven, the weather does not change, perpetually the same pleasant temperature and sun. Sometimes I missed an overcast sky that threatened rain, or the cold white snow. The chill in the air reminded me of innocent times.

  Hou acted like a rambunctious child, stealing fruits for us to eat, and mocking my scolding. It was a good day until an angry mob swarmed the street and a chorus rose from inside the hippodrome.

  “Nika! Nika! Nika!” They cried. Then “Long live the merciful greens and blues!”

  That night our inn and the surrounding houses burned. Hou and I refocused on searching for my parents while avoiding the fights that consumed the streets.

  Justinian hid in his palace while the crowd freed the prisoners of the praetorium and killed the guards. They burned one of the gates to the palace and even set fire to the Hagia Sophia -though Guan Yin said later that they built a better version of it.

  Eventually, Emperor Justinian agreed to the mob’s demands, dismissing the head of tax collection, but the city would not be appeased. There were rumors that some senators paid citizens to keep the fighting going in effort to usurp Justinian. The mob cried out for another emperor, pulling an old general from his home and forcing the title upon him before they sequestered themselves at the hippodrome.

  We slept in boats or abandoned houses, though I am not sure that Hou slept at all. He woke me when the fires came too close, moving us to another location before I could protest. He brought us food and water and drank his wine, but did not offer me any. Bodies were piled in the streets as shops and home burned.

  “Something is different.” I said, watching the streets. The thrum of the crowd in the hippodrome could still be heard but the streets were quiet.

  “Is it time?” Hou asked, standing up and stretching.

  “I think so.” The scent on the air was subtly fragrant and sweet, so subtle that I thought only I could smell it. But Hou said he could smell the plum blossoms too. At home the blossoms would peek through the snow, but I suspected that Constantinople didn’t have the winter variety of trees.

  “I need to go to the hippodrome, that is where it is going to happen,” I said.

  “What will happen?”

  We'd heard two armies were returning from war, their generals loyal to Justinian. “The emperor must put down this uprising.” I shivered, there was only one way this could end. “He'll slaughter the protestors there.”

  Hou followed me into the hippodrome where we skirted the perimeter of the agitated mob. Thousands of people clamored for replacing the emperor, not realizing they were hastening their deaths. Zhilan and Niu Qiang were here somewhere. The crowd reminded me of the battles and wars I'd witnessed. Everyone here was going to die.

  Hou was unusually quiet, staying close to me. He barred his teeth in a semblance of a smile as the hair on his neck and arms rose underneath the illusion.

  “Are you alright?” I asked.

  He narrowed his eyes in annoyance. “Are you alright?” He snarled. “These stupid humans are too loud, too angry. I think we should save the horses instead.”

  There was something else that bothering him, but I wouldn’t ask. “Fine, go do that. I'll save them without you.” And with that I stormed into the throng, searching for a hint of familiar eyes or movement. I didn't turn back. If he went to release the horses, I couldn’t blame him. We'd been together for days and I knew that Hou, in general, had little respect for humans.

  I climbed into the seats for a better vantage. Across the floor of the hippodrome, near a far exit, stood my father. He wore the green robes that I had spied him in several days prior and looked like the other men of the time. But he had my father’s eyes and mannerisms.

  Leaping from the seats, I sprinted down the stairs, shoving aside those in my way. Men yelled and howled, as I slid by.

  Behind Nui Qiang the gate slowly opened. Zhilan appeared a hundred feet away, her eyes fixed on him. She wore blue robes. A roar went up from the main entrance as panic gripped the crowd and a mass of bodies surged towards the gates. I was lifted from my feet, carried along in the crush as I fought to move forward.

  My feet finally touching the earth, I rushed toward them as soldiers marched through the gates. Niu Qiang turned, Zhilan’ voice lost in the chaos. She was only twenty feet away as the blade sliced through him. He spun and reached out to her in a moment of recognition.

  I screamed as Zhilan was cut down by another blade. The soldiers advanced into the arena from all sides, as the crowd trampled each other to get out, but the exits were blocked.

  Fighting to catch my breath, I moved toward the steps. I yelled for Hou Zi, convinced that he wouldn't hear me. I forgot about the mantra that would have forced his presence. The soldiers cut down all in their path. The sand turned red beneath their feet as I shuffled backward.

  Hou’s arms encircled me from behind.

  “I’m here,” he said, before spinning me away from the slaughter.