After the Great Dao Died

Of the two sitting there, one was the cherished young lady of the marquis residence. The outer corners of her eyes were slightly elongated, giving her an aura of quiet, effortless authority.

The other was County Princess Yunhe, personally titled by the reigning emperor. Her father, the Prince of the East, was said to command some of the most formidable martial might in the Great Li Dynasty.

She had been raised in the imperial palace from infancy under the empress dowager's personal tutelage. Thus, though she bore the rank of a county princess, her retinue and privileges were identical to those of an imperial daughter. Even here in Yuanjiang Prefecture, she had a temporary palace of her own!

Now, the two sat in the octagonal pavilion admiring the snow and flowers. The snow piled on the pavilion's roof was already thick enough to sag over the edges, and a few crystal-clear icicles hung from the eaves, gleaming a cold blue in the dim light.

Two bronze braziers burned inside the pavilion. The charcoal fire roared, baking the interior until it was comfortably warm.

Not far from them, at the entrance to the garden, a crowd of bondservants huddled their necks into their collars against the swirling snow, bending low over the stone path outside the veranda to sweep with all their strength.

Several thinly clad servant boys were straining together to push a wheelbarrow, hauling the swept snow to the drainage ditch beyond the garden to dump it.

Inside the octagonal pavilion, the two noblewomen sat with their backs to them. They could not see these people, and the hems of their garments had never been touched by the wind and snow.

Not far outside the pavilion, those bent-backed, hunch-shouldered figures seemed ever smaller and drabber against the vast white landscape.