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I did not doubt his words, of course, and yet worry gnawed at me—even flying men could be killed, especially if it was only two against twenty. Against an armed twenty.

“You fought well,” Lee Bo said with some surprise, and sucked in his breath. “Come along now.”

We found ourselves in a small courtyard, where only two Taipings guarded the passage to the rest of the Forbidden City—I gasped at its vast and serene appearance, at the bright pavilions and the gardens that stretched around us. Everything was lavishly decorated. There was gold leaf to rival the domes of the Moscow churches, and carvings that seemed to breathe, giving life to the taloned maned monsters that decorated them.

The guards paid us little mind. The outside gates, heavy as they were, did not let through much sound, and I did not suppose they would have a reason to suspect that two men would somehow get through the twenty outside without their consent.

“Where’s Feng?” Lee Bo asked one of the guards—at least, this is what I thought he asked. I recognized the name Feng.

The guard waved his arm toward the large building off in some distance. Lee Bo translated. “Talking to the emperor, discussing terms of surrender.”

“Just the two of them?”

“Some officials.” The guard thought for a while, and then added, “And a Russian envoy.”

“Who would that be?” Lee Bo asked me as soon as we passed the guards.

“No idea,” I said. “I thought the Emperor Constantine did not want an alliance . . . but maybe my aunt has convinced him.” I smiled then, hopeful my work would be easier.

The Forbidden City seemed the Abandoned City now. We walked along the path lined with strangely shaped rocks and pillars; what they were supposed to represent was obscured by the snow. The trees that craned their slender, snow-weighed branches over the path must’ve been magnificent in the spring, when the white flowers frothed and cascaded over the boughs, and I squinted and imagined that the snow mounding on the stones were white petals of plum and cherry flowers.

“This is the Palace of Earthly Peace,” Lee Bo said and pointed at the large pavilion that dwarfed everything else around it. It also stood out from the surroundings because it had two roofs, one stacked on top of the other. The building itself was an arrangement of smaller pavilions, some lower and some taller. A wide staircase led toward it and several subordinate structures, topped with matching copper-colored rectangular roofs with steeply curved eaves.

“It is beautiful,” I told Lee Bo, and really meant it. “I’ve never seen anything quite so . . . ” I paused, searching for an appropriate epithet. It seemed so strange and otherworldly, especially considering that we just fought the people who were supposed to be on our side. “It’s very beautiful,” I concluded in a rather uninspired manner. “I am sorry for getting us into that fight—Wong Jun’s letter . . . ”

Lee Bo shrugged. “If we ran into Qing forces, that letter would’ve had an opposite effect. In any case, you’re a barbarian, and it would be foolish to expect people to trust you.”

“Kuan Yu does.”

Lee Bo shook his head, smiling. “This is very naive of you. Do you think he is helping you because you’re serving the purpose he finds agreeable, or because you’re so precious that everyone who runs into you just has to help you?”

“The former.” I tried not to sulk.

“Right. So don’t take it personally, but do remember that people . . . people will do what suits themselves first. Don’t expect them to stop everything because you happened to wander by and need help.”

“I don’t,” I said. “Is it another one of those arguments you mentioned before?”

He nodded. We ascended the white staircase to the Palace itself, and I thought of how unlike the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg it was. Irrelevant and minor thoughts always plagued me at such important times, and I shook my head to clear it.

There were more guards here, but they wore Qing queues, and I wished I still had Wong Jun’s letter.

My stomach growled and acted as if it was