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They nodded in fervent agreement, falling in love with Blossom the way of girls and horses the world over.

I bowed in the Chin fashion, hand over fist. "My thanks."

And then we were off, off once more.

I will not chronicle the whole of our journey to Shuntian. It is enough to say that it was swift and uneventful. We rode mounts borrowed from Governor Po. Lord Jiang had secured his hold in the south. North of Ludong City, the Emperor's rule was yet law.

We traversed flat, fertile lands along the rivers where peasants plowed the earth, guiding placid water buffalo with fearsome-looking horns.

We scaled mountains with pockets of snow nestled in their hollows.

In the mountains, I saw for the first time the Great Wall that the Ch'in folk had been building since time out of mind to keep the Tatar menace at bay. And I must own, even though I glimpsed it at a distance, the scope of it made me shudder.

It wasn't beautiful like the architecture of the City of Elua.

But it was so, so very vast.

It went on for leagues and leagues, crawling over the spine of the mountains, winding and climbing, tall watchtowers spiking toward the sky. I couldn't even begin to imagine how many men had given their lives in the process of building it.

"Many," Bao said softly in answer to my unspoken thought. "They say it is the largest graveyard in the world."

I met his gaze. "Your blood-father came from beyond the wall. Do you ever wonder about him?"

He shrugged. "No."

At other times, we spoke in hushed whispers of Black Sleeve and the Divine Thunder, wondering if a weapon so terrible could bring down the Great Wall itself. Bao was of the opinion it could.

"Lord Jiang, he does not have enough yet," he said darkly. "Not enough to challenge the Emperor's army. But every day, he is making more. One day he will have enough."

"Why would he do it?" I lowered my voice further. "Black Sleeve, I mean. And why is he called Black Sleeve?"

"For the first part, no one knows except maybe Master Lo," Bao said. "And he is not saying. They call him Black Sleeve because he carries poisoned darts in his sleeves," he added. "One day in the mountains seven bandits attacked him." He made a sweeping gesture with one arm. "He killed all seven just like that."

"Oh." I stole a glance at Master Lo Feng sitting upright in the saddle, wondering for the hundredth time at the relationship between them. "Not someone I'd care to cross."

"You already have," Bao pointed out.

I remembered the alchemist frowning at me in puzzlement and shivered. "True."

It was midday when we finally arrived at Shuntian and passed through the massive outer gates. It was a city so large it dwarfed my notion of cities. Stone and sea! There were so many people! They made way for us in the streets, staring after us with open curiosity. Whispers followed us, filled with speculation and hope.

"Lo Feng!"

"Lo Feng has returned!"

Master Lo ignored the whispers, as serene as ever; and yet I thought his face looked careworn. Bao ignored them too, but he carried his head high, eyes glittering as he returned to the city where he had once been the prince of thugs, the city where he had left his former self behind.

For my part, I kept my eyes lowered, trying to draw as little attention as possible.

It worked for a time.

General Tsieh and his men escorted us to a city within a city—the Celestial City, a city of crimson walls and yellow tiled roofs, walled and moated within a city of walls and moats. We dismounted outside its gates, subjecting ourselves to the scrutiny of guards in full armor. Their commander recoiled and shook his head when he came to me.

"No foreigners," he said firmly. "It is not permitted for barbarian eyes to gaze upon the Son of Heaven."

Master Lo folded his hands in his sleeves. "She is my pupil."

"It is not permitted!"

My mentor inclined his head. "Then we will go."

The general sighed. He, too, had travelled a very, very long way to reach this moment, and I