Chapter Eleven

We retraced our steps until we stood once more on the quiet residential street where the compass had mysteriously broken,

the panda banner fluttering mockingly in the wind. Zheng Sili glared at it like it was the singular cause of our troubles,

his shattered compass crushed tight in his fist.

I wondered if this was how Hong felt all the time—moments of his life wiped away as if they'd never happened, unable to trust

his own mind. The once pleasant street now felt sinister, the clear sky foreboding. If I couldn't trust my own memory, nothing

was safe.

The more I thought about it, the more obvious it became that we'd somehow lost time—how quickly the sun had set, how the compass

had broken for no apparent reason, how I felt more exhausted than I should have. How much time had we spent with the Arcane

Alchemist? What had happened when we found him? Judging by the broken compass, it hadn't gone well.

Zheng Sili looked ready to charge into the pub and raise hell for the crime of destroying his precious compass, but Wenshu

grabbed his arm before he could.

"Don't go in there so angrily," Wenshu said. "If he's there and sees us looking like we know what happened, he'll walk straight out."

"So what's our story, then?" Zheng Sili said, wrenching his arm away.

"That we need to, oh, I don't know, eat dinner ?" I said.

Zheng Sili shrugged. "I'm just saying, I'm not pretending to be your servant again."

"Then pay for your own damn food," Wenshu said, shoving the door open and waving me inside, slamming the door in Zheng Sili's

face.

I made a conscious effort not to survey the entire room the moment we entered. Instead, I cast a quick glance around as if

looking for empty tables, making a mental note of everyone wearing blue robes, which had apparently been one of the more salient

details. It wasn't hard, because the pub only contained a dozen or so people, all men, several in blue robes, three of them

with their backs turned. Of course this couldn't be simple.

I shuffled closer to Wenshu, who pretended to think carefully about which table to sit at. Zheng Sili slammed the door open

and stomped inside behind us.

"This place is for drinking, not standing," one of the barmaids said, causing a few heads to turn our way. Wenshu distractedly

slapped some coins on the counter, gesturing for me to sit beside him.

Zheng Sili cleared his throat, waving at the barmaid. "Do you have ox?"

Wenshu elbowed him in the ribs. "Do you have to order meat every time we go out?"

"Do I have to eat dirt just because you do?" Zheng Sili said as the barmaid set down some cups full of dark wine in front of us. Durian slid his beak out of my bag, but I quickly poked it back inside and tightened the drawstring. Setting an alchemical duck loose in the restaurant wouldn't exactly improve our stealth.

I took another slow sip and tried to look casually around the room.

One man in blue sat by the window, laughing and slamming down his cup as he talked loudly to two other men. That probably

wasn't our alchemist—anyone with a forgettable face probably didn't have many friends.

Another man in blue at a corner table had a young boy in his lap and a woman by his side eating off his plate. I doubted the

Arcane Alchemist had built a reputation as a thief and then started a family in the same city where he brazenly robbed people.

Another man in blue was reading a scroll at a dimly lit table by the opposite wall. He glanced up in irritation whenever his

candle flickered too violently, his reading light shifting back and forth. With his back to the door, he didn't seem to have

noticed us. I leaned slightly out of my seat, trying to get a better look at what he was reading.

As I leaned forward, I locked eyes with another man, who was slipping out the back door.

In the darkness of the far wall, it was hard to make out the hue of his robes. But as the candlelight flickered, I caught

a bright flash of blue on his sleeve as he reached for the door.

We made eye contact for one fleeting moment, his hand an inch away from the doorknob.

He looked young, his face smooth and bright, dark eyes wide as he drew back at the eye contact. His hair fell over half his

face, softening the harsh edges of his jaw. I was certain I hadn't seen him before.

Then the moment dissolved, and he turned back to the door.

On the side of his face, there was a single freckle just under his eye.

I leaped from my seat, ignoring Wenshu's and Zheng Sili's questions as I hurried after the man, nearly overturning a server.

I couldn't let him out of my sight, or this would start all over again and we'd have no chance of finding him.

He was already heading out the doorway, but I grabbed on to his sleeve and stumbled into the alley with him just before the

door could close.

"Hey!" he said, trying to pull his sleeve away from me. I held on tight, taking out my knife.

He raised his hands and backed against the wall of the building, jolting at the impact. His eyes watered as I drew closer,

his hands shaking. The certainty I'd felt in the pub rapidly dissolved, weakening my grip around my knife. Could this startled

deer of a man really be a great alchemist? His face certainly wasn't plain and unmemorable. In fact, I wasn't sure I'd ever

seen a more handsome man, and I prayed Hong would forgive me for the thought. He had perfectly smooth skin and comet-bright

eyes, his face somehow as delicate as an orchid yet thornlike in its sharpness.

Wenshu burst out of the back door, knife already in hand. The man in blue flinched, wringing tears from his eyes. He flinched

again when Zheng Sili stumbled out the door a second later.

"I have a few coins in my pocket," the man said, hands still held up in surrender. "You can take whatever's there."

I looked to Wenshu, sure my expression gave away my doubt. "I don't remember him," I said, "but I wouldn't, would I?"

Zheng Sili frowned, stepping around me to examine the man more closely. "No alchemy rings," he said. He grabbed one of the man's hands, running his fingers over the smooth skin. He knew as well as I did that alchemists usually had calloused palms and broken nails from our transformations. "He doesn't look like an alchemist. He looks like a student who snuck away from his studies."

"I'm not an alchemist!" he said. "And my father can give you more if this isn't enough! Whatever you want!"

"We're not mugging you," I said.

"Unless you lie to us," Zheng Sili added. "We're not people you want to lie to." Then he turned to me expectantly. "Hùnxiě?"

I blinked. "What?"

"Show him," he repeated. "Go on." When I didn't move, he rolled his eyes and switched to Guangzhou dialect. "Go beat some

answers out of him."

"We don't even know if he's the Arcane Alchemist," I said. "And why do I have to do it?"

"Isn't this how peasants solve problems?" he said. "By knocking each other's teeth out?"

"And what do the rich do instead?" I said, clenching my fists. "Bludgeon each other with their massive bags of gold?"

"We're wasting time," Wenshu said from behind us, arms crossed. "If you don't think it's him, we need to get back inside before

anyone else in blue leaves."

I sighed, sheathing my knife with more force than necessary. Surely there were many men who fit the hasty description in my

note, and this clearly wasn't the one. The man looked between us as we released him.

"You're really not mugging me?" he said.

"Just go," I said, massaging my forehead. What a waste of time. No wonder the Empress was taking over whole towns—we were

never going to find her alchemist at this rate.

"Unbelievable," Zheng Sili said, crossing his arms. I didn't know if he was more frustrated with me or the man we'd almost mugged, but I didn't care.

The man bowed awkwardly, then turned and rushed off.

The Arcane Alchemist had probably left before we returned to the pub. He could be anywhere in Zhongwei by now, or maybe he'd

even fled to another city. Just like with the Sandstone Alchemist, I'd rushed into meeting someone powerful without fully

thinking it through and been woefully unprepared. I could almost picture the Moon Alchemist shaking her head in disappointment.

I clenched my teeth against the sudden urge to cry, even though I would rather have eaten sand than cry in front of Zheng

Sili. But as the cool winds of the north tore through my silk robes, I remembered once more how far I was from home, chasing

after a myth, with nothing at all to show for it. What was I even doing here?

"If there's anyone else you want to interrogate, do it now," Wenshu said. "He seems the type to call the police."

"Right," I said, the word clipped so he wouldn't hear any sadness in my voice. The man was almost gone now, hurrying back

to the street. A breeze descended from the mouth of the alley and gently nudged his hair over his shoulder.

There, on the back of his collar, a copper hairpin glinted in the moonlight.

I pressed a hand to the right side of my head, where my hair clip had disappeared that afternoon around the same time the

compass had broken. As expected, my hair hung loose, the clip gone.

My hand fell to my side, my gaze locked on the man as he turned to look over his shoulder one last time. Our eyes met, and

all at once, I remembered.

Zheng Sili's compass pointing straight toward the entrance of the pub.

A man in blue silk bursting outside.

Eyes like shooting stars, face as soft and white as a lily, a wicked pearl smile.

A swift argument, then Zheng Sili's compass crushed beneath his boot.

See you never, Scarlet , he'd said, waving goodbye, heading back into the pub.

But before he'd disappeared, I'd slipped one of my hairpins onto his clothes, praying we'd stand a chance at finding him again.

And it might not have worked, if I'd actually been an aristocrat from Chang'an—the rich wore gold hairpins, the same ones

that held up this man's hair. Seeing one on the back of his clothes might not have meant a thing.

But I had always worn copper hairpins made from Wenshu's old scroll clips, ever since I'd used one to stab Zheng Sili at my

first alchemy trial.

I was running before I even realized what I was doing, yanking the man back by the collar. I gripped him with one hand and

unsheathed my knife with my teeth, then pressed the blade to his throat.

Wenshu and Zheng Sili hurried to catch up to us, watching me with wide eyes.

"I know who you are," I said.

All of his trembling stilled. He let out a sharp laugh. "That's impossible," he said, looking over his shoulder, his comet-bright

eyes locking with mine, a dark smile spreading across his face. The timidness of his earlier persona had vanished, his words

in crisp Chang'an dialect, each one like a thorn. "I'm no one."

Then he wrenched himself out of my arms and grabbed my wrist, twisting it backward. The knife slipped from my hands and clattered on the ground, and the man took off running.

I raced after him, clutching my bag to my chest so I wouldn't shake Durian too much. Wenshu and Zheng Sili quickly caught

up, and the three of us chased the man in blue down the road, dodging merchant carts and ducking under camels. The man took

a sharp turn down a side street, vaulting over a child playing with chickens in the road.

Wenshu had nearly caught up to him. Of course the prince's body wasn't any good at fighting but was fantastic at running for

his life.

The man clambered over some abandoned crates, reaching for the rammed dirt wall that separated the city from the desert.

"Don't let him out of your sight!" I called. But Wenshu was way ahead of me, grabbing hold of the man's sleeve and yanking

him back before he could jump over the wall. Zheng Sili and I made it to the crates and tried to help Wenshu drag him to the

ground, but the man was already straddling the wall, and pulled the rest of us over with him.

I hit the ground and something crunched wetly beneath me. Judging by the pained sound Zheng Sili made, I worried I'd cracked

his skull open. But as I rolled to my feet, my side plastered with pink fruit, I realized that what I'd actually destroyed

was a watermelon.

We'd made it past the city walls and fallen into the gravel fields of watermelon spanning for miles into the horizon, the rocks sharp beneath my thin shoes. Wenshu was sitting in half a smashed watermelon, black seeds stuck to the side of his face. Zheng Sili stumbled to his feet, his skull thankfully not smashed open, though the watermelon beneath him hadn't been so fortunate. The man in blue had fallen a few feet away and was hurrying to untangle his ankle from a vine.

I reached for my stones, but Zheng Sili was faster. He seized the nearest watermelon, and alchemy raced through the vine like

blue lightning. He was a breath too slow, and the alchemy only singed the man's fingertips as he freed himself and leaped

to his feet.

"There's nowhere to run from us out here," I said. "The wall is too high to climb on this side, and we'll never lose sight

of you in a valley like this."

"We don't want to hurt you, to be clear," Wenshu said, wiping sweat from his forehead.

The man rolled his eyes. "I know what you want," he said. "We've already met. That's how I know I have nothing to say to you."

Then he slammed his palms into the ground.

The gravel , I realized too late. I'd thought the man was helpless with no alchemy stones, but we were standing in a field of rocks.

The world exploded into red.

I held my arm up against the barrage of sticky water and wet fruit. A thick chunk of rind hit me in the chest and knocked

the breath from my lungs, but I managed to stay on my feet. My vision cleared, and we were standing in a decimated section

of farmland, craters carved into the earth where the watermelons had once sat, the dirt mixed with pink fruit flesh and scraps

of rind.

I whirled around, and as expected, the man was running back toward the city walls, probably hoping to loop around to the front

gate.

"This is ridiculous," I said, cuffing watermelon juice from my face. "Hold him down," I said to Zheng Sili, who was spitting out watermelon seeds behind me.

"With pleasure," he said, reaching for the vines once more.

This time, four vines lashed out like serpents, each one seizing one of the man's limbs. He fell to his chin with a yelp,

yanking at the vines to no avail.

I stomped toward him and picked up the nearest watermelon, holding it threateningly over his face.

" Quit destroying the watermelons! " I said. "Someone has to sell these, you know!"

"Okay, okay, fine!" the man said, trying to roll out of the watermelon's looming shadow. I set it down heavily next to me

as Zheng Sili and Wenshu approached.

"Now," I said, "I would introduce myself, but we've already met, haven't we?"

The man shot me a defiant look, then let out a stiff breath and fell limp against the soil. "Look," he said, "I know you don't

remember, but we've already done this part, so allow me to save us all some time. No, I am not best friends or secret lovers

with the Empress, and she cannot blackmail me because I have no possessions or loved ones. I've never even met her, much less

done her any favors, and I intend to keep it that way. She is very much not my type."

Wenshu opened his mouth as if to argue, but the Arcane Alchemist was faster. " Sorry if we don't take your word for it ," he said, mocking Wenshu's voice and rolling his eyes. "Sorry that I don't carry around proof that I don't know someone."

"You broke my compass, didn't you?" Zheng Sili said, frowning.

"Oh, your little toy that would lead the police straight to me?" the man said incredulously. "Yes, how cruel of me not to let you keep that. I thought it would at least prevent a repeat of this foolish encounter, but it seems today is not my lucky day."

I rolled my eyes and yanked at his collar, peering down his spine for some sort of soul tag.

"Oh, this part was my favorite," the Arcane Alchemist said. "The part where you three argued for ten minutes about whether

or not it's ethical to force me to strip so you can check me for a soul tag, then I got so tired of your bickering that I

stripped anyway just to shut you up. We can skip to that part again if you like?"

"Shut up," I said, at the same time Wenshu whispered, "That does sound like us." He turned to the Arcane Alchemist. "And why did we let you go the first time?"

"Oh, you didn't," the Arcane Alchemist said, shrugging. "I just ran into the pub when you thought I was putting my clothes

back on, and you all forgot about me for a bit. But it doesn't change the fact that I didn't know the Empress an hour ago

and I still don't know her now. So if you would be so kind as to release me—"

"No," I said. His story sounded fine on the surface, but I wouldn't let him slip away a second time. "Why should we trust

someone who has no problem lying through his teeth every day? You've obviously had a lot of practice at it."

"But not enough practice at alchemy, apparently," Zheng Sili said. He gripped the Arcane Alchemist's chin, turning his face

to the side to examine him better beneath the streetlight. The man let him turn him easily, looking oddly smug. "You have

a nice face," Zheng Sili went on. "It's a shame about the rebound."

The man lifted an eyebrow. "Rebound?"

Zheng Sili crossed his arms. "You know, the small issue of no one being able to remember your pretty face the minute you leave a room? You can't fool me. You've clearly done way too much alchemy on your face and rebounded so badly you've practically wiped it clean off."

"Oh, that," the man said, relaxing. "No, that was completely intentional."

Zheng Sili frowned, looking to me as if I could explain it.

"You wanted to be forgettable?" I said.

He shook his head. "To be arcane ," he said slowly. "Anyone can have a pretty face, but the most beautiful things are the most fleeting. If we lived in a world

of perpetual sunsets and cherry blossoms, they would become common, and their colors would soon look dull. But for the evanescent

moments that I exist, I am the most beautiful thing anyone has ever seen."

"You kind of look like me," Zheng Sili said.

I smacked his shoulder. "He looks nothing like you."

"I look like whatever is most beautiful to the person who sees me," the Arcane Alchemist said, smiling darkly.

"That makes sense," Zheng Sili said, nodding.

"And you think you're the most beautiful man on earth?" I said. "That explains a lot."

"I didn't know that was even possible," Wenshu said, ignoring us both. "To alter someone's perception with such precision."

"It shouldn't be," Zheng Sili said, turning back to the alchemist. "What stones did you use?"

The Arcane Alchemist rolled his eyes. "It's not something you can replicate, so don't bother trying."

" What's that supposed to mean? " Zheng Sili said. "Are you saying I'm a lost cause?"

I cast Wenshu a withering look and massaged my forehead where a headache was brewing. I was honestly starting to doubt whether

this was the Empress's alchemist, only because she probably would have murdered him by now for his pompous attitude.

I shivered as a breeze rolled across the fields, my clothes now damp from watermelon juice. I crammed my fists into my pocket and huddled closer to Wenshu while Zheng Sili and the Arcane Alchemist kept bickering. My fingers crunched against the stiff parchment I'd balled up in my left pocket, the wanted flyer Zheng Sili had given me last night. I pulled it out, wanting to tear it up for what a waste of time this had all been.

But my gaze settled on the printed sketch of the Arcane Alchemist, the smooth expanse of nothingness where his face should

have been.

The dragon's white eye, the faceless night.

I'd learned that the dragon's white eye meant opal, but perhaps the faceless night was just as important. Maybe the dragon's white eye was the stone, and the faceless night was where—or who—it came from.

"Did you use opal?" I said, loud enough that Zheng Sili and the Arcane Alchemist stopped arguing, turning to me.

"That was... one aspect of it," the Arcane Alchemist said, avoiding my gaze, "but as I said, it's not something you can

replicate."

"What kind of opal?" I said, stepping closer. "Where did you get it?"

For the first time, the Arcane Alchemist looked genuinely angry. "What does it matter?" he said. "It was my transformation, and it can't be done again! Your questions are pointless."

Pointless? I thought bitterly. I thought of Hong waiting for me in the darkness, fading into a whisper of light. This man had clearly

been in possession of an immensely powerful alchemy stone, and he'd squandered it to make himself beautiful. I took out my

knife again and held the tip to his throat.

" Where did you get it? " I said again, my voice low. The Arcane Alchemist had gone very still, Zheng Sili and Wenshu suddenly silent behind me, as if they could sense that this was no longer an idle threat.

The man swallowed, the motion tearing a pinprick of blood from the tip of my knife. "Somewhere you will never find," he said,

the words quiet, almost mournful. The Sandstone Alchemist had said something similar to me once.

"Somewhere like Penglai Island?" I said.

The Arcane Alchemist went still, another drop of blood chasing the first down his throat. "What does a girl like you know

about Penglai Island?"

"Only that I need to go there," I said, "no matter the cost."

The Arcane Alchemist let out a sharp laugh. I pulled my blade back a fraction so I wouldn't slit his throat by accident.

"You and me both," he said, "but that place is long gone."

"Gone?" Zheng Sili said sharply from behind me. "Islands don't just disappear."

"It wasn't just any island," the Arcane Alchemist said, his expression grave, gaze distant. "It was a fountain of alchemical

power. Very little was impossible when it came to Penglai."

"You've been there?" Wenshu said, crossing his arms.

"Yes, of course," the Arcane Alchemist said, glaring back at him. "I have sailed back to look for it a thousand times, but

there's nothing but dark water. And I promise you, a place like that is not something you simply forget how to find. It's

gone."

The handle of my knife creaked warningly as my grip tightened. There was no way that Penglai was gone. If the Sandstone Alchemist's

transformation was the key, then it wasn't a place one could simply sail to. He was probably lying to keep us away. He had

to be.

Zheng Sili turned to me, expression pinched. "Then why was that desert alchemist so protective of his stupid transformation?"

"Desert alchemist?" the Arcane Alchemist said, frowning.

I grabbed Zheng Sili's sleeve and yanked hard, but he kept talking, undeterred. "The Sandstone Alchemist, wasn't it?"

All at once, everything about the Arcane Alchemist's expression changed. It was as if dawn had broken in his eyes, his expression

filled with warm light. "You found the Sandstone Alchemist?" he said, the words so delicate, so filled with hope. "He gave

you a transformation?"

Gave may not be the right word , I thought. But it seemed the Sandstone Alchemist was no enemy to the Arcane Alchemist, so admitting that we'd robbed him

was probably not wise.

"Can I see it?" the Arcane Alchemist said before I could answer, tugging against his restraints.

"No," I said, raising my knife again. "You know the Sandstone Alchemist?"

He nodded quickly. "Yes, we were childhood friends. Look, I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, what with you

grabbing me and mugging me and all. I didn't realize you were his friends."

"And that changes things?" Wenshu said.

"Yes, of course," the Arcane Alchemist said impatiently. "I wasn't lying about Penglai—I have never been able to return. But

I trust the Sandstone Alchemist. If he thinks there's a way back, it's at least worth looking into. He's a wise man."

"A wise man who tried to kill us," Wenshu mumbled in Guangzhou dialect.

"I can give you the opal I used," the Arcane Alchemist went on, ignoring Wenshu. "Straight from the rivers of Penglai Island. That's what you wanted, right? Whatever you need it for, it's all yours. It has served its purpose for me. And in return, if you find a way back to Penglai Island, bring me back with you?"

"That's a big if ," Zheng Sili said.

"Why do you want to go back?" I asked.

The Arcane Alchemist let out an incredulous laugh. "If you knew anything about Penglai, you wouldn't be asking me that question."

He winced as I pricked his throat with the tip of my blade. "You're going to have to be a bit more specific," I said. For

all I knew, he wanted to wield Penglai's power to overthrow the government and burn the country to the ground.

"I... may have overlooked certain... disadvantages to my gift the last time I was there," he said, glaring at the ground.

"He's broke," Zheng Sili said. The Arcane Alchemist glared at him but didn't deny it.

"That's all you want?" I said incredulously. "What, a fountain of eternal gold?"

"Something of the sort," he said, nodding. "It would be in everyone's best interest. I wouldn't need to pickpocket anymore.

It's beneath my dignity, I know, but it's not as if I can get a job when everyone forgets me. You would be doing the public

a great service by—"

"All right, fine ," I said, sheathing my knife. If he gave us the opal, I didn't much care what he did next, as long as it didn't cause more

harm.

The Arcane Alchemist grinned. "It's in my home, just beyond the fields," he said. "So if you wouldn't mind..." He glanced

pointedly at his restraints.

Zheng Sili looked less than pleased, but bent down and dissolved the vines with a couple firestones.

The Arcane Alchemist sat up and rolled his shoulders, then rose to his feet and brushed watermelon seeds from his robes, striding confidently toward the horizon. "No time to waste!" he said.

We walked a few paces behind him, the gravel crunching noisily beneath our feet. Zheng Sili looked thoroughly uncomfortable

with his hair matted by watermelon juice, a constellation of seeds still spread across his left cheek, which I had no intention

of telling him about. Wenshu looked like he'd eaten something sour, glaring unsubtly at the Arcane Alchemist's back as we

walked.

"I don't trust him," he said in Guangzhou dialect.

"Oh, he's full of shit," Zheng Sili agreed, "but we need his opal, don't we?"

"Right," I said. "We don't have to trust him to make a deal with him, as long as he delivers first."

The Arcane Alchemist glanced over his shoulder at me, winking in a way that made heat rush to my face. "Gossiping?" he said.

"How impolite."

"About as impolite as setting off watermelon bombs in our faces," Wenshu said.

The Arcane Alchemist rolled his eyes and faced forward, walking faster toward the horizon.

The sound of gravel grew quieter as we walked, the stones sparser as we reached the edge of the farmland, where the desert

rose up to meet us at the end of the valley. Golden sparks of sand spiraled toward us, stinging our eyes. There, right where

the desert began, stood a circular tent covered in wool felt, the fabric swaying dreamily in the desert winds, revealing whispers

of darkness inside. The soul of this desert felt different than what we'd walked through in Lanzhou—the sands there had felt

full of life, like the desert was a great golden beast with a beating heart deep in the groundwater. But this desert felt

cold, lonely.

"I can see why you need money," Zheng Sili said under his breath. "This isn't much of a house."

The Arcane Alchemist glared over his shoulder. "My inheritance was paid in copper," he said bitterly. "As you can imagine,

the age of gold has not been kind to me."

Wenshu frowned. "Nothing has been paid in copper since the Sui Dynasty," he said. "You can't possibly be over one hundred

and sixty years old. That predates life gold."

The Arcane Alchemist only shrugged. "Who needs life gold?" he said with a wink. "The waters of Penglai are potent."

Wenshu and I exchanged a startled look. "Is that a joke?" I said.

"Are you laughing?" the Arcane Alchemist said. "My jokes are always funny, so if you're not laughing, there's your answer."

"They do call it Penglai Immortal Island," Zheng Sili said under his breath. "Are you really immune to death?"

The Arcane Alchemist shook his head. "Oh, definitely not. Just immune to aging."

"Like life gold?" Wenshu said.

The Arcane Alchemist grinned. "Exactly," he said. "Where did you think the idea for life gold came from?"

"The Moon Alchemist," I said, frowning.

The Arcane Alchemist laughed and shook his head. "That's what the House of Li would love for you to think, but she wasn't

even born then. You can thank the Sandstone Alchemist for life gold. It just looks a bit... unflattering to the royal family

if the person to discover it isn't a royal alchemist, you know?"

The Sandstone Alchemist? I thought. No wonder he felt the need to hide so far out in the desert. Surely the Empress had done everything in her power

to end him so he couldn't take credit.

"But no, I am assuredly not immortal. I know at least several of my friends who also drank the waters have since perished."

"Friends?" I said, grinding to a halt. "Wait, how many people have been to Penglai Island?"

The Arcane Alchemist pursed his lips, looking up as if counting. I knew the answer deep in my heart before he said it out

loud. "There were eight of us in total," he said.

Just as my father's notes said.

The myth of Penglai was tangled with the myth of eight immortal beings and their elixir of eternal life. I hadn't been certain

when I started this journey just how much of the stories were true, for myths were only seeds of truth before they grew into

legends. But the farther north I traveled, the more it seemed that the legends of Penglai were real.

At last, we reached the yurt at the edge of the desert. The wind grew louder as it rolled across the dunes, the tent fabric

shuddering in the breeze.

"After you," the Arcane Alchemist said, pulling back a heavy tent flap. Inside, I could see nothing but darkness.

A strangely cold breeze from inside the tent wound in ribbons up my ankles, and a buzzing sound rose in my ears.

"Go on," the Arcane Alchemist said. "I know it's messy, but it's not that bad. No need to embarrass me."

The breeze sighed up from the shadowed sand within, the scent of wild orchids that I knew from the outskirts of Guangzhou.

The buzzing sound grew louder, and all three of us turned to Zheng Sili, the source of it. He patted down his pockets until

he pulled out the compass, the arrow now spinning wildly, humming like a forest of cicadas.

I looked back to the Arcane Alchemist, and that was when I understood.

At the beginning of my journey with alchemy, the key had always been listening.

To the world, the undercurrent of life running through and beneath it, tangled in everything and everyone. To the river and

its waters of life lapping over my feet. To the qi that vibrated through the universe like the echo of a zither string, humming

with life and warmth.

Transformations are like qi fireworks , Zheng Sili had said. They had to be, because qi was what powered all of our transformations. And right now, the Arcane Alchemist

was practically glowing with qi. I could hear the rushing current of blood flowing through his body, the frantic beat of his

heart, his every breath a tempest of alchemical power. Behind him, the darkness within the tent pulsed with qi.

"You can change people's perception of your face," I said slowly.

The Arcane Alchemist nodded, gaze sliding into a frown. "Yes, we've already established this."

"Can you change people's perceptions of anything else?"

He hadn't expected the question, and his startled eyes told the truth before he could speak a single word of protest.

He held up his hands in surrender. "Whatever you think I've done, you're wrong," he said. "How many times in one night will

you accuse me of something with no evidence?"

With his hands raised, my attention focused on the center of his chest, just beside his heart, where the qi was concentrated,

loud as the ocean. My gaze followed the silver chain just barely showing beneath his collar, disappearing into his robes.

I stepped forward and grabbed the end, yanking the chain toward me.

The Arcane Alchemist stumbled forward, surprised by the action. As the chain spilled into my hand, the pendant on the end slid down toward me—a silver ring encasing a cool white gem.

Opal.

I closed my fingers around it just as the Arcane Alchemist seized my wrist, and the world dissolved.

The tent fabric disappeared, as if devoured by the night sky. Wind rushed up from the valley below, carrying the sharp scent

of orchids as it tore through the space where only moments ago there was solid ground. We were standing at a precipice above

a valley, a steep drop into a rocky chasm below.

Wenshu and Zheng Sili lurched away from the edge, but I ground my heels into the stone and held out the hand gripping the

opal pendant. The Arcane Alchemist had been pulling away from me and stumbled at the sudden lack of resistance, wavering over

the edge. He grabbed my wrist, and the two of us balanced precariously between land and sky, a thin silver chain taut between

us.

"I don't think we need to go inside," I said. "I think everything we need is right here."

He clutched my wrist, his grip sweaty as I extended my arm out another inch, leaning him farther over the edge.

"My ring won't make you beautiful," he said, eyes alight with dark fire. " I made the sacrifice for it. Its powers don't transfer. Whatever you want to use it for, you'll have to pay the price."

I took a step closer to the edge, yanking the Arcane Alchemist forward. " There is nothing I wouldn't pay ," I said, surprised by the raw anger in my words.

The Arcane Alchemist cast a nervous glance at the valley below. He clutched desperately at my wrist, his nails drawing blood.

"That's what the Sandstone Alchemist thought too," he said. "And then he nearly destroyed everything."

My hand tensed around the ring. "What do you mean?" I said.

Before he could answer, the chain snapped.

The Arcane Alchemist clawed his fingernails into my forearm, yanking me forward as he fell backward over the edge. The valley

yawned open beneath me as the balance shifted, my stomach dropping.

Then arms closed around my waist, pulling me back so sharply that it knocked the breath from my lungs. Zheng Sili was grabbing

my arm, tearing it away from the Arcane Alchemist while I fell back against Wenshu. The Arcane Alchemist's sweaty fingers

slid down my wrist, our fingertips brushing for a moment, qi bright and sparkling in his palm.

Then he slipped over the edge, into the darkness.

I couldn't hear the sound of him hitting the ground over the roar of the wind, but I could sense as his alchemy fizzled out,

a candle extinguished in a single breath.

Zheng Sili released me and peered over the edge, grimacing. "Oh, he's definitely dead," he said.

I sat up stiffly, leaning toward the edge.

"You actually want to look ?" Wenshu said, tugging my sleeve, face curled with disgust.

"I have to," I said, pulling away.

Far below, where the desert bled into the rocks, the Arcane Alchemist lay crooked on the sand, his head a bright burst of

scarlet. An odd warmth spread through my chest, my heartbeat loud in my ears, and for a moment I thought I might cry. I had

wanted this man's ring, not his life.

Ever since I came to the palace, I'd only wanted to save everyone, and yet innocent people died every day because of what

I'd done. How had this become my legacy? The Scarlet Alchemist had once meant that I'd given my own blood for a dream of peace. Now it was the name of someone who walked through a kingdom drenched in red, the crimson of her robes hiding every bloodstain, devourer of all those who stood in her way.

I had made too many mistakes to be the hero that I'd once wanted to be. Maybe it was time that I stopped seeing myself as

anything but a curse. Alchemists had to destroy in order to rebuild, after all. I would save them all in time, but my hands

hadn't been clean for ages, and I might as well stop pretending they were.

I looked back at the ring, which hummed within my closed fist, like I'd grabbed hold of a shooting star. I opened my palm

and held it up to the moonlight to get a better look.

The opal swirled just beneath the surface, like a snowstorm encased in glass. In the darkness, it shone brighter than the

moon overhead, casting a circle of light and warmth around the three of us.

The dragon's white eye, the faceless night. I'd been a fool to think that any old opal would be the key to Penglai. Here, with this stone singing alchemy through my

bones, I was certain that this was the first piece of the puzzle. And if the Sandstone Alchemist's transformation was correct,

then there were two more pieces.

The dragon's white eye, the faceless night,

The song of silver, the serpent's bite,

The child of Heaven, the scarlet-winged tree,

Together at last, the shadow makes three.

The first stone had been forged in the waters of Penglai, carried by one of the Eight Immortals who had found it, so perhaps

the other stones were the same. It seemed we were no longer looking only for loose stones, but for the immortals who carried

them.

I slipped the ring onto my middle finger. The alchemy echoed through my bones, and all at once I felt as if I were a fallen comet, a ball of brilliant white fire. I closed my fist, and the feeling settled, energy whispering beneath my skin, waiting.

"Let's go," I said, looking back toward Zhongwei in the distance, so far away and small beneath the endless sky.