The Wandering God

16 Make Fish Sink and Birds Fall 1/2

沉魚落雁
chényú-luòyàn
'Make fish sink and birds alight'
Beauty so great it can captivate even the birds and beasts.
*~*~*~*~*~*

Beauty is a powerful weapon.

I saw it in the seamstress's face when I put on her creation and stood, twirling the bright vermillion skirts. Even she was surprised. I saw it in Zakhar's face when I descended and he first set eyes on me in my gown. He looked pained, as though wounded by my appearance.

Beauty is a powerful, dangerous weapon. It can change men's hearts faster than any sword or other instrument of war and oppression.

I saw it in Kageyama, in his gruffness towards me, in the way he drew a line between us. I got the feeling he had experienced the power of beauty as a weapon before.

He even called it as such. "Any weapon to win a war, huh?" he had commented begrudgingly while watching me apply my makeup.

Beauty is a powerful weapon. And tonight, I was well armed.

Perhaps that was why, sitting across from the Second Prince, I felt so composed. This was the employer of the man who had tortured me, thoughtlessly, for hours. Yet no matter how much I reminded myself of this fact, before me I saw only a handsome man, composed in expression and confident in bearing.

I admit, I have always had a weakness for good looking men, and Prince Zhangyu was very good looking. His dark, arching eyebrows, the slight smile playing about his lips. His jet hair, cut even shorter than his uncle's and slicked back like water, with just a few strands escaping and falling across his forehead in a manner much too roguish for a prince.

My eyes roved, savoring his straight, muscular shoulders, and the way his uniform fit him just the way it should. To put it in a word, he was beautiful, his features more masculine than Sanli's, yet still with an elegance that set him apart from most men.

I found all of him very pleasing, but particularly the way his bright, copper eyes met mine, challenging me to unveil my secrets. In a way, he too wielded his beauty like a weapon.

I decided to let the Second Prince make his move first. I knew he would, if given long enough.

The coach had just left the long causeway from Chuanfang, the sound of the horses' hooves changing as the road went from stone to pressed dirt, when the prince spoke.

"I noticed before you wore many rings, but nothing about your neck," Zhangyu said, reaching into the breast pocket of his uniform jacket. He drew out a thin chain of rose gold, on the end of which dangled a fruit-red stone, a ruby or garnet. "If it is something you like, I wanted to offer you this, to wear tonight."

I held out my hand, and he let the gem and its chain trickle into it like water.

I quickly searched for any hidden zih or inscribed spells, pretending as if I was admiring the necklace. Finding none, I lifted the chain over my head. The color of the gem actually matched my dress well, the stone coming to rest on my chest just between where the swell of my breasts began. The Prince's eyes lingered on the necklace he had given me a little too long before returning to my face.

"What are the rings for, if you don't mind me inquiring?" Zhangyu asked, sitting back.

"For?" I asked innocently. "Why, for fashion, of course. Whatever else would they be for?"

"I thought perhaps they were scribed, for protection, or concealment," he said, watching me carefully and stroking the faint stubble on his chin.

He suspects something, I thought. The snake must have told him I should be dead.