Golden Shadows

Chapter 4

Yin made her way past skillfully embellished pillars and jade statues. Her limbs were weighed down under the layers of traditional royal garments. Gold stitching swirled against navy blue fabric, deliberately matching the jewelry that covered her hands, neck and hair.

"Lady Yin." The two armed soldiers stationed at the doorway bowed their heads.

She nodded, waiting as they slowly opened the towering double doors, unveiling a room filled with servants surrounding a central figure. Moonlight filtered through silk-draped lattice windows, creating blotches of brightness on the marble tiled floor. Elaborate scenes were carved into the walls and ceilings, creating a sea of dips and turns in the smooth rosewood.

"You're so slow." She wrinkled her nose in playful disapproval.

"Good things take time." Kai, who was in the middle of having his face powdered, turned around. "You have no idea how much my back hurts right now."

He looked her up and down and furrowed his carefully drawn eyebrows. "How are you done so fast?"

"I took time too. But unlike you, I don't wait until the last minute." Yin replied. "My hair was done after breakfast."

"Did you not move your head for the last four hours?"

"I did." She grinned while moving her head from side to side, feeling the gravity pull on her headpiece as the gold chains dropping down from both sides rested on her shoulders. "But my hair didn't move an inch."

"I am incredibly jealous." He shook his head, or he attempted to, but his maid held his head in place, refusing to allow him the opportunity to ruin her work.

"You should be." Yin adjusted her robe. "Are you done yet?"

"Almost."

After a few more moments of frantic maids grasping and adjusting small details from all sides, Kai rose from his seat.

He had yet to choose an empress, so per Jiang custom, he would arrive with the highest ranking female of the same generation–his sister, the Princess.

They walked arm in arm, the two sets of footsteps muffled by the navy carpeted hallway to the palace entrance. Yin traced her eyes along the soaring marble pillars that lined the corridor. They had been in this same hallway dozens of times as children, but it wasn't a feeling Yin could ever get used to.

An array of palace officials, nobles, and servants bowed as they entered and took their carefully laid out places. The air tasted like rice wine and uncertainty, the atmosphere rigid as they waited.

Hui and the other guards smiled at her from the shadows. Yin smiled back before glancing at her mother, who had taken Kai's right side, with Yin on the left. Her attire was just as lavish, but her expression was unreadable.

"Emperor Li has arrived!" The announcement was piercing and accompanied by the subsequent rhythmic booming of the nearby drums.

Slowly but deliberately, in came the emperor Li Xian and his envoy. While Jiang traditional robes came in navy blue, the Li dress head to toe in white. Gold embellished their clothing just like in Jiang. However, unlike their neighbors, the Li decorated their skin with gold as well. Golden Li tattoos were a symbol of family and status. The emperor's was the most intricate, but was fully hidden beneath layers of silk and cotton.

His brother Prince Li Jun stood noticeably taller beside him with an ever so slightly clenched jaw. While his brother the emperor was the picture of his father, large eyed and square jawed, Li Jun was the opposite. His features were thin and lifted, consisting of pronounced edges and sharp angles.