Panic skittered through my body like rats.

  If I panic, I’ll die. The thought of my death only made the blood roar louder in my ears as I scrambled along the floor, dodging items from the shelves as the wind scooped them up and hurled them around the cave. I headed for Yuanshu, my heart stopping as I saw his crumpled form. Blood smeared the wall where he’d struck, but when I placed a hand on his chest, it rose beneath my fingers. “Wake up,” I hissed, fisting the thin cloth and giving him a hard shake. “Wake up and deal with this!”

  He didn’t stir, and I cursed. A pot shattered next to my head, exploding into a ball of green fire. I yelped and rolled away, smacking at the bits of flame that clung to my hair. Right. Not only was I trapped in a cave with no exit, it was a cave filled with alchemist’s toys. The spirit could kill me just by smashing the wrong two elixirs together and flooding the air with poison gas or something.

  With a shattering sound, one of the bonds came free and the spirit’s arm rose, boneless and misty. It clawed at the air as if it might climb out of its captivity. But, for now, the other three bonds held. It wailed in an unearthly register, one that set my ears to ringing. Its struggles intensified, and so did the tornado around it.

  The wind pushed me along the floor until I hit the wall. Desperate, I cried out, “Parley! I didn’t imprison you. I would parley with you, awesome spirit.”

  “Release me!” The shriek sent a stab of pain through my skull.

  “If I can, will you spare me?”

  “Release me or your death will make the heavens themselves weep!”

  Did spirits boast or lie? I had no idea. I knew they could deceive, but that wasn’t quite the same thing, and I had heard that a spirit could be bound by its word if freely given. I flung myself to the side before a pot of stinging weeds crashed into my chest. “If I can release you, you must swear to spare me!”

  The spirit’s free arm flung itself towards my voice, stretching out until it was nearly invisible, a wisp tipped with a hand that crackled with lightning. I jumped to my feet and ran, just ahead of the bolts that cracked stone and filled the air with the sharp scent of an oncoming storm.

  “I’m trying to help us both out,” I yelled, then dived away from the spirit’s retribution.

  “I will flay your flesh down to your bones!”

  I suppose I couldn’t expect a storm to be reasonable about these things. I dove for the ground again and cringed as the apothecary’s bag hit the stone. Something inside cracked. I hoped whatever it was wasn’t going to explode.

  With that thought came another. I carefully opened it. To my relief, whatever was broken inside didn’t seem to involve flames, poison, or I don’t know, spirit wasps. I searched for a particular jar; the one I’d seen Yuanshu open before, to harden the spirit’s flesh. Red clay, tin stopper, black wind symbol...there we go!

  Clutching my prize, I shrugged off the bag and left it on the floor. There were probably more useful things in there, but I didn’t know what they were, and chucking things at random was more likely to kill me than the spirit. The jar was large, my fingers didn’t meet around it, and Yuanshu had used only a sprinkle or two to create his crystals. I seized the stopper and pulled.

  It had only recently been refastened, and came loose with the grind of metal on ceramic. Inside, dull gray powder shifted as I tilted the pot to better see inside. I was careful, despite the urgency. I had absolutely no desire to find out what this might do to mortal flesh.

  On the table, another binding gave way with a crack and flash of light. The spirit rose into a sitting position, its furious gaze crackling with power as it swept the floor. It took no time at all for it to find me. Its hands rose, lightning twisting between them.

  I popped to my feet and thought the shortest (but most fervent) of prayers to the goddess of mercy. Then I flung the contents of the pot into the spirit’s face. An unassuming puff of gray settled over its skin and it actually stopped shrieking for a moment to blink at me with all three eyes, surprise and offense there in equal measure. Until the powder’s effects took hold.

  The spirit screamed, its attack forgotten as the flesh of its face began to bubble, then to harden. One eye was stuck closed as the eyelid froze in place, and the parts of the spirit that were becoming solid pulled away from its other parts in a way that looked horribly painful. Its chest still bore Yuanshu’s needles...and the gash in the center of their circle. As it writhed, the slit gaped and I could see the glimmer of cold blue deep inside.

  The contents of the jar were agonizing, clearly, but they didn’t seem to be enough to kill it. I lunged forward and jammed my fingers into the wound. The gelid flesh clung to my skin, bitterly cold the closer I got to that shimmering blue light. The spirit’s claws struck at my head and raked through my hair, tearing into my scalp. The storm-scent sharpened and I braced myself. The lightning struck just as my fingers curled around the soul pearl.

  It wasn’t pain. I had no words for the sensation of being impaled by that celestial bolt, but it was too overwhelming to be called merely pain. My whole body convulsed, both hands closing into fists as my vision whited out. I know there are moments there I don’t remember. Moments that I don’t want to remember. When my sense returned, I was reeling back from the table, the soul pearl clutched in my hand, the scent of my own burnt skin and hair thick in my nose. The spirit was breaking apart, dissolving into silver-blue mist. All except its face, which fell to the table with a crystalline chime just as I fell to my rear end on the stone.

  My skin and muscles were still twitching and I could feel blood from my torn scalp running hot down my back. What I couldn’t feel was the hand with the pearl. It was still clutched tight around it. The fingertips were a blue-gray that seemed wrong for flesh. I remembered how very cold it had been in the moment I’d touched it. With a whimper, I pried my fingers open—the nails had embedded themselves in the heel of my hand. The pearl fell out. It was a beautiful thing, shimmering and deeply blue, but with hints of golden lightning flickering in its depths.

  My hand was the opposite of beautiful. The pearl had burned every piece of my skin it touched with its bitter cold, leaving a perfect circle of black, frosted and flaking skin in the center of my palm, and similar burns along the inside of my fingers. I couldn’t feel it. That was probably for the best.

  Yuanshu was still sprawled unconscious against the wall. Some part of me, the same part that dreamed of Sun Feiyun broken and weeping at my feet, wanted to crawl over there and cut his throat. Or at least kick him in the face a few times for my trouble.

  But the damned man was my only way out of the wrecked cave, and probably the only way to fix my hand. I dragged my legs into a meditative pose and settled into wait, and to breathe.

  I can’t say how long it was before the healer stirred. Long enough for my legs to stop twitching and the first fiery pangs of feeling to return to my hand. It was more abrupt than I’d expected; a sudden shift in his breathing, and then Yuanshu was on his feet, hands coming up in a defensive pose.

  I had spent a good portion of the wait practicing the way I sniffed with all the disdain I could muster and said, “Don’t worry. I killed it. While you were out cold.”

  The way his expression twisted into shock was everything I’d hoped for. He stared at me, then staggered to the table. “Is this...its face?”

  “Probably. I threw some of your materials at it and while it was distracted, I yanked out the soul pearl.” I gestured with my good hand towards it.

  “With your bare hands?”

  Now, I lifted my other hand so he could see the damage. The widening of his eyes was deeply gratifying. He reached for the back of his head, grimaced at the sticky mess he no doubt found there. Then took a longer look at me. “That is remarkable. Remarkably lucky, no doubt...but you’re bleeding. And burnt.”

  “But not dead,” I pointed out.

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  “Not dead.” It was faint, like he didn’t believe it. After a moment, he added, more carefully, “And you saved my life.”

  I nodded to the array. “I don’t know how to make it work, Yuanshu. And as you pointed out, there’s no other way back to the sect. I don’t even know where we are!”

  “Actually, not far from the sect—the next mountain over. The one without the murderous spirit stalking its interior.” His voice was dry. “I thought it safest.” He cleared his throat. “It seems I owe you some gratitude. I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but I genuinely didn’t intend for you to come to any harm assisting me.”

  His mild brown eyes were sorrowful, soft with regret. Luckily, I’d been around him enough that I didn’t buy it for a moment. “Patching me up and getting me back to the sect is a good way to start if you’re feeling sorry.”

  Yuanshu hesitated. There was something else he wanted to say; I could see it behind his eyes. But he pulled it back before it could escape. What he said instead was, “Yes. I suppose it would be. Unfortunately, my lab is wrecked. I’m afraid we’ll have to teleport again.”

  “I was afraid of that.” I wobbled my way to my feet and tried to smile. “I feel so terrible that the array can’t make it worse.”

  I turned out to be wrong about that, but my stomach was already empty, so I only retched a couple of times before staggering out of the room. Yuanshu guided me to one of his tables and settled me on it. By this time, I was feeling hot, waves of pain radiating from my scalp and down to my wounded hand, which was throbbing and swelling in alarming fashion.

  “Here. Open your mouth and take these.” Yuanshu lifted two pills towards me.

  I flinched away. “What are they?” Neither looked like the dark green healing elixirs that I’d taken before.

  “One is a healing pill, but it’s stronger than what you’ve dealt with before. It might be too strong, if I’m honest. But it’s the only option to save your hand. The other is a medicine to help deal with the first problem—it’ll stimulate your meridians and help you to process the excess qi with a minimum of damage to your body.”

  “Minimum?”

  He shrugged. “Less damage than you have right now.” A pause, before he added. “Probably.”

  I took the pills and popped them in my mouth. One, the healing pill I guessed, was bright and refreshing when I broke it between my teeth, the medicine going to work immediately. The other pill was surprisingly sweet, making an odd but not unpleasant combination on my tongue. Qi rushed through me in a wave of light and energy. I could feel my wounds starting to mend, knitting together much faster than they had with the pills I’d taken before. I couldn’t resist turning my head to watch my hand.

  The skin was flaking off, which made me regret my decision. I could see muscle beneath, pink and striated, before new skin started to crawl over to cover it. The throbbing of the frostbite was replaced with a tingling warmth. “Wow.”

  Yuanshu chuckled. “It is rather impressive. That’s one of the reasons I chose alchemy as my specialty, you know.” His voice was soft. “I wanted to heal the greatest of wounds.”

  I looked from my hand to his face. “Seven Striking Thunder doesn’t seem like the kind of sect for that.”

  “Doesn’t it?” He smiled, just a little. “I suppose not. But once you pass the trials, you’ll find that the sect is quite accepting of all manner of research and pursuits. We are not all malicious reavers. We simply don’t wish to be blocked in our pursuit of true enlightenment by the arbitrary laws of Heaven.” He leaned forward. “You should consider that righteous sects would not necessarily take on someone whose stated goal was vengeance.”

  I flexed my hand, slowly. It moved under its own power, and looked almost as good as new. Except for the perfect circle in the center of my palm, a circle of skin that had a strange, blue tinge to it. “If someone hadn’t been threatening to kill me, I wouldn’t have had to state a goal. Is that something righteous sects do?” I turned my hand to show him the palm. “And is this something I should be worried about?”

  He glanced down at it, and shook his head. “Not medically. Spiritually...you’re a mortal who slew a spirit with your bare hands. There are sometimes consequences for such acts.”

  I groaned, closed my eyes. “I’m tired of consequences.”

  There was a chuckle above me. “Sometimes consequences are positive.”

  I’d believe it when I saw it.

  *

  I arrived early and underslept to lessons with Jian, having escaped from breakfast as soon as I could without attracting attention from Zhuzhu. The qi of the healing pill was still working within me. I felt...amazing.

  Unless I sat still for more than half a minute. Then I started to feel nauseous and jittery. Even sleeping had been near impossible. So when I entered the little courtyard, I was momentarily disappointed to realize we’d have to wait for Kai to begin the sparring.

  Momentarily, because Jian favored me with a smile. A genuine, proud smile. “Ah, Younger Brother. I was hoping you’d arrive before our other student. I have something for you.”

  I froze, torn between surprise and wariness. “For me?”

  He inclined his head and drew from the sleeve of his robe a simple book of some sort, bound in the butterfly fashion. I took it on instinct as he offered, and unfolded it carefully. The interior was packed with lines of calligraphy and painted sketches of a figure in various poses and positions. “This is…”

  “A manual for one of the simplest of the secret arts of Dancing Viper style. Study it. You will not be able to comprehend the true depth of the technique until you’ve laid your Foundation and broken through to the next phase in cultivation. But it should be useful for you, nonetheless.”

  “But...why?” My heart skipped a beat. Had Yuanshu somehow found a way to tell the other Inners that I’d killed a spirit?

  Jian cocked his head to one side. “I understand you were challenged, and won. Triumph should be rewarded. In the future, you may be able to claim a bounty from the body of a fallen opponent, but none of you have anything worth taking so I decided to supplement it.”

  “Oh!” It was relief more than joy, and Jian’s brow furrowed. I hastily added, “This is...I’m sorry, Elder Brother, I just didn’t expect anything like this. I sort of thought winning was its own reward.”

  He snorted, relaxing. “There are times when it is. But if my students find success, I reward them. And,” his gaze became searching, “if you fear that it’s some unusual favoritism, I assure you that it is not. Most of the disciples who won their challenges may be receiving similar rewards from others in the sect.”

  If Zhuzhu did, I was sure I’d hear about it. I glanced down at the delicate paper accordion and took a deep breath. Here was the way to gain power and maybe start finding ways that I might weaken or overcome Sun Feiyun. “Thank you, Elder Brother. I will do my best to honor the art, and your teaching.”

  “I should hope so,” he replied, more amused than anything. “But for now, put it away. If I were you, I’d tell no one that you have it—no one in the sect will stop another Outer, or even an Inner, from taking it by force.”

  “No one?”

  His expression remained serene. “No one. If you are not strong enough to hold what you have, Younger Brother, then you have no right to it.” His eyes flicked past me. “Kai is coming.”

  I hastily shoved the book through my interspacial ring. Just in time, as Kai strode into the courtyard, his black eyes fathomless and unreadable. He looked me up and down and I tried my best not to look like someone who had received a secret arts manual from the teacher he was clearly possessive of.

  His eyes narrowed as he looked from me to Jian and back. But all he said was, “I understand you didn’t completely humiliate yourself yesterday, Mouse.”

  Zhou Hou. I bit back the correction. It would only let him know that the nickname irritated me. Instead, I bowed. “Thank you for the compliment, Brother Kai. I didn’t seek the challenge, but I’m glad that my performance did not shame our teachings. Sparring with you was most helpful.”

  Kai froze. His eyes narrowed as he stared at me. Until he looked away with a tch of disdain. Jian smiled to see it. “How interesting. Perhaps you would walk us through the details of your challenge. We can use that conflict as the basis of today’s lesson.”

  The best part about the lesson that followed was how outraged Kai became at having to act out the movements of the slower Da and worse to do it under my instruction. I paid for it afterwards—once we’d practiced our forms and were given leave to spar, Kai’s twin blades sought out every weakness in my guard with merciless speed and precision.

  But the qi infused in my body provided me with the strength and speed to counter one or two of the blows, the last time deflecting the force of his attack so completely that he actually stumbled. He spun around, eyes rounded with shock.

  “I think that’s enough for today,” Jian said. He, too, was looking at me with more than his usual intensity, and I suspected that an Inner Disciple could see far more than Kai, demon-blooded though he was. “Good work, both of you. Brother Zhou, I would like to see you practice that deflect more. Once is good, but not good enough. Kai, once again, your—”

  “—footwork. I know,” Kai said, kicking the stone beneath his foot as if it were to blame for his unsteadiness. When he looked up to find Jian watching him, he cleared his throat and ducked his head in apology. “I’m sorry for the interruption, Elder Brother.”

  “Of course. You aren’t wrong. Your footwork is your focus. Although,” a slight smile graced the cultivator’s face, “I confess I’m surprised to see you lag behind Brother Zhou in the area of dueling. Not a single challenge?”

  Kai stiffened, instantly furious. I watched the scales on his face become more prominent as his skin flushed. “No one has dared challenge me. Laoshu was thought to be an easy win.”

  “And are you so timid that you must wait for someone to challenge you?” Jian asked, mildly. I swallowed hard as Kai’s fury visibly increased. What was the Inner doing? I readied myself for a challenge, possibly to the death, as Kai’s gaze raked over me.

  But he continued to turn and stalked off without another word, his movements deadly and graceful. I was more than grateful that those movements were carrying him away. “He’s going to go pick a fight with the first Outer he finds,” I snapped at Jian.

  Who only shrugged and grinned. “Clearly not, for here you are. No, I think he’ll pick a fight with the most powerful Outer that he finds. Or whoever he thinks is most powerful. It’ll be a good experience for him, whether he wins or loses.”

  “Not if he gets killed!”

  “Death is also an experience, Younger Brother. Now, run along. I believe you should have some time to start studying your manual before dinner.” He turned to go, but paused. “Zhou Hou?”

  “Yes?”

  “Be careful the medications you take. Too much qi can block or burn out your meridians.”

  “I didn’t—” The lie died in my throat under his gaze. I cleared my throat. “Yes, Older Brother. Thank you for the advice.”

  “Hm.” With that, he was gone.