The Tyrant's Sickly Consort Refuses to Die novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Fire at Ci'an
By the time Su Ming reached the east wall of Ci'an Palace, the fire had climbed the roof of the kitchen shed.
Orange light jumped on the faces of the servants running with buckets.
Smoke rolled across the yard, thick and yellow and tasting of lamp oil.
"The grain!" a woman screamed. "The grain is on fire!"
The stacks stood along the back wall, forty feet of them, with the red northern seal visible on the near sacks through the haze.
Three men in plum-colored sleeves were splashing oil from a jar along the bottom row.
A fourth held a torch.
"Now!" shouted a voice. "Now, before the guard comes!"
"Hold!" shouted another, from the gate.
It was the General.
He came through the arch at a run with forty men in plain coats behind him.
They struck the stewards at the wall with the flat of their swords.
The torch fell.
It landed on the oiled sacks, and the flame took in a long bright line.
"Water!" roared the General. "Sand! Pull the sacks down!"
Four hundred men poured into the yard from the dark.
They were not in armor, and they were not in order, and they went into the smoke without a pause.
Su Ming ran with them.
He pulled the first sack off the stack and dragged it clear of the flames, coughing, his eyes streaming.
Beside him a young soldier with a red-stamped sleeve hauled two at once and ran back for a third.
"Qiu!" the soldier shouted at a small figure in the gateway. "Sister, get back!"
"I am not going back, you idiot!" shrieked Qiu Ye, and began to carry sand in her skirt.
The heat was incredible.
The shed beam above them cracked and sagged, spitting sparks.
A hand closed around Su Ming's wrist from behind and yanked.
He stumbled backward, and the beam came down where he had been standing with a roar of sparks and splinters.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Tyrant's Sickly Consort Refuses to Die are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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