Water Mirrored Moon - 水鏡月

Part III - Beloved of the Seventh Prince: 54. Kingfisher Courtyard

Cui Xi frowned as she stood in the early morning light.

"If you are going to make that kind of face, why don't you visit Xiao Yu? It's not like the prince has forbidden it," Xiao Hei pointed out, as Cui Xi spun around with the sword gripped in her fist. She stopped with one knee up, toe pointed, sword arm pulled back at shoulder height, the other arm bent in front of her.

Cui Xi said nothing, only stomping the foot back down, and then passed the sword to Su Qing.

"Bow," she grunted.

Su Qing handed it to her.

"Target."

Xiao Hei sighed and trotted over to adjust the target as his mistress took aim, three arrows nocked.

The Seventh Prince's manor was huge and as expected of a martial prince, there was a training area set up with a shooting range. Expecting that their mistress would sleep until noon after her wedding night, both Su Qing and Xiao Hei had been surprised when she called them for morning practice.

Thunk...thunk, thunk!

Xiao Hei grimaced a bit as he went to retrieve the arrows.

Although the solid twang of the bowstring and thud of arrows reaching their mark were oddly comforting sounds, it was clear that once again the mistress was in a state of turmoil...and when she was out of sorts, she reverted to weapons practice and working herself to death in the mixing room. Xiao Hei always felt that it was maddening to watch her struggle through things on her own, stubbornly keeping her thoughts to herself.

Cui Xi shifted her stance restlessly and then flexed her gloved hand, rotating the wrist. Not surprisingly, she felt sluggish today. Sluggish, scattered...

Dammit! What am I doing?

The Seventh Prince had ridden out to the northwest before the sun had even risen. Contrary to his words the night before, he hadn't come to see her, and instead had left without even a 'goodbye'.

"Mistress, it can't be helped. I'm sure the Prince didn't think he was going to get an urgent dispatch to return to the An Xi army on his wedding night..." Su Qing began, but stopped abruptly at the irritated look on Cui Xi's face.

"How many times should I say it? I'm not upset," Cui Xi gritted, with an unconvincing smile.

Xiao Hei and Su Qing exchanged glances that plainly said that they didn't believe her.

Instead of trying to fight her annoyance, Cui Xi simply tried to focus on the target. Shooting always calmed her down, but today she found that her thoughts resisted her as she tried to rein herself in.

Taking a deep breath, Cui Xi pulled her arm back, narrowing her eyes at the target. She desperately tried not to recall the previous evening, but Zhao Ling Xian's tilted eyes continued to glitter from within the shadows of her mind.