In the latter half of the night, the emperor opened his eyes. Zhang Liangxi, who had been sitting quietly with his eyes closed all along, noticed at once and rose.
"Is Your Majesty thirsty?"
The emperor said nothing, but looked toward one side of the tent, where his imperial sword hung.
"So it was a dream. How absurd..."
Having only just awakened, he remembered the dream most clearly now. Looking back, the emperor found that his thinking within the dream had indeed been rather strange. His conclusions had pointed in the right direction, but his judgment had been off.
For instance, he had already noticed something strange before entering the mountains. Normally, he should never have ventured in so rashly.
And then there were the ministers, whose obvious abnormalities he had somehow overlooked in the dream. That was hardly his style. Besides, how could his Imperial Guards be as useless as they had been in the dream?
Zhang Liangxi poured the emperor a cup of hot water anyway and came to his bedside.
"Did Your Majesty have a dream?"
"Yes. Perhaps it was because we are here for the autumn hunt. Even my dreams have become somewhat ridiculous."
The emperor accepted the cup Zhang Liangxi offered, drank to moisten his throat, then lay down to rest again, without giving the earlier dream much thought.
Three days passed. The entire perimeter of Yan Mountain had been sealed off by the imperial army, and on this morning, the autumn hunt proper was about to begin.
Many parties assembled outside the main camp, spaced far apart. The hunters on every side rubbed their fists and flexed their palms in eager anticipation. Among the soldiers beside the emperor, someone released a hawk.
Hounds barked wildly among the parties, and warhorses neighed.
"Kree-"
The piercing