Guangfeng stepped into a room made of cold, hard stone and took a seat in a wooden chair. Parts of the stone floor had puddles of water and three men wearing only their underwear were tied down on the ground on their stomachs. The men had to turn their heads to the side to keep their faces out of the puddles so they could breathe.

“Who sent you?” Guangfeng asked calmly, staring at the two prisoners with a bleak expression. “Speak and I may consider sparing your life.” He wasn’t really expecting an answer. The three prisoners seemed well trained, perhaps hidden guards for a wealthy family or even another kingdom or possibly even assassins. Either way, their training likely included keeping silent. Breaking them would be difficult.

The prisoners remained silent, keeping their mouths closed with determined looks on their faces.

Guangfeng frowned and stood up. “You have one hour. Make them willing to talk,” he instructed the black-dressed guards in the stone room with him before he headed to the stairs and started up to above ground as he contemplated the issue of how to get the kidnappers to open their mouths as soon as possible.

The screaming didn’t start until Guangfeng had reached the top, but it was loud enough he could still hear it. It didn’t seem to bother the prince as his face retained the same dark expression it had before and he continued walking until a black-clothed man appeared and knelt in front of him.

“What are your orders, Master?” the hidden guard asked.

“Start trials to find a replacement for Shadow. He has been reassigned to Miss Long Yuelan.”

The man saluted, rose to his feet, and disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.

Guangfeng went to his study and sat down. He frowned and rubbed at his chin as he thought. He had two problems to consider: the kidnappers in his underground room and the fact that Yuelan was upset with him. He needed to not only find who had ordered Liling’s abduction but to come up with a suitable present he could give to her as an apology along with his promise. The gift would be the easiest and most pleasant, so Guangfeng chose to start there.

The prince sighed and rubbed the back of his neck while he thought about what to get for her. There wasn’t enough time to have something made for her, so he pulled out a scroll and started looking it over. Written in feminine characters was the list of things in his mother’s dowry, all of them items he had inherited after her death. His hope was he would find something that the young woman would like and find useful. After a while something caught his eye on the dowry list and he frowned. An opal accessory set...Yuelan had been wearing one before the struggle, but most of the pieces had disappeared by the time he got to her and they had only been able to retrieve two or three that hadn’t been broken. His mother had had a set as well. It was quite different, using fire opals instead of white opals and gold instead of silver, but he could give it to Yuelan while he had the white opal set remade for her.

Guangfeng summoned his housekeeper and sent the eunuch in search of the set then stood and started pacing around his office. His hands were clasped behind his back and he frowned as he walked, puzzling over the problem. After some time he remembered an alchemist he had met while he had been disguised in the city to see what the needs of the citizens were. The alchemist had been trying to sell a bottle filled with liquid he claimed would force anyone to tell the truth. Unfortunately, it was something that should only be used on someone you didn’t need to keep alive as the liquid would also cause intense pain, coughing, and eventual death.

A vicious smile spread across the third prince’s lips and he headed back to the false mountain and the prisoners. This time as he sat down the three men were covered in bruises and open wounds. “Are they ready to talk?” Guangfeng asked, calmly leaning back in the chair.

One of the prisoners lifted his head and glared at Guangfeng without saying anything. The second seemed to be in a half daze and lay on the ground, not even making an effort to keep his head out of the water, though he still had his mouth and nose above the top of the puddle. The final prisoner smirked at the third prince and bit down on something. A moment the prisoner went into convulsions.

“It seems not.” Guangfeng sighed and crossed one leg over the other. He waved a hand to have the guards in the room leave the thrashing prisoner alone for now. The prisoner would die, there was already bloody foam forming at the corners of his lips, but there was no need to do anything about the body just yet. “Bring the bottle the alchemist delivered last week. It is time to test its effectiveness.” His eyes narrowed at the prisoner who was glaring at him. “I do not have time to waste on torture. Since you won’t speak, I will make you speak.”

A guard left the underground room and returned a few minutes later holding a crystal bottle.

“Force them both to drink it,” Guangfeng ordered. It was a small bottle, but supposedly only a small amount was needed and the alchemist who had given it to him had assured him there were four doses inside. There were only two prisoners left, so Guangfeng would still have some left over and if it actually worked he would have the Alchemist start providing him with a regular supply of the stuff.

The guards moved forward, forcing the prisoners up on their knees as the man holding the bottle forced some of its contents into each prisoner’s mouth.

Guangfeng watched impassively, his green-flecked brown eyes staring at the prisoners as he waited. The prisoner who had commited suicide with poison continued to thrash until eventually his body stilled. “Burn the body,” the prince instructed calmly. Two guards saluted and dragged the body out of the underground room.

After a few moments both remaining prisoners started moaning in pain, curling on their sides and holding their stomachs. Guangfeng’s expression changed to a satisfied smirk.

“Who was your target?” Guangfeng asked, settling more comfortably into his chair.

The prisoners struggled for a moment before the weaker of the two finally spoke. “F-first Princess Liling.” The words came out in a cough and a few spots of blood came out, mixing into the water.

“Who sent you?” Guangfeng asked in a calm voice.

“Th-the emperor of Lanzhou,” the weaker prisoner answered again, coughing out more blood.

“Why take Liling’s companion instead? What is Lanzhou’s goal?” Guangfeng’s eyes narrowed and he frowned at the prisoners.

The weaker of the two men fell into a fit of coughing and eventually coughed out enough blood to turn the pool of water beneath him light red. The stronger prisoner finally began to speak, no longer able to resist what he had been forced to drink: “The gemstone mines in southern Longuo. Lanzhou is struggling to acquire resources and wants the gemstone mines to be able to get what it needs from other empires. The other girl was a witness. We were going to hold her until we managed to get Princess Liling, then we were going to threaten the princess to behave or we would hurt her companion. If we couldn’t get the princess then we were going to kill her.”

Both prisoners started coughing and couldn’t seem to stop. Guangfeng watched them for a moment before standing up. “Dispose of them,” he instructed as he headed out of the underground room and headed back to his study to write a report to give to the emperor the next day before morning court.