GUNPOWDER MAGNOLIA Chapter 14: Blood of Yao (Patreon)

Hi Dagger Tier!

Here's the fourteenth chapter of Gunpowder Magnolia ahead of the newsletter. Not caught up yet? Find links to previous chapters here.

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The king of Yao was alive.

Lanthe ascertained that much before flattening herself into a bow. But with her head pressed to the floor of the lavish bedchamber, she had to ask herself what ‘alive’ even meant here. The king had looked so gray and small against the pillows that he may as well have been a corpse. This man was General Chang’s age peer. In Lanthe’s lifetime, he had ridden into battles and deftly juggled alliances with neighboring kingdoms. Now here he was, reduced to a barely breathing husk.

The first time Lanthe had felt the promise of death hang so thick in the air had been at her own grandfather’s deathbed. Over the years, she had come to recognize it in many a medical tent where comrades lay bleeding from the stumps where their limbs had been, moaning for wives and parents who weren’t there. Sometimes a man still drew breath. Sometimes he still spoke. But time, Heaven, and all those around him knew that he was gone.

When King Yeldan spoke, it was thin and vague. Like he was already halfway in a different world, trying desperately to push his way back to this one.

He rasped an aching “Yelhwa…” as though terrified his voice would no longer reach his daughter.

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