A Caged Bird With Golden Wings

The morning sun spilled over the palace rooftops, dyeing the sky in hues of rose and gold. Birds chirped in the garden beyond the palace gates, yet their freedom mocked the girl sitting cross-legged atop the silk-cushioned balcony.

Princess Lian yawned.

“Your Highness,” came a voice from below, “Your embroidery tutor awaits in the east pavilion.”

She rolled over onto her side, eyes half-lidded, and said flatly, “Tell her I’ve been kidnapped. By pirates.”

There was a groan, and the sound of hurried footsteps. A moment later, a young man climbed up the side wall with the familiarity of someone who had done this a hundred times before. He reached the edge of the balcony, panting.

“Lian,” he said, exasperated. “You can’t keep skipping your lessons. The Emperor will have my head.”

“Did you wear the dress again, Jun?” she asked sweetly, chin propped on her hands.

Jun scowled. “Only because you threatened to release snakes in my bed again.”

“And you looked quite elegant last time. I daresay you could pass for me even better now if we added a bit of rouge.”

“I will throw myself from this balcony.”

She giggled and rolled over again, her long jet-black hair falling in waves across her shoulder. “You wouldn’t. You love me too much.”

“I serve you, not love—”

“I heard the hesitation, Jun.”

He sighed. “You’re impossible.”

And she was. From the moment she could walk, Lian had run through the palace like a spring breeze, dodging etiquette, curtsying only when she felt like it, and charming even the sternest generals with her wide smile and mischievous eyes.

No one ever truly stopped her. Not the Emperor—her older brother—who ruled with iron in war and honey in her presence. Not the tutors who came and went, red in the face. Not even Jun, who had been assigned as her bodyguard when they were both still children, and who still hadn’t figured out how to say no to her.

Today, though, the breeze in the palace felt different.

“Jun,” she said after a pause, her voice quieter. “Have you heard the rumors?”

His jaw tensed. “What rumors?”

She turned to look at him, squinting into the sunlight. “That Brother is arranging my marriage. That he’s bringing someone to the capital.”

There was a beat of silence. Jun didn’t answer.

“That means it’s true,” she said softly.

Jun crouched beside her. “I don’t know the details. Only that the man is from the North. A king.”

“A king.” Her lips twisted. “Sounds old and boring already.”

“They say he’s young. And… that he’s strong. A warrior.”

“Is that all?” she muttered. “No terrible flaw? No disfigured face or monstrous past?”

Jun hesitated.

Lian turned sharply. “Jun.”

“They say,” he began carefully, “that he fought in a dozen wars before he turned twenty. That he’s feared even by his own court. And… that he killed his entire family to take the throne.”

A strange silence followed.

Lian blinked. “Ah. So. A monster, then.”

“No one knows for sure. They’re rumors.”

“But rumors always have seeds,” she murmured, standing slowly.

The wind played with her sleeves. From her high balcony, she could see the imperial flags fluttering. She thought of her brother—so steady, so protective—and wondered how he could agree to something like this.

“I won’t marry a monster,” she said.

Jun didn’t speak. He knew that tone. The tone that came before another wild idea. And sure enough—

“I’ll just have to stop the marriage myself,” Lian said cheerfully, brushing past him. “Time for a little mischief.”

Jun groaned, rubbing his face. “Not again.”

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