Chapter 11The stars were read on the day I was born, and their alignment was unusual, but not even the priests could have foretold the path my life would take.
I came from a line of warriors, men who were bodyguards to emperors and empresses and women who were without peer in the art of seduction. They were also without peer in the art of espionage, and were given as gifts to unwary ambassadors of foreign lands, who thought merely that they were gaining a lovely addition to their bedchamber.
As a child growing up in the Forbidden City, I was taught many things. I could kill a man with a single blow from my hand, or stave in his chest with my foot. I could prepare a potion that would see him dead painlessly in seconds, or in excruciating agony that would last for hours. I could shoot out
