I woke up to a sudden movement in the boys' common hall. Dawn was just beginning to cast its faint grey threads through the high windows, and most of the boys were still deep in sleep. But someone was moving quickly and boldly between the wooden beds.

  It was her. Aline.

  She had come in here, into the boys' dormitory, like a madwoman who didn't care about any rules.

  She reached my bed, and before I could utter a word, she grabbed my arm and pulled me.

  "Hongbin!" she whispered excitedly. "Come on, follow me! Quickly, before everyone wakes up!"

  I was in shock. "What... what are you doing here? And I told you not to call me Hongbin!" I said, stumbling behind her. "And I'm not your friend!"

  She laughed a low laugh as she pulled me outside. "Aha! You really are a 'tsundere'. I don't even know what the word means, but it seems to fit you."

  She continued to pull me through the silent alleys. I followed her without a word, still half-asleep and shocked by her audacity.

  She suddenly turned to me and smiled. "Look at you, following me without saying anything, like a stubborn, silent horse."

  We reached a narrow alley. She stopped and pointed to the roof of one of the dilapidated houses. "Get up there."

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  I stared at her. "And how am I supposed to do that? I don't fly."

  "Oh, right," she said, as if she had forgotten a simple detail. Then she said a strange word I didn't understand and waved her hand.

  Suddenly, I felt the ground disappear from under me. I rose into the air, letting out a choked cry of terror. In a second, I was standing on the roof, my heart hammering violently.

  She looked up at me from below and laughed. "My apologies. You're not a horse. You're a cowardly desert goat."

  She climbed up with astonishing grace and joined me. We sat on the edge of the roof, looking at our filthy city as it woke up. She pointed with her chin to the dark forest surrounding the mountain.

  "Look," she said. "The Forest of Chains. Do you know its real story?"

  I said what everyone knew. "It's a forest that can't be crossed. Whoever enters it disappears. The only way out of Chang'an is to pay a hefty price to the Gu Clan to use the 'Path of Iron and Cross,' or to join them."

  She shook her head. "Yes, that's known. But my father, because he was a merchant, heard a different story from refugees in other cities... And that's why I heard a rumor... about a man from the poor district here, years ago, who went screaming at the gate of the Gu palace, saying he saw someone with grey eyes... a Panir! Then the man disappeared. They probably killed him."

  She looked at me seriously. "They say the Panir are waiting for a chance to get out and destroy this city."

  I laughed. It was my first real laugh in a long time. "So they're not as evil as people think."

  Aline looked at me with surprise. "What?"

  "They'll destroy the city and its high walls," I said sarcastically. "What more could the people of this place ask for?"

  She stared at me for a moment, then she burst out laughing too. "You're right!"

  "You wretches! Get off my roof!" an angry voice came from below.

  We looked at each other, the laughter still in our eyes, and then we started to run. She leaped from roof to roof with grace, helping me with her magic when I hesitated. Her bright smile never left her face.

  And as I ran behind her, looking at her free and happy laugh, I wondered to myself. 'She was happy. This feeling... in my chest right now... is it happiness too?'