Meiying had made it back to the palace.

The diamond – the one that Dongsheng had told her about – was in the emperor's crown on a pedestal before her. The rest of the room was empty – of other treasures, furniture, or people.

Meiying looked around before stepping closer, her shoes echoing in the otherwise-empty room. She could see herself reflected in the diamond's many facets, like so many different versions of herself from other lifetimes that she didn't know. What would it be like, she wondered, to wear a crown such as this? That would certainly be in a different lifetime as well.

Meiying shivered. It was cold in the room, and frost was creeping across the top of the pedestal from where the crown lay. It was a myth that the country's unreasonably cold spell had started when the emperor had found the large jewel and added it to his crown, and now Meiying wondered if there was some truth to the tale.

"Hello?" she called out, looking around.

Why wasn't Dongsheng here yet? She was only supposed to lead him to the diamond, not take it herself. She didn't want anything to do with it – especially when it had such an ominous presence.

A flash of light suddenly erupted from above, causing Meiying to shriek in alarm and cover her head. Despite herself, she looked up – only to see a bird made of fire make a sweeping landing just on the other side of the pedestal, dissolving the frost and the chill as it did so.

As Meiying watched, the bird transformed into a man with long, dark hair and golden robes, clutching a fan with a phoenix painted on it in his right hand. He looked at her from across the crown, and Meiying could only stand, frozen with her arms still half-raised, looking right back at him.

"It's almost time, Xiaomei," he said finally, closing the fan with a snap. Meiying continued to look at him, mouth slightly agape like a beached sturgeon.

"T-time for what?" she managed to ask, slowly straightening up and lowering her arms.

"For you to come back." There was no humor in his eyes, though Meiying thought there usually should be. "We've all done what we can. Now it's up to you and Zhulin."

"Who?" Meiying looked around, half-expecting this Zhulin person to show up.

"You don't know him by that name now, but you will," the man said. "Just remember this – you must not relinquish the diamond. At any cost."

Meiying frowned. "Who are you? How do you know about the diamond?"

"You'll know soon," the man said, before bursting back into a firebird and soaring towards the ceiling.

Meiying shielded her eyes with her hands, trying to follow the bird's flight.

"Wait!" she called out.

"Meiying!"

She sat up with a start, blankets tangled around her legs. Fenfang was sitting beside her, a hand on Meiying's shoulder to shake her awake.

"You were dreaming," Fenfang said. "Muttering something about diamonds."

Meiying shook her head, the ominous warning still echoing in her head. "Must just be nerves for today," she said, forcing a small smile.

Fenfang smiled back. "We're doing the right thing," she said. "The villagers need to survive, and the emperor can't see that."

Meiying nodded. "I know," she said. But now, after that dream, she felt like there was something she was missing.

~*~

It had taken weeks of careful planning, assisted by Meiying and Fenfang's detailed descriptions of the layout of the palace, before the Friends of Winter were ready to make their move. That night, Baoshan, with Fenfang, led half of their party to go around and approach from the west, while Dongsheng led the rest of the group with Meiying, to approach the palace directly from the east.

They traveled without torches, their breaths steaming in the air despite the summer season. Meiying couldn't remember a time when the country had been any warmer, despite her mother's insistence that it once had been. There had been a time, her mother had said, when the fruit stand operated by Meiying's grandparents had overflowed with tropical produce. But for as long as Meiying could remember, her family had sold only hardier fruit – mostly crabapples or small, bitter plums that had been able to withstand the years-long cold.

"We're almost to the servants' entrance," Dongsheng whispered, drawing Meiying from her thoughts. "You should go first, and lead the way to the treasury."

Meiying nodded. "It's not far. Let's go this way."

They waited as a couple members of their group knocked out the guards, then slipped past the palace walls. Meiying's heart pounded in her chest as she led the pack through the winding hallways, empty at this time of night, except –

"Hey, you there! Halt!" It was a patrol of guards, turning the corner behind them.

"Run!" Dongsheng whispered in her ear.

Meiying hesitated, casting a look over her shoulder at the other men, trying to remember their faces. They each wore expressions of solemnity and acceptance as they raised their weapons.

"The others will hold them off," Dongsheng said. "This is what they were prepared for."

Meiying's eyes filled with tears, but she turned forward again, breaking into a run. Dongsheng's footsteps pounded behind hers in the stone hallway as the sounds of fighting echoed behind them.

"Halt!"

Dongsheng's sword came up to block just in time, stopping the blade headed for Meiying's throat as they turned another corner. Meiying gasped and stumbled back as the thief and this new soldier continued to duel, helpless but to watch.

"Go, Meiying!" Dongsheng called out, but she shook her head.

"I won't leave you here!" she cried.

Dongsheng gritted his teeth against the impact of the next blow from his opponent's sword. "There's no time!"

She shook her head again. "I won't – "

The rest of her sentence withered as the soldier suddenly fell, an arrow sticking out of his back. Meiying and Dongsheng looked up to see Baoshan and Fenfang's group approaching from the other end of the hallway.

"Baoshan," Dongsheng said, a bit hoarsely. "Good to see you."

"The west entrance isn't as crowded," Baoshan said, raising his torch and glancing behind them. "The others?"

Dongsheng shook his head, and his friend's jaw clenched.

Fenfang rushed to embrace Meiying, who was still looking in shock at the body before them.

"Come on," Fenfang urged. "There's no time!"

"Right," Meiying muttered, shaking her head to rid the image of the slain soldier from her memory. "The treasury – we should go this way."

They hurried down the corridor, ever-mindful of the sounds of many heavily-booted soldiers stomping closer somewhere down the hall behind them.

"Meiying – don't look," Dongsheng murmured to her as they approached the treasury door and the several guards standing outside it. "We don't have time to be merciful now."

Meiying realized she was trembling, but nodded, scrunching her eyes shut and focusing on the feel of Fenfang's hand in hers as they waited. But she couldn't block out the sounds of the fight, and found herself shaking even more when things quieted.

"It's over." It was Dongsheng's voice, and his gentle hand on her arm. Meiying opened her eyes, forcing herself to focus only on the thief before her and not what she knew must lay on the ground behind him. "Let's go."

She glanced down at his arm. "You're hurt."

He shook his head. "I'll be fine."

He turned, and she followed him into the treasury. Fenfang helped a limping Baoshan, and the other surviving members of the Friends of Winter trailed behind them.

It was not quite like Meiying's dream. There were gilded chairs, shelves of scrolls, fine tapestries, and chests of what Meiying assumed contained gold, among other treasures in the room. Rather than the bare chamber she had envisioned, the place was brimming with precious jewels and lavish decorations. But the pedestal – and the crown on it – were the same, and it made Meiying wonder if she had ever perhaps glimpsed the emperor wearing the crown before, that she would have imagined it so accurately. But she had certainly never seen the pedestal before, and that was identical to the one in her dream as well.

"The diamond!" Fenfang whispered, the mix of relief and trepidation in her voice mirroring the emotions Meiying was feeling herself.

They rushed forward, and Meiying and Fenfang worked on prying the diamond from the crown while Dongsheng and the others stood behind them, weapons drawn and waiting for anyone to pass through the treasury doors.

"There!" Meiying exclaimed as the diamond suddenly fell into her palm. The jewel was so cold, it burned where it touched her skin, and she hurried to wrap it in her sleeve.

"Stop right there!"

Meiying looked up with a gasp. Princess Xuejun was blocking the entrance to the treasury, with a team of soldiers behind her. They were trapped.

"Hand over the diamond now, and I'll make your deaths quick," Xuejun cajoled, stepping further into the room as her soldiers stormed in and fanned out along the wall.

Dongsheng raised his sword. "Never."

The princess laughed. "You think you can actually steal from me?"

A sharp, thin blade pricked at Meiying's neck, and she turned, shocked, to Fenfang.

"Please don't make me do this," Fenfang whispered, tears in her eyes. "She threatened to kill my family. Just hand over the diamond. Please."

"This was all planned?" Meiying asked, and was met with a nod.

"She knew her carriage would be a target, and she sent me to go with you. I didn't want to be her spy, Meiying, but I had no other choice. Please – just hand over the diamond."

Meiying's fist closed tighter around the jewel in her hand. Xuejun had managed to find the Friends of Winter after all, and now they were doomed.

You must not relinquish the diamond.

The stranger's voice came back to her, and in a sudden move, Meiying lunged for the torch still in Baoshan's hand and threw it onto a pile of sacred scrolls. They caught fire in an instant, flames licking across the room and igniting tapestries and furniture.

"Get them!" Xuejun screamed, enraged, as her soldiers surged forward to clash with Dongsheng and the others.

Fenfang gave a half-hearted swipe with her knife, but Meiying stumbled back, knocking into a shelf that sent smoldering papers and scrolls falling down on them, embers burning through their clothes.

Meiying covered her head and ran forward, shaking ash out of her hair, only to suddenly stop. Xuejun was standing in front of her, a sword held in her hand.

"Give it to me," the princess snarled, oblivious to the heat of the flames burning around them.

Meiying gritted her teeth. "No."

Xuejun's eyes flashed dangerously. "Well, I suppose you'll die either way," she growled.

A tremendous groan and a loud, crackling boom suddenly interrupted them, and Xuejun and Meiying turned to discover one of the larger shelves by the door had tipped over, blocking the only exit. Dongsheng leaned against the wall beside the fiery wreckage, clutching a gaping wound at his side with scorched hands.

"And now, so will you," he said. There was a grim expression on his face, but as Meiying met his eyes, she saw a strength there that bolstered her own spirits.

"It's over, Your Highness," Meiying called out over the roar of the flames. "You did your best to starve and freeze your people with your cruelty. But you underestimated us." She thought of the home she had left behind before coming to the palace for work, and of the hardy trees that supplied her family's fruit stand. "You didn't expect our perseverance – that we would be enduring, like the plum in winter. No matter how much you and the emperor oppress us, we fought back with all we had. There are always those who dare to bloom despite the coldest season."

"Enough!" Xuejun shouted, but Meiying continued.

"You may have caught the Friends of Winter," she said, "but each person in this kingdom has their same spirit, and we'll just return in a different form, with different faces. Your greed and cruelty cannot stop us. It never has."

Xuejun screamed and raised her sword, ready to strike.

Despite it all, Meiying smiled.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

One more chapter to go!  I meant to post this yesterday, but ended up going on a really long hike which left no time for Wattpad haha.  I'd better post the last chapter a lot sooner though because there's only one day left!  Then I'll be able to return to my regularly-scheduled programming of reading my TBR list and procrastinating posting chapters again.  ^_^