Chapter 76 - Chapter Seventy-Five: Going Home

MeiLan stood beneath the dragon statues, holding the two pendants in her small hands, her eyes dull and confused as the rumbling mechanism beneath her feet rolled the floor back into place, sealing the lake water portal back beneath the palace, as though it had never been.  The fighting had gone on in her absence, but once their leader had disappeared into the water, the insurgents had begun to lose courage, and when the little woman with blue eyes emerged again alone and unscathed, they knew the battle was lost.  Now they were fighting to escape, but Captain Yongli and his odd assortment of eunuchs and soldiers were relentless in cutting down the rebels.  There was no surrendering, no mercy could be offered to anyone who dared attack the emperor, and they would not cease fighting until every last man was dead.