A night's work had the collapsed traveling palace nearly cleared.

A dozen men of the garrison, working together and with great effort, hauled aside a timber it would take two men with their arms around it to hold... it must have been a pillar carrying the dome.

Only when the pillar was moved did they find the mouth of a hole underneath it.

"My lord marquis, another find!"

Ning Chen heard it and came over at a quick step.

Seeing the hole in the ground, Ning Chen felt gladness and fear together.

He had guessed right. There really was somewhere here a man could hide.

But his heart was heavier for it.

All this time? Even if His Majesty had gone to ground down there, could he still be alive?

Ning Chen held a torch up and went close to the mouth of the hole. It had caved in and was choked with broken stone, but the stone steps were still visible.

"Clear those stones away, quickly!"

Ning Chen gave the order.

Very soon the loose stone at the mouth was cleared away.

Ning Chen threw the torch down, and it rolled away down the steps.

Ning Chen crouched and looked. It was not deep, about eighteen feet. The torch had not gone out, which meant there was air down there and a man could go down safely.

"Brother Zhuzi, take men and hold this place. Nobody is to come near."

"Right!"

"Old Pan, Old Feng, Old Chen, the three of you come down with me."

Ning Chen took a torch in one hand and gripped a dagger in the other.

The four of them came down the stone steps.

The space below was not large. There was a passage cut dead straight, with stone chambers along the side of it.

Ning Chen went forward and pushed open the stone door of the first chamber. A wave of cold came out at him. There was ice stored inside.

It was an ice cellar.

"Your Majesty. Your Majesty... Eunuch Quan..."

Ning Chen called out as he went, and searched the whole…