Of Jade and Dragons

Chapter 1
Perched at the edge of a cliff, a tiny figure watched as a dark cloud floated toward her, accompanied by the thunderous whir of rotating engine blades.A furrow appeared on Aihui Ying s smooth forehead.The High Commander s airships were far noisier than they should be. It was a low--level problem that could have been easily fixed with mufflers fashioned out of bison leather. Her father s hypothesis was that the guild masters had let this flaw slip through on purpose, because noise was apparently an effective show of intimidation. Why stop there? Might as well make lightning bolts shoot out of the keel, she muttered.The airships passed overhead. Two smaller ones in front and two behind, guarding the behemoth in the middle. Each of them was a black monstrosity emblazoned with the silver emblem of the cobra, bamboo--battened sails extending out from both sides of the hull and flapping majestically against the cold winds.In her childhood, Ying had once disturbed a sleeping lizard lounging on a rock to find out if it was dead. It awoke in a fury, brightly colored frills flaring from its neck in a spectacular display. That was where the Engineers Guild must have gotten their inspiration from, she reckoned, when they added those sails to the airships. Again, for intimidation more than functionality. By decree of the High Commander, a monotonous voice issued from above, the Cobra s Order is transporting a traitorous prisoner from the capital city to the mines of Juwan, where he is to serve his sentence till death. All civilian airships, keep away -I repeat -keep away. Ying snorted, covering her ears with her gloved hands to shield them from the racket. Trust the High Commander to make an exhibition of his own son s exile.Nevertheless, she had little sympathy for the former beile and High Commander -designate. He had dug his grave by trying to incite conflict between his brothers and then having the gall to declare that he would execute everyone he deemed a threat

Amber Chen is a Singaporean-Chinese author of SFF and contemporary fiction. She spends much of her free time living within Chinese fantasy novels and dramas, and also drinks one too many cups of bubble tea. One of her webnovels, The Cutting Edge, has been adapted for television. You can find her online at ambercwrites.com and on TikTok, Instagram, and X @AmberWrites88.

A richly detailed and wildly imaginative book with some of the coolest retro-future tech envisioned on-page and an engineer heroine with the smarts to wield it! The steampunk C-drama of my dreams. Xiran Jay Zhao, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Iron Widow

"Drawing on inspiration from Qing dynasty China to craft complex worldbuilding, debut author Chen employs vivid and sensory language to cleverly set the stage for Ying s quest for answers and revenge in this gripping silkpunk fantasy that thrills from start to finish." Publishers Weekly

"[An] absorbing, deftly written story . . . A fascinating world with twists that will keep readers enthralled." Kirkus Reviews

"An excellent starting point for new YA readers." Booklist

A twisting adventure filled with wild devices, rebellions against the natural order of things, and the battle between creation and destruction. Chris Kluwe, Lightspeed Magazine