Chapter 1020 — The Shore

CHAPTER 1020

The Shore

Tong Xian didn’t ask a single question.

Thirteen thin, filthy alchemists with collar sores on their necks came through Northwind House’s back gate before dawn, half of them leaning on Helian Ba’s clansmen, and she looked at them once and turned to the kitchen.

“Rice,” Tong Xian said. “Hot water. Clean clothes from the salt store. The east rooms.”

The kitchen woke up. By the time the sun was over the wall, all thirteen were sitting in the warm east hall in clean grey cotton, with bowls of rice congee in front of them, and none of them had been asked their names.

Tong Xian set the table herself. She put out fourteen bowls.

Shi Feng saw the empty place at the end of the table, and looked at her.

“The ration line on the map said fourteen,” Tong Xian said, and went on ladling. “So did Master Mei. The house keeps a place until it’s filled.”

Shi Feng didn’t say anything. He went and sat on the step outside the east hall, with his blistered left hand wrapped in Ye Wanqiu’s salve and the Banked Coal burn under his ribs still smouldering every time he breathed. Shen Yaoqing had left them at the foot of the hills in the dark, riding north with her master’s answer. The two takers Helian Ba had fought were dead, and one of Shen Yaoqing’s had bitten poison before she could take him. The fourth had gone into the dark.

Shi Feng couldn’t stop thinking about the missing boy. Thirteen people were safe, but that empty bowl reminded him who was still in danger.

Mei Shuo came out after a while and sat down on the step beside him with his bowl in both hands. He ate slowly, the way people eat when they’ve been given food on a schedule for years and can’t believe there’s no schedule.

“The boy came from a frontier pill shop,” Mei Shuo said. “They took him when he was twelve, because he could hold a fire steady. He’s the best of us at it.”

“He was closest to the table,” Shi Feng said. “I should’ve reached him sooner.”

“She took him because he was youngest,” Mei Shuo said. “They always take the youngest. It’s the one you’ll come for.”

Shi Feng was quiet.

“You took care of them,” Shi Feng said.

“My sister taught me that,” Mei Shuo said. “Not by taking care of me. She never helped me once in the Pit. Never graded my pills kindly, never looked at me twice, never said my name. If she had, the overseers would have known what I was to her. They’d have used me on her. She kept me alive by never helping anyone.” He smiled crookedly. “Everyone in Hall One thought she was the coldest woman under the earth.”

“She wrote furnace fault in the ledger when I walked out of the Pit,” Shi Feng said. “She saw me go. She never looked up.”

Mei Shuo’s hands tightened on the bowl, and for a moment he couldn’t speak.

“Then she’s still like that,” Mei Shuo said at last. “Good.”

He went back inside. Shi Feng stayed on the step.

Qin Wuyan came round the side of the house and stopped in front of him.

“The lake,” Qin Wuyan said.

“Mirror Ice Lake,” Shi Feng said. “North of the hills. I’ve asked Qian Ze for the road.”

“Alone is not permitted,” Qin Wuyan said.

Qin Wuyan spoke flatly, but he was worried. He stood directly in front of the step, making Shi Feng look at him.

“She said without the old man,” Shi Feng said. “If you walk out on that ice, she’ll kill the boy before I can reach him. She’ll do it to show she meant it.”

“The Pavilion’s order is to keep you alive,” Qin Wuyan said. “Not the boy.”

“I know what the Pavilion’s order is, Senior Qin,” Shi Feng said. “I’m not asking you to break it. I’m asking you where you’ll stand while you keep it.”

Qin Wuyan looked at him for a long time.

“She is late Shattering Void,” Qin Wuyan said slowly. “Below the line.”

“Yes,” Shi Feng said.

“Then the fight is yours,” Qin Wuyan said. “This one does not step on the ice.”

“Thank you,” Shi Feng said.

“This one stands on the shore,” Qin Wuyan said. “At the line. If anything at Profound Heaven comes near that lake, it is this one’s. If she has a friend in the clouds, he does not come down.”

That was more words than he’d said in a week. Shi Feng stood up from the step and bowed to him, properly, the bow of a junior to an elder.

“Thank you for guarding the shore,” Shi Feng said. “I’ll bring the boy off the ice.”

“Yes,” Qin Wuyan said.

It was settled. Shi Feng had three days, and the Sixteenth was late Shattering Void, the same as he was. A woman whose mirrors had stopped his sword cold in that furnace hall, and who would choose the ground.

He sat back down and looked north over the wall, toward a lake he’d never seen.

Late Shattering Void against late Shattering Void, on her ice, with a boy for a shield. He’d need more than he had right now. For days he’d felt peak Shattering Void close, very close, a little past what his meridians could reach.

He thought he knew how to push it.