Chapter 1030 — Inconvenient

CHAPTER 1030

Inconvenient

The sledge stood in Northwind House’s yard with its runners already turned south.

It was still dark. The lamps over the gate were lit, and the twelve Long household riders sat their horses in two lines with snow on their shoulders. Two of Tong Xian’s porters were carrying the last chest out of the counting room. It was heavy, and it was full of the transit office’s copy books.

Shi Feng came down the steps with his sword on his back and Qin Wuyan one pace behind him.

Long Caili was standing by the sledge in her dark blue cloak, reading a list by lamplight. She didn’t look up.

“You’re leaving at the same hour I am,” Shi Feng said.

“I have business in Tianjing,” Long Caili said, and turned the page. “You have business on a plateau. Neither of them will wait.”

“What’s the business in Tianjing?” Shi Feng asked.

“A question,” Long Caili said. “At court, the Situ’s friends have started asking why a princess’s guest is killing bandits in the Emperor’s north without a commission. They say it’s very irregular. They say a guest with no post shouldn’t carry a sword in the Emperor’s provinces.”

“What will you tell them?” Shi Feng asked.

“I’ll read them Commander Wei Changhe’s reports,” Long Caili said. “Bandit chief, slain by the Pavilion’s guest. Bandit chief, slain. Bandit chief, slain. The Emperor’s own garrison has thanked my guest in writing, more than once. Then I’ll ask the Situ’s friends which bandits they’d have preferred him to leave alive.”

One of the riders coughed into his glove, very carefully, and looked at his horse.

“That’s a good answer,” Shi Feng said.

“It’s the only answer,” Long Caili said. “That’s why I’m taking it myself.”

She folded the list and held it out to him without ceremony. It was written in her own hand, short lines down the page, and she read them aloud as he took it.

“Your business, in order,” Long Caili said. “First. Ji Yuanhe counted to a thousand yesterday. My clerk says he laughed and then asked when his furnace account will be spent. He asked you, not me.”

“Tell him I’ll spend it when I’m back in Tianjing,” Shi Feng said. “On a bigger furnace.”

“I’ll tell him you said so,” Long Caili said. “He’ll count the days. Second. The passes for your alchemists are sealed and registered with the Ministry’s office at Hanli. No guard on the south road will stop them. The ones staying in my house are entered on its payroll from today, at the rate for a resident alchemist’s assistant.”

“That’s generous,” Shi Feng said.

“It’s the correct rate,” Long Caili said. “Third. The transit office’s books go south with me. My brother’s censor was coming north for them. He’ll meet me at Hanli instead and read them on the road. Assistant Prefect Pan has asked to come to Tianjing and explain them in person. I’ve agreed. He’ll ride behind the sledge.”

Shi Feng looked past the riders. At the very back of the column, a closed chair stood on runners in the snow, with four miserable bearers beside it.

“He asked to come?” Shi Feng said.

“He asked very sincerely,” Long Caili said. “After I’d mentioned that the censor might come to him instead.”

She turned, and a guard opened the sledge door for her. She stepped up and went in, and the door closed. The lamp inside lit the curtain from behind, pale grey. Her shadow sat very straight against it.

The column didn’t move.

Shi Feng stood beside the sledge with the list in his hand. The riders waited. Tong Xian waited on the step. Qin Wuyan waited at his shoulder, and the dark over the eastern wall was turning grey.

Then the voice came from behind the curtain. The curtain didn’t lift.

“Do not die,” Long Caili said. “Losing you would be inconvenient.”

Long Caili kept her voice as cold as when she’d discussed the accounts. Shi Feng heard the worry anyway. Nobody in the yard moved.

Shi Feng looked at the grey curtain for a moment.

“I’ll come back,” Shi Feng said, his teasing smile fading. “You have my word.”

Behind the curtain, there was no answer. The shadow didn’t move.

“Go,” Long Caili said to the driver.

The driver cracked his whip. The sledge slid forward over the swept stones and out through the gate, and the twelve riders closed around it, and Assistant Prefect Pan Ruhai’s chair bumped along behind them. The column turned onto Salt Street and went south toward the city gate, and its lamps grew small and went round the corner.

The yard was very quiet after it had gone.

Shi Feng folded the list in half and put it in his sleeve, beside the stick of candied hawthorn wrapped in its cloth. Long Caili’s care gave him another reason to return. The hawthorn reminded him who waited on the plateau. He meant to end that threat today.

Qin Wuyan looked at the sky over the eastern wall. It had gone from grey to white.

“Time,” Qin Wuyan said.

Shi Feng nodded. He thanked Tong Xian, walked out through the gate and turned north, the opposite way from the sledge, and Qin Wuyan fell into step one pace behind him.

From the north gate, Bitter Sky Plateau was half a day’s walk. By noon, they’d be there.