Chapter 1059 — The Claim

CHAPTER 1059

The Claim

Gate Elder Qiu Moshan came down the Lotus Gate’s white steps himself, which he didn’t do for kings.

“Master Shi,” Gate Elder Qiu Moshan said, and bowed with both hands together. “And Guardian Qin. The outer hall’s seat is yours by the Grand Elder’s grant, and Snowpine Court has been kept as it was. Welcome back to the Serene Jade.”

“Thank you, Gate Elder,” Shi Feng said, and returned the bow.

The petitioners on the lower steps watched them climb. Some had waited there since his first visit, more than a year ago. They recognised him.

“That’s the 6 Mark again!”

“Didn’t they refuse him last time?”

“They refused his question. They didn’t refuse him. There’s a difference, you idiot.”

“A good horse doesn’t turn back for the grass behind it.”

“…”

Shen Yaoqing waited in formal white, sword at her hip. She checked his bound right hand, then his face.

“Master Shi,” Shen Yaoqing said coldly. “By the Grand Elder’s standing grant you’re a guest of the outer hall, and I’m your host while you’re on the mountain. I’ll keep to the rules as I did before. No inner peaks. No names spoken on the paths.”

“I remember them,” Shi Feng said.

“Then tell me why you’ve come,” Shen Yaoqing said. “The outer hall will ask me, and I’d rather not answer that I don’t know.”

Shi Feng took the sealed claim out of his sleeve with his left hand and held it out to her.

Shen Yaoqing read the address and was startled. She held the sealed claim carefully in both hands, suddenly aware that this wasn’t another request to the outer hall.

“To the house of Nangong,” Shen Yaoqing read aloud, quietly. “A claim of treatment, under the 6 Mark.”

“That’s why I’ve come,” Shi Feng said.

Shen Yaoqing looked up at him. Then she turned without a word and walked into the outer hall with the claim held in front of her, and he followed.

The elders’ hall met within the hour.

The same three elders received him as more than a year ago. Grand Elder Zuo Chengjian sat at the centre, looking healthier since the Sky-Widening Pill widened his inner heaven. Jing Lanting sat straight-backed at his left, Bai Ruoshuang behind her chair. Kong Shuhe sat at his right with untouched tea.

The claim lay on the table between them. Nobody had broken the seal.

“Master Shi,” Grand Elder Zuo Chengjian said, with full courtesy. “Welcome back. I understand you’ve brought something for the eighth peak.”

“A claim of treatment, Grand Elder,” Shi Feng said. “Made to the patient’s house, under my Mark.”

Elder Kong turned the paper over on the table with one finger, read the address again and turned it back.

“The lady receives no one,” Elder Kong Shuhe said, coldly and correctly. “This hall told Master Shi so a year ago. The sect thanked him then, and it will thank him again. I don’t see what’s changed.”

“He’s brought a formal claim under his Mark,” Zuo Chengjian said. “That changes what this hall must do.”

Elder Kong looked at him.

“It’s old Pavilion law, Elder Kong,” Grand Elder Zuo Chengjian said, and folded his hands on the table. “Older than this hall. A 6 Mark’s claim of treatment, addressed to a patient’s house, goes to the house head unopened. We aren’t the house. We can carry it, or we can refuse to carry it and tell the Sky Pavilion why the Serene Jade has broken a law the Pavilion and the sect both signed before either of us was born.”

“Nobody’s filed one in two hundred years,” Elder Kong Shuhe said.

“It still binds us,” Zuo Chengjian replied calmly.

Elder Kong said nothing. He picked up his tea at last and drank it, though it had gone cold long ago.

“Master Shi,” Elder Jing Lanting said, looking at him rather than the paper. “May I ask what the claim says?”

“You may ask, Elder,” Shi Feng said politely. “But it’s addressed to the house. If I tell this hall what it says, I’ve opened it.”

Bai Ruoshuang made a small sound behind her master’s chair that might have been a laugh. Elder Jing didn’t turn round.

“Fair,” Elder Jing Lanting said.

Grand Elder Zuo picked up the claim with both hands and rose.

“Then this hall will carry it,” Grand Elder Zuo Chengjian said. “I’ll take it to the foot of the eighth peak’s path myself. That’s as far as anyone in this hall is permitted to walk.” He paused and looked at Shi Feng, not unkindly. “But you should know what you’re waiting for, Master Shi. The house head refuses most things. Most people who’ve written to him are still waiting.”

“Then I’ll wait,” Shi Feng said. “I’ve done it before, here.”

“So you have,” Grand Elder Zuo Chengjian said.

He went out with the claim in his hands, and the other two elders went after him. The hall emptied slowly. Shen Yaoqing was the last to leave, and she stopped at the door.

“Snowpine Court is ready,” Shen Yaoqing said. “The furnace room is unsealed, because a 6 Mark guest is entitled to it. Your guardian’s room has fresh charcoal.”

“Thank you,” Shi Feng said.

She hesitated, which she almost never did.

“Every letter the outer hall has ever carried to that peak has come back unread,” Shen Yaoqing said. “I’ve seen eleven of them come back. I’m telling you because a host should tell her guest what to expect.”

“What happens to them when they come back?” Shi Feng asked.

“They’re burned at the gate, in front of the man who sent them,” Shen Yaoqing said, and left.

Shi Feng waited in the empty hall. Through the high window he could see the eighth peak, small and steep and white, with no path on it that a guest could walk.

There was no snow falling on it. There never was.

He went to Snowpine Court to wait.