Chapter 1092 — This One Failed

CHAPTER 1092

This One Failed

Hong Lie was standing outside the sickroom door when Shi Feng woke, and he’d been standing there all night.

Nobody had ordered it. When Wanyan Bo asked him in the corridor who had, Hong Lie said, “Nobody.” Then he went back and stood with his arms folded in the same spot where he had once laid nine weights of pressure on Shi Feng to test him. Shi Feng understood it as an apology.

The Wanyan house’s best guest room was warm and dim, with a brazier of red coals and felt hangings. Shi Feng lay under three quilts. The house physician had bound his ribs, but nothing could be done for his scorched meridians. Every breath still burned through them.

Lin Langtian was asleep on two chairs pushed together in the corner, snoring, with his hammer under the chairs and a bowl of congee balanced on his stomach.

Wanyan Bo came in first, on his own feet. Shi Feng was glad to see him walking. Ten days ago he hadn’t been able to sit up without two servants.

“Master Shi,” Wanyan Bo said, bowing deeply at the bedside. “This old man’s house sent you down that road. This old man’s son rode beside you and told you which waystations to use. I won’t insult you with an apology yet. First get well. Whatever this house has is yours to ask for.”

“Patriarch Wanyan,” Shi Feng said, trying to sit up. He couldn’t manage it. “I came to close the crack, and it’s closed. Thank you for taking us in. We can talk about the rest when I can sit up.”

“A great kindness isn’t repaid with words,” Wanyan Bo said, his mouth tightening. He bowed again and went out. Shi Feng noticed he hadn’t mentioned his son, and was uneasy.

Qin Wuyan came in after him.

The physician had set his left arm in two places and bound it against his chest. A long scab ran across his scalp where the hair had been cut away. Qin Wuyan closed the door, walked to the bedside and knelt.

He didn’t bow his head to the floor. He knelt upright on both knees with his good hand on his thigh. He was ashamed, and he meant to stay there.

“This one failed in his duty,” Qin Wuyan said.

Shi Feng was startled. He hadn’t expected the old guardian to blame himself for the night.

“Get up, Senior Qin,” Shi Feng said.

“The Pavilion gave this one one task,” Qin Wuyan said, not moving. “To stand between the guest elder and what he couldn’t hold. This one was folded away in the first hour. The guest elder fought the whole night alone. This one does not stand.”

In the corner, Lin Langtian had stopped snoring. His eyes stayed shut.

Shi Feng considered his answer. Qin Wuyan wouldn’t be moved by a kind word. He’d only get up if he was given a reason.

“Then listen to the reason,” Shi Feng said. “First. The Ninth Elder built a hundred-li array, and when he folded you away, he folded half of it in with you. He had to. Anything less wouldn’t hold you. So half the trap was spent on you alone.”

Qin Wuyan’s jaw tightened. He didn’t speak, but he was listening.

“Second,” Shi Feng said. “Because he was holding you, his attention wasn’t on the rest of the Cage. That’s why I found the seam. That’s how three hundred people from Lower Pine walked out alive. If you hadn’t been in that fold, he’d have been standing beside the Sixth Elder, and there wouldn’t have been any seam.”

“Third,” Shi Feng said. “When he let go of you, you came out with your arm broken in two places, and you stood in front of me before you did anything else. I watched you do it.”

Shi Feng paused to let Qin Wuyan take that in.

“You held half the trap off by yourself, Senior Qin,” Shi Feng said. “That isn’t failure. If you write that it is, I’ll write the opposite, and the Pavilion can decide which of us to believe.”

Qin Wuyan stayed on his knees for a long time. His good hand had closed into a fist on his thigh. Slowly, it opened again as he accepted it.

Qin Wuyan stood up. Shi Feng was relieved.

“This one will report,” Qin Wuyan said.

“Report it all,” Shi Feng said. “The commission, the chart, the road, the Eleventh Elder, the Ninth Elder, the Sixth Elder. Leave nothing out. Tianjing should know what was waiting on that road.”

Qin Wuyan pressed his thumb to a blank jade slip for a long while, writing into it with his Spirit Sense. Then he took out a small seal of dark bronze. It wasn’t the Hanyuan tower’s seal but the Pavilion’s own, which only its guardians carried. A report under it went straight to the top of the Ninefold Tower without passing any steward’s desk.

He pressed it into the slip. The jade turned dark red.

“Straight to Tianjing,” Qin Wuyan said. “Nobody in between reads it.”

“Good,” Shi Feng said. “Someone at the Hanyuan tower marked that chart clear. This report shouldn’t pass through the same hands.”

Qin Wuyan bowed and went out to give the slip to the Wanyan house’s fastest rider. Through the open door Shi Feng saw Hong Lie shift aside to let him pass, then shift back.

In the corner, Lin Langtian opened one eye.

“Three points,” Lin Langtian said, yawning. “Junior Brother’s very orderly when he’s lying down.”

“You were listening,” Shi Feng said.

“Yours Truly was asleep,” Lin Langtian said, closing the eye again. “Very deeply. I heard nothing about seams.”

Footsteps came down the corridor, quick and uneven. Hong Lie said something low at the door. Then someone knocked.

Wanyan Che stood in the doorway. He was pale and frightened, and he hadn’t changed his riding clothes since the day the road closed.

“Master Shi,” Wanyan Che said, bowing low. “My father has called the whole household to the hall. I asked him to.” He swallowed. “There’s something I have to say in front of everyone. In front of you most of all.”