Chapter 1095 — Her Half

CHAPTER 1095

Her Half

The Long household sledge came up the estate road at noon, three days after the Cage fell.

Four steaming black horses drew it, with eight outriders in plain grey. Nobody had told the Wanyan house she was coming, but the whole household had gathered in the courtyard by the time it reached the gate. Wanyan Bo stood at the front in his best robe, his sash tied crooked.

Long Caili stepped down from the sledge in a dark travelling cloak. A veil of grey gauze hung from her brow to her chin.

Wanyan Bo bowed all the way down, both hands on his knees, and held it. He bowed lower to her than he had to the Pavilion’s red commission or to the 6 Mark.

“Your Highness,” Wanyan Bo said. “This old man didn’t know the Fourth Princess was on the road. Your visit makes this humble house shine, and it’s shamed by how little it has ready.”

“Your house has the Pavilion’s guest,” Long Caili said. “I came about him. That will do, Patriarch Wanyan.”

The courtyard went silent. The household understood that she had come only for the guest, and everyone looked away.

She came to the sickroom alone. Hong Lie opened the door for her and closed it behind her, and stood outside it again.

Inside there were only Shi Feng in the bed, Qin Wuyan by the window and Lin Langtian on his two chairs in the corner. Lin Langtian sat up very straight when she came in. He even took the twig out of his hair.

Long Caili looked at Shi Feng for a moment. She was shaken by how pale he was, but she said nothing about it.

“My half cracked at the Hongshui waystation,” Long Caili said. “Three days south. A Long household jade doesn’t crack for nothing. I turned the sledge round.”

“Your Highness’s grain house—” Shi Feng began.

“Can wait,” Long Caili said. “My stewards can manage it until I’m back.”

She sat in the chair beside the bed without being asked, and folded her hands in her sleeves.

“I’ll tell you what the steward couldn’t,” Long Caili said. “The counting house on Felt Street. It had no owner’s name, but it still needed a charter to open its doors, and a charter needs a guarantor. Its guarantor was a bank in the south. That bank belongs to a cousin of the Situ.”

Qin Wuyan turned from the window.

“How does Your Highness know that?” Shi Feng asked.

“My grain house in Hanyuan banks on the same street,” Long Caili said. “I had the charter registry opened the morning I reached the city. It took one clerk and one hour.” Her voice stayed even, though she was angry. “Whoever paid for your road didn’t hide it well, because he didn’t expect anyone to look.”

“Or he didn’t care if anyone did,” Shi Feng said. “That worries me more.”

“That too,” Long Caili said.

She didn’t say a name. Neither did he. Neither of them needed to.

“Two,” Long Caili said. “A Situ censor will move at court, soon, that a Pavilion guest under my contract has gone missing in the northern wilds. He’ll say a guest who can’t be found has broken the terms of his leave. And under Long law, if my guest breaks my contract, I answer for it.”

“And Your Highness’s answer?” Shi Feng asked.

“Senior Qin’s report,” Long Caili said, and looked at Qin Wuyan. “Under the Pavilion’s own seal. Your guest was where the Pavilion sent him, on the Pavilion’s commission, on a road the Pavilion’s own chart called clear. A man lying where he was sent isn’t missing.”

“This one will send Your Highness a copy,” Qin Wuyan said, bowing. “Under the same seal.”

“Good,” Long Caili said.

She turned back to the bed.

“Where will you be?” Long Caili asked. “Not here. This house is on every road map in the north.”

“Somewhere Lin Langtian knows,” Shi Feng said. “I don’t know where yet myself.”

Long Caili didn’t ask where. She nodded once, satisfied that he wouldn’t stay in plain sight.

In the corner, Lin Langtian opened his mouth.

Qin Wuyan looked at him.

Lin Langtian closed his mouth. “…” Lin Langtian said, sulkily studying the hammer under his chairs.

Long Caili stood up to leave. As she rose, her left hand came out of her sleeve to settle the veil, and something small fell against her wrist and hung there on a thread.

It was half of a black jade token, cracked straight across. Someone had bound the two pieces together very neatly with red silk thread, wound round and round, so they couldn’t come apart.

Shi Feng was moved. She had kept the cracked half instead of sending it back.

“Your Highness,” Shi Feng said. “A cracked jade usually goes back to the Long treasury to be written off. Why is that one in your sleeve?”

Long Caili put her hand back into her sleeve without hurrying. She was embarrassed, though she didn’t show it.

“Long household property must be accounted for,” Long Caili said coldly. “Until it reaches the treasury, I’m accountable for it.”

“And it’s been in your sleeve for three days,” Shi Feng said.

“I’ve been on the road for three days,” Long Caili said. “There was no treasury on the way.”

Lin Langtian made a very small noise in the corner. Qin Wuyan looked at him again, and the noise stopped.

“Rest,” Long Caili said, already turning to the door. “I didn’t drive three days to read a registry so you could die in this house.”

“Thank you for coming, Your Highness,” Shi Feng said. “I’ll rest. You have my word.”

Long Caili didn’t answer, but she was relieved. She went out, and Hong Lie closed the door behind her.

The sledge left the Wanyan estate an hour before dark. Wanyan Bo had begged her to stay the night, and she’d told him the road south was better by daylight. From his bed, Shi Feng listened to the horses go down the estate road until he couldn’t hear them anymore. He was grateful she had come so far.

Lin Langtian waited until the sound was completely gone.

“Junior Brother,” Lin Langtian said.

“No,” Shi Feng said.

“I didn’t say anything!” Lin Langtian said.

“You were going to tease me,” Shi Feng said, closing his eyes. “I need to sleep.”