Chapter 399 — A Bitter Dinner

CHAPTER 399

A Bitter Dinner

“Eat,” Bai Chenxi said. “It's bitter. The kitchen thinks bitter is protective.”

She set down two lacquered baskets on the low table. Inside were a pot of bitter-melon soup, a dish of black-green roots, and three bowls of plain rice. The steam smelled strongly of medicine.

Shi Feng sat on the floor. Ling Qingzhu sat on the edge of her bed, very straight, with a bowl in her right hand. Bai Chenxi stood by the door with her frost sword at her hip, as if she hadn't decided whether to stay.

“I don't want you here,” Bai Chenxi said.

“Noted,” Shi Feng said.

“The Master asked for you, so I’ll explain,” Bai Chenxi said coldly. Then she looked at Ling Qingzhu. “Sit properly, Senior Sister. You haven’t eaten since noon, and a tangerine doesn’t count as supper.”

“I ate,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“A tangerine,” Bai Chenxi said.

“It was a large tangerine,” Ling Qingzhu said.

Bai Chenxi stared until Ling Qingzhu raised the spoon and drank. Shi Feng tried his own soup. It tasted as bad as the medicine smell promised, but he finished it. He wanted the account more than he wanted to argue with the kitchen.

“Start,” Shi Feng said.

Bai Chenxi folded her arms. “The Withering began in winter on the outer slopes. The stems stayed green. The roots went black. We called it blight and pulled the plants.”

“How many?” Shi Feng said.

“Eleven hillsides,” Bai Chenxi said.

“Then?” Shi Feng said.

“Then it reached the Heart Garden, twenty days ago. The first row of seed beds,” Bai Chenxi said. Her voice stayed flat, but her fingers tightened on the scabbard. “And then there were the three.”

“Three what?” Shi Feng said.

“Three dead,” Bai Chenxi said. “Garden disciples, all of them. Zhou Mei, Qiu Lan and Hu Xiao. Night watch.”

“Chenxi,” Ling Qingzhu said quietly.

“He's going into the Garden, Senior Sister. He should know what's in it,” Bai Chenxi said.

Ling Qingzhu said nothing. She put down the spoon.

“How did they die?” Shi Feng asked.

“Their hands turned grey first. To the wrist, then the elbow, then the chest.” Bai Chenxi looked at the lamp as she said it. “Zhou Mei took eleven days. Qiu Lan took seven. Hu Xiao took four.”

“It's getting faster,” Shi Feng said.

“Yes,” Bai Chenxi said.

“Who treated them?” Shi Feng said.

“Eleven Valley alchemists. Two from the Sky Pavilion tower at Duanyang, who left in a hurry and wouldn't say why.” Bai Chenxi's mouth twisted. “They all called it a blight. They gave us bark tea. Treating the head when the head hurts and the foot when the foot hurts.”

“Do you think it's a blight?” Shi Feng said.

Bai Chenxi was silent for a moment. It was the first time she had looked uncertain.

“I don't know,” Bai Chenxi said. “I've never seen a blight eat a person.”

Shi Feng thought, Three deaths, each faster than the last. The alchemists can name it but can’t stop it, and the Council has shut out help. The pattern worried him. Ordinary disease didn’t explain every decision the Valley had made.

“What guards the Garden?” Shi Feng asked. “I know nothing about its array.”

“The Hundred-Petal Guard Array,” Bai Chenxi said, as if he should have known. “It seals the seed beds, the soil and the water channels. Without it, the Garden is open to anyone who can climb a wall. It runs on a Golden Core and the Keeper's seal, and the seal answers to one person at a time.”

“Which person?” Shi Feng said.

“Her,” Bai Chenxi said.

Ling Qingzhu's thumb pressed against the edge of the bowl. She didn't look up.

“The Master is in her bed,” Bai Chenxi went on. “The elders are mid Golden Core at the very best, and the seal doesn't take them. The array is old and it needs a living core to feed on, day and night. For twelve days that core has been Senior Sister Ling.”

“Twelve days,” Shi Feng repeated.

“It isn't that bad,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“You sleep on the stone,” Bai Chenxi said.

“It's a very comfortable stone,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“You collapsed twice on the stairs and told Lin Yue it was a dizzy spell,” Bai Chenxi said.

“It was a dizzy spell,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“Senior Sister—” Bai Chenxi said.

“It's a dizzy spell, Chenxi,” Ling Qingzhu said. Her voice was very even. “I'll hold it as long as it needs holding. That is what the seal is for.”

Bai Chenxi looked at Shi Feng again. She was still cold toward him, but now he could hear the worry beneath it. She couldn’t make Ling Qingzhu stop holding the array. She needed someone who could remove the need.

“The Valley doesn't ask outsiders for help,” Bai Chenxi said. “We asked you. You're second on the Register. If you can do anything, do it. I'll owe you.”

“Valley debts are expensive,” Shi Feng said.

“I know,” Bai Chenxi said. Her hand tightened on her sword. “Don't make me regret it.”

“I’ll bill it fairly,” Shi Feng said.

“That isn't what I meant,” Bai Chenxi said.

“I know,” Shi Feng said.

Bai Chenxi stared at him a moment longer. Then she nodded once, picked up the empty baskets, and left.

The door closed. The lamp burned steadily. The two of them sat with the smell of bitter melon between them, and for a while neither said anything at all.

“Eat your roots,” Ling Qingzhu said. “They're better than they look.”

“They look terrible,” Shi Feng said.

“They taste worse,” Ling Qingzhu said. She picked up the teapot with her left hand to fill his cup. “That's why the kitchen likes them.”

Her sleeve slid back.

It was only for the length of one breath. She caught it and pulled it down, hard, and set the pot on the table with a click. But he had seen her fingers, and the nails on them.

They were grey. They were the colour of the old flowers in the sacks at the gate.

Ling Qingzhu said nothing. Neither did he.

Her thumb was pressed so hard against the cup that the porcelain whitened.