Chapter 409 — The Array at Midnight

CHAPTER 409

The Array at Midnight

The array platform stood on the Heart Garden's wall, a round slab of white stone under an open sky.

Shi Feng climbed the last steps a little before midnight. The garden lay below him in the dark, row on row of seed beds, and over it hung the pale green dome of the array. It looked thinner than it had at dusk.

Ling Qingzhu knelt at the centre of the slab with both palms pressed flat to a carved disc. She wore her violet inner robe with the sleeves pushed back, and she had no veil tonight. Her face was white. Sweat ran down her temple and she didn't wipe it away.

She did not turn around.

“The guest court is the other direction,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“I know,” Shi Feng said.

“Then you took a wrong turn on purpose,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“Su Wanning says you've held this every night for three weeks,” Shi Feng said.

“Su Wanning says a great many things,” Ling Qingzhu said. Her voice was steady. Her thumb was pressing hard against the stone, and he noticed that. “The watch is the elders' business. Go to bed, Alchemist Shi. You'll want to be rested when the room bill comes due.”

“I paid it,” Shi Feng said.

“I know. You asked me to itemise it,” Ling Qingzhu said. “The floor was listed separately.”

“You charged me for the floor,” Shi Feng said.

“You charged yourself for the lamp,” Ling Qingzhu said.

Shi Feng almost smiled at her complaint about the lamp. He was relieved to hear her sound like herself after a week of strain. Then he saw how hard her thumb pressed into the disc.

“Show me your left hand,” Shi Feng said.

“No,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“It's an alchemist's request,” Shi Feng said.

“It's a husband's, and I don't recognise it,” Ling Qingzhu said, too quickly.

“You answered fast,” Shi Feng said.

“I answered correctly,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“That's my line,” Shi Feng said.

“Then you should have used it first,” Ling Qingzhu said.

The array flickered. The light overhead dipped, shuddered and caught again. Ling Qingzhu's shoulders dropped half a finger, and her breath came out as a thin hiss through her teeth.

“Ling Qingzhu,” Shi Feng said, and stepped onto the slab.

“I said I'm fine,” Ling Qingzhu began, “it's only a bad night, the rotation will change on the—”

She stopped. Her thumb slid off the disc.

Shi Feng caught her before she struck the slab. Her body felt alarmingly light in his arms. As he lifted her shoulder, her left hand opened against his chest and the sleeve fell away from her elbow.

The grey had reached the elbow.

Above them the array dimmed to a faint green ghost.

“It's going out!” a voice shouted from the garden below. “The array's going out!”

“Not yet,” Lin Langtian said.

Lin Langtian came over the wall with a sweet potato in one hand. He wasn’t smiling. Three strides took him to the disc; he pressed his free palm down, and bright green light spread through the dome again. The array steadied at once.

“Take her,” Lin Langtian said.

“Senior Brother—” Shi Feng said.

“Go,” Lin Langtian said quietly. “I'll hold it. Don't argue with me tonight, Junior Brother.”

Shi Feng didn't. He slid one arm beneath her knees and the other behind her shoulders and stood. Her head fell against his collarbone. He took the stairs without looking back.

Su Wanning was at the foot of the wall with a lantern. She had run the whole way, and her braids were coming loose. She opened her mouth to shriek, saw his face, and closed it.

“Her room,” Shi Feng said.

“This way,” Su Wanning whispered.

She ran ahead, pushing doors open. Neither of them said a word.

Ling Qingzhu's room was small and tidy. A low bed, a lamp, a shelf of pressed flowers, a pair of embroidered shoes set neatly side by side. Shi Feng lowered her to the bed and straightened her sleeve. Su Wanning lit a second lamp with shaking hands.

He took her wrist.

Her pulse raced unevenly beneath Shi Feng’s fingers. Dark threads extended beyond the grey elbow toward her shoulder. He followed the disturbed qi lower and felt an unsteady flicker near her core. The poison was still spreading.

“Is she dying?” Su Wanning asked. Her voice cracked. “Please say she's not dying. I won't tell anyone. I'll never drink that tea again.”

“Not tonight,” Shi Feng said.

“But?” Su Wanning asked.

“But if she holds the array again, the poison will reach her core,” Shi Feng said. “Then it's days.”

Ling Qingzhu stirred on the pillow. Her eyelids shook but did not open.

“…Is the array up?” Ling Qingzhu murmured.

“It's up,” Shi Feng said.

“Who's holding it?” Ling Qingzhu murmured.

“Someone loud,” Shi Feng said.

“Good,” Ling Qingzhu whispered. Her fingers brushed his sleeve, caught nothing and fell away. “Don't tell him.”

“Tell who?” Shi Feng asked.

She did not answer. Her breathing slowed.

Shi Feng stayed a moment longer. Then he tucked the blanket over her left hand, so the grey couldn't be seen from the door.

The new moon was four nights away. Distant water cannot put out a near fire, and Shi Feng doubted she could wait that long. He could no longer leave the antidote stalled until Mu Shuyun was strong enough to stand before the Council.

He left the lamp burning and stepped out into the corridor, where Sima Lan stood with her slate pressed to her chest. She was not writing anything.