Chapter 787 — Clause Nine

CHAPTER 787

Clause Nine

Shi Feng sat down at his place, pulled the white sheet toward him and picked up his brush.

He wrote in plain characters, without hurrying. Nobody in the hall said anything while he did it. Cheng Mobai leaned over from two places down to read upside down, and Gu Yanxing didn’t lean at all, but his eyes followed the brush.

When the sheet was full, Shi Feng blew on the ink, stood, and carried it to the dais with both hands.

A servant reached for it. Long Caili held out her own hand instead, and the servant stepped back. Above her veil, her eyes were already on the ink.

Long Caili read the terms aloud, making the inspector and recruits hear exactly what Shi Feng was asking for.

“One. A guest’s contract, not a servant’s. The guest serves Her Highness by agreement, not by oath,” Long Caili read without looking up. “Two. A fee, paid in full on signing. Three. A seat in Her Highness’s faction, with no blood oath and no blood in any vault. Four. The backing of Her Highness’s pavilions, in trade and in name.”

Inspector Nie Liyan’s mouth tightened.

“Five,” Long Caili read. “A furnace room in Her Highness’s pavilion for Master Ji Yuanhe, and Her Highness’s protection for him, whether the guest is in the capital or not.” She paused on that one for a moment. “Six. The right to leave, on one month’s notice, owing nothing but the month.”

She lowered the sheet.

“You’ve written the protection of your old man above your own right to leave,” Long Caili said.

“He’s worth more than the right to leave,” Shi Feng said. “I can always walk. He can’t.”

Shen Yaoqing set her cup down quietly.

Long Caili took the brush the servant offered her. She wrote below his six lines in small, fast characters, and then turned the sheet around on the arm of her chair so he could read it.

“Seven, eight and nine,” Long Caili said. “Seven: the guest will not take service with any other house, sect or prince while the contract runs. Eight: what the guest learns in my household stays in my household. Nine: the guest attends his lord’s banner at the Imperial Hunt. The banner’s prize goes to my house, and a share to its hunters, as I judge.”

Shi Feng read the three new lines. Then he read clause nine again, slowly.

“Attends your banner,” Shi Feng said. “And who pays for the attending? The horse, the rations, the bandages?”

“You have more money than my stewards,” Long Caili said.

“Then I’d like it in writing that I don’t spend it on your Hunt,” Shi Feng said. “A guest who pays for his own horse starts to wonder why he’s riding it for someone else.”

For a breath, Long Caili’s eyes held no expression at all.

Then she dipped the brush and added four words to the end of clause nine. At the lord’s cost.

“Haggled once,” Long Caili said coolly. “Is there anything else you’d like to argue about? My tea? The colour of my hall?”

“No,” Shi Feng said, checking the added words. “I’ll pay my own expenses when I travel for myself. If I ride under your banner, those expenses belong to the Hunt.”

Inspector Nie Liyan stepped forward from the side of the dais. He bowed to the princess exactly as deeply as his post required.

“Your Highness, forgive me,” Nie Liyan said. “The Clan Court cannot allow this. The law of the Long house is clear. A princess of the Long family may not take into her faction a man who has sworn nothing. A guest who has sworn nothing is a kite with a broken string. The house has no hold on him. If this guest commits a crime in Your Highness’s name, who answers for it?”

The hall turned to look at the princess.

Long Caili didn’t stand. She didn’t raise her voice, either.

“I do,” Long Caili said.

Nie Liyan opened his mouth.

“Imperial law, the Book of the Long House, the third chapter,” Long Caili said. “‘A member of the Long family is judged more harshly than any subject under heaven, and only the Emperor stands above this law.’ If my guest commits a crime in my name, the court will judge me for it, more harshly than it ever judged him.” She looked at Nie Liyan. “The law doesn’t need his blood, Inspector. It already has mine.”

The inspector stood very still.

“Or does the Clan Court mean to say,” Long Caili went on, “that its law isn’t enough to hold a princess of the Long family?”

Cheng Mobai stared at the princess, stunned. She was accepting responsibility before the Clan Court for a man who had refused to swear allegiance to her.

Nie Liyan’s face didn’t change, but it took him a moment to find his voice.

“The Clan Court would never say such a thing, Your Highness,” Nie Liyan said. He bowed low. “The court has noted Your Highness’s wisdom. This official withdraws.”

He backed three steps, turned and left the Talent Hall. His grey sleeves didn’t make a sound.

“He walked into that one,” Cheng Mobai muttered.

Shi Feng watched him go. Somebody kept sending that man to stand in his way. At the Ring it had been a clerk’s mistake. Now it was an oath. Whoever was behind Nie Liyan, he didn’t like the princess picking her own men.

Shen Yaoqing was looking at the door the inspector had gone through. Then she looked at Long Caili, and something in her face softened for an instant before it went cold again.

Long Caili turned back to the white sheet. She read down it once more, from clause one to clause nine, and stopped at clause two.

“Your fee,” Long Caili said. “You left the space blank.”

“I thought Your Highness would like to name your own price,” Shi Feng said. “You know what I’m worth to you better than I do.”

“A merchant’s trick,” Long Caili said. “Make the buyer bid against herself.”

“Yes,” Shi Feng admitted, unembarrassed. “I’ve put down what I need. I want to know how much you want my service.”

Shen Yaoqing turned her face away toward the window. Her shoulders moved once.

Long Caili dipped the brush. She held it over the blank space in clause two for exactly one breath, and then she wrote a number in it without hesitating.

Down the table, Cheng Mobai read it upside down and dropped his needle.