Chapter 793 — Four of Five

CHAPTER 793

Four of Five

The tent smelled of new canvas and old wine, and three people inside it stopped talking when he came in.

“So this is the cook!” the biggest of the three roared, already coming toward him.

He was a head taller than Shi Feng and twice as wide, with a bare chest under an open leather vest and knuckles thick with old scars. He crossed the tent in two strides and slapped Shi Feng on the shoulder hard enough to shake the tent pole.

“Hou Tieshou! Late Deity Transformation, body cultivation, Mountain-Carrying Fist!” Hou Tieshou shouted, as if Shi Feng were standing at the far end of a field. “I saw your final! You threw the Azure Sun’s young lord into a lake! Ha! Best thing I’ve seen all year!”

“Thank you,” Shi Feng said, moving his injured shoulder out of reach. “That one was speared recently. Slap the other if you must.”

“It’ll toughen up,” Hou Tieshou said cheerfully.

The second man hadn’t stood up. He was thin, with a long nose and anxious eyes, and he sat on a stool with his knees together and both hands wrapped around a cup of tea.

“Yue Shaoan,” the thin man said, half rising and sitting down again. “Mid Deity Transformation. I track. Hundred-Scent Trail. I’m—I’m told I’m the only tracker Her Highness could get at short notice.”

“Can you track a boar through pine?” Shi Feng asked.

“I can track a boar through pine, a fox through smoke and a man through a market,” Yue Shaoan said quickly. Then he looked worried. “I can’t fight any of them very well.”

The third was a woman sitting apart by the tent wall, restringing a white bow. She had sharp features and very straight shoulders, and she didn’t look up.

“Jiao Lanyin,” the woman said. “Late Deity Transformation. Frost Feather Arrow.”

“We met at the contest,” Shi Feng said.

“You passed me,” Jiao Lanyin said coldly, pulling the string tight. “That isn’t the same thing as meeting.”

Ke Lianshu cleared his throat at the entrance. Everyone turned to him.

“Forgive me. Misfortunes never come singly,” Ke Lianshu said, bowing. “Her Highness’s fifth hunter, Hang Jun, late Deity Transformation, was found in his room at the gate inn at midnight. He was poisoned at dinner. The physician says he’ll live. But he can’t stand, and he won’t hold a sword for a month.”

“Who did it?” Shi Feng asked.

“Nobody knows, Master Shi,” Ke Lianshu said unhappily. “The cook has served the inn for twenty years. The serving boy has run away. The physician couldn’t name the poison.”

“Can he be replaced?” Shi Feng asked.

“The rosters closed when the Grand Warden finished reading,” Ke Lianshu said. “Up to five hunters, the rule says. Four is allowed. It’s just four.”

“Cowards! Poisoning a man’s rice!” Hou Tieshou roared, punching his palm. “If they want a fight, they should come to the gate and fight!”

“They didn’t want a fight,” Jiao Lanyin said, without looking up from her bow. “Hide the knife in the sleeve.”

Shi Feng wasn’t listening to either of them.

They reached Hang Jun through his dinner, Shi Feng thought. The missing serving boy mattered more than whether the cook was loyal. Ji Yuanhe was a day’s ride away in the princess’s pavilion, and everyone who had watched the contest knew he was there. Shi Feng would not assume the guards alone made him safe.

“Steward Ke,” Shi Feng said. “I need paper, a brush, and the fastest courier Her Highness keeps.”

Ke Lianshu looked at his face and stopped apologising. He brought all three himself.

Shi Feng wrote standing up, at the tent’s folding table, and didn’t sit down until he had finished.

First, the guards on Master Ji’s door. Any guard who had walked the lane at Willow Ford, or escorted Master Ji in public during the contest, was to be moved off the door tonight. The people who wanted Master Ji had watched both. They might know those faces.

Second, Master Ji’s meals. They were to come from the princess’s own kitchen, carried by a different servant each day, and tasted in front of him.

Third, nobody new was to be admitted to the pavilion’s rear court until the Hunt ended. Not a porter, not a physician, not a messenger with a letter from Shi Feng. If a letter came in his name, it was false.

He read the list once, sealed it, and gave it to Ke Lianshu.

“Her Highness’s courier hawk will reach the pavilion before the second watch,” Ke Lianshu said. “The answer will come back by midnight.”

“Then I’ll wait for it,” Shi Feng said.

Hou Tieshou had stopped shouting. He looked from Shi Feng to the steward and back.

“Is the cook always like this?” Hou Tieshou asked under his breath.

“No,” Jiao Lanyin said. She looked up from her bow for the first time, studied Shi Feng’s face briefly, and looked down again. “Only now.”

Yue Shaoan was holding his teacup so tightly that it rattled.

Shi Feng sat outside the tent through the evening and the first watch. He didn’t talk. He thanked Hou Tieshou for the rice and didn’t eat it.

At the edge of the camp, the gate torches burned low. The camp grew quiet one banner at a time. Once, Yue Shaoan came out and sniffed the air. “Only horses,” Yue Shaoan said, checking the dark beyond the tents before going back inside.

At midnight, a grey hawk came down out of the dark and landed on Ke Lianshu’s padded wrist.

The steward unrolled the slip from its leg and read it under the lamp.

“Two guards moved off the door, Master Shi,” Ke Lianshu said. “Meals from Her Highness’s kitchen, tasted. The rear court is closed.” He hesitated. “There’s one more line. In Master Ji’s own hand.”

“Read it,” Shi Feng said.

“Tell him I’ve counted the new guards,” Ke Lianshu read. “There are six. They’re all very tall. Please stop writing letters and sleep.”

Shi Feng laughed with relief. Behind him Hou Tieshou stopped pacing, and Yue Shaoan finally put down his cold tea. None of them had known how to reassure him before the letter came.

“Good,” Shi Feng said, standing up and stretching until his back cracked. “Then we’ll go and hunt.”

Out on the field, the drummers were already carrying their drums to the gate. Dawn was three hours off, and sixteen banners would be lined up before it came.