Chapter 794 — Sixteen Flags

CHAPTER 794

Sixteen Flags

The drums started before the sun did.

Sixteen banners lined up across the field in front of the Antler Gate, in the order the wardens had drawn. Above the gate, on the long roofed stand of the Tally Pavilion, the banner lords had taken their seats. Nine great bronze mirrors hung along the stand’s back wall, each as tall as a man, each showing a different patch of dark forest.

“The Nine Mirrors,” Yue Shaoan whispered. “The Jiang made them. Nine places inside the preserve, shown here all day. And on the city side too. Everyone can watch.”

“Can they hear?” Shi Feng asked.

“No,” Yue Shaoan said.

“Good,” Shi Feng said. “Brother Hou can keep shouting.”

“I heard that!” Hou Tieshou shouted.

The princess’s banner had drawn the eleventh place. That put them almost under the stand’s rail, close enough to see the lords’ faces.

The first banner in the line had a black flag with a silver dragon on it. Five men stood under it, and the man at the front was the largest Shi Feng had seen in the Empire. He had a shaved head, a red-dyed braid and a double-headed axe as long as Shi Feng was tall. The air around him felt thick.

“Helian Ba,” Yue Shaoan said in a very small voice. “Northern clan. Thirty-ninth on the Tianxing. Early Shattering Void. He hunts for the Third Prince.”

“Shattering Void,” Hou Tieshou said, and for once he didn’t say it loudly. “At under thirty. A wolf among sheep.”

Helian Ba didn’t look at any of them. Nothing on this side of the gate seemed worth his time.

“Is he the only one hunting for the Third Prince?” Shi Feng asked.

“He’s the only one under the prince’s flag,” Jiao Lanyin said, without looking up. “The Situ and the Azure Sun fly their own. They’ll still hunt where he needs them. The Gu won’t. The Great General’s wife is the Second Princess, so the Gu hunt for the Fifth Prince.”

Two places down, under a red-gold flag with a blazing sun, stood the Azure Sun banner. Qu Ming was at its head.

His red robe was new. When he saw Shi Feng, he smiled warmly and nodded, like a friend.

“He’s smiling at you,” Hou Tieshou said, frowning. “Why is he smiling at you? You threw him in the water!”

“He thinks he knows how to beat me in there,” Shi Feng said, studying the Azure Sun hunters. “Keep an eye on his banner. That smile isn’t a peace offering.”

The other banners were easier to read. A tall young man in blue under a flag of crossed swords stood with his eyes half-closed and one hand resting on his hilt. That was Zhuge Wuyan of the Cangming Sword Palace. A slim woman in plum-red under the Myriad Marrow flag was laughing at something one of her hunters had said, and her sleeves were very wide. That was Shangguan Ruo. Under the Great Compassion Temple’s plain brown flag, a young monk stood with his palms pressed together, and the hunters on either side of him had left a respectful gap.

“Monk Huikong,” Yue Shaoan said. “Forty-fifth. They say nobody has ever made him take a step back.”

“Somebody will,” Jiao Lanyin said flatly. “Somebody always does.”

Long Caili sat at the rail in pale gold, veiled in pale gauze from brow to chin. Only the shape of her eyes showed through it.

The seat on her left held a broad, quiet man in plain grey, with no crown and no jade. He sat with both hands resting on his knees. The lords beside him had left more room than the bench needed.

“Does he ever enter a banner?” Shi Feng asked, recognising Long Jingtian beside the princess.

“The First Prince,” Yue Shaoan whispered. “Long Jingtian. Her full brother, the Empress’s son. He never enters a banner. He just sits beside hers.”

“Is his realm listed by the Tianji Mansion?” Shi Feng asked. He had heard Cheng Mobai call him late Profound Heaven, but wanted to know what the public record actually said.

“There’s no public entry,” Yue Shaoan said. “The ones who guess don’t guess out loud.”

The Grand Warden’s pressure had pushed the crowd back a step. This man’s didn’t push anything. Shi Feng tried to feel the edge of it and couldn’t find one.

Four seats along sat the Third Prince, a man of about thirty in a black robe with a silver collar. He was lean, pale and handsome, and completely without warmth. As the drums slowed, he spoke without turning his head.

“You brought a cook to a hunt,” the Third Prince said coldly.

His voice carried. Below the rail, Hou Tieshou’s ears turned red.

Long Caili didn’t look at her third brother either. She was watching the gate.

“I brought a man who finishes what he starts,” Long Caili said.

“Third Brother,” Long Jingtian said, without raising his voice. “The drums have stopped.”

The Third Prince said nothing more. On the princess’s other side, Shen Yaoqing lifted her teacup and kept her eyes lowered, but Shi Feng saw the corner of her mouth move once.

“Did you hear that?” Hou Tieshou said, grabbing Shi Feng’s arm. “She stood up for you! In front of the Third Prince!”

“I heard her,” Shi Feng said, gently freeing his arm. “She put me under that banner. I’ll give her a result she can put in front of her brother.”

“…” Hou Tieshou let his hand drop.

Jiao Lanyin tested her bowstring with one finger and didn’t comment.

The Grand Warden stepped to the front of the stand. The field went quiet.

“The Hunt is open,” Long Hengjie said. “Seven days. Come back with something.”

The two stone antlers groaned. Gold light ran down the array wall on either side, and the air between the antlers cleared. The road ran on into the pines.

The crowd behind the ropes roared. All sixteen banners ran.

Helian Ba’s black banner was first through the gate, and nobody dared to cut across them. The Azure Sun went second. As Qu Ming passed the princess’s banner, he turned his head and called out pleasantly.

“Brother Shi! Watch your step in there,” Qu Ming called pleasantly. “The ground isn’t as flat as a lake stage.”

“Watch your own banner,” Shi Feng called back. He kept the warning in mind, but did not give Qu Ming another argument to perform for the crowd.

Qu Ming laughed and was gone between the pines.

The princess’s banner went eleventh, as drawn. Under the trees the light turned green and dim, and the crowd’s noise fell away behind them.

Yue Shaoan stopped, lifted his long nose, and drew in a slow breath. His face went pale.

“Boar,” Yue Shaoan said. “Ironbark. Three of them, north of us, in a hollow.” He swallowed. “And they’ve already smelled Brother Hou.”

From somewhere north, through the pines, something enormous began to run.