Chapter 897 — The Chief Disciple’s Question

CHAPTER 897

The Chief Disciple’s Question

“You read the seal,” Shen Yaoqing said.

It wasn’t a question. She sat beside Long Caili at the low table on the pavilion’s upper floor, in white, with the jade lotus of the Serene Jade Sect at her belt. She didn’t look up from her tea when Shi Feng came in.

Lamps burned along the window, and the evening noise of the capital came up faintly from the street. Chief Steward Ke Lianshu bowed him to the empty cushion across from the two women and withdrew.

“This morning, at the sixth desk,” Shi Feng said, sitting down. “News travels fast in this city.”

“The Records Hall knew by noon,” Shen Yaoqing said coldly. “My sect will know by tomorrow. The Hall sends the asker’s name north.”

“So I was told,” Shi Feng said.

Long Caili poured him a cup of tea and said nothing at all. Her pale gauze veil hung from brow to chin, and only the shape of her eyes showed through it.

Shen Yaoqing set her cup down.

“Then answer me,” Shen Yaoqing said. “How does a frontier boy know a name my own sect doesn’t speak?”

It was the first question she had ever asked him because she wanted the answer. Shi Feng could hear it in her voice. Everything else she’d said to him in half a year had been a test.

He didn’t joke.

“She saved my life,” Shi Feng said. “I was dying in a ruin on the frontier. She had me carried out, and she paid for the pill that put me back together. Then she left me in a village and went away.”

“You saw her,” Shen Yaoqing said.

“No,” Shi Feng said. “I never saw her. I only heard her voice. I owe her a life.”

“Is that all?” Shen Yaoqing asked.

“That’s all,” Shi Feng said. “It’s enough. I don’t know what she looks like, and I don’t need to. I asked the Hall so I’d know where to bring the debt.”

Shen Yaoqing didn’t answer.

She sat very still. Her hand rested beside her cup and didn’t pick it up. Shi Feng had watched her for half a year, cold at the contest, cold at the Hunt, cold even when her master’s life sat in his furnace. This was different. She was moved, and she was hiding it, and for once she was hiding it badly.

Long Caili glanced at her friend, then looked out of the window.

“The Nangong house,” Shen Yaoqing said at last, “is the Supreme Elder’s house.”

Shi Feng waited.

“You don’t know what that means,” Shen Yaoqing said. “Nobody from the south would. The Supreme Elder is the reason the Serene Jade stands where it stands. His house is small, and nobody in my sect goes near it. Not the elders. Not the Sect Master.” She looked straight at him for the first time. “The Nangong house never collects debts. It chooses who may pay.”

“Then I’ll ask to be chosen,” Shi Feng said.

“You’ll be refused,” Shen Yaoqing said.

“The Records Hall refused me for a year,” Shi Feng said. “Very kindly, every time. This morning I still read the entry. I’ll ask the Nangong house the same way.”

Shen Yaoqing’s lips pressed together.

“I leave north at dawn,” Shen Yaoqing said. “My master is well enough to travel, and the sect has called me home.” She stood and smoothed her sleeve. “I won’t travel with a man the Supreme Elder’s house is now reading about. Whatever they decide about you, I won’t have my master’s name standing next to yours when they decide it.”

It was a cold thing to say, and she said it coldly. But she had also told him, without being asked, who would be reading his name and how far up it would go. Shi Feng noticed that. He didn’t say so.

Long Caili lifted the teapot and filled her friend’s empty cup.

“Then he’ll get there after you,” Long Caili said.

Shen Yaoqing turned and looked at her.

“Did you arrange this?” Shen Yaoqing asked.

“I arranged the tea,” Long Caili said.

Shen Yaoqing looked at her for a long moment. Then she bowed to the princess, gave Shi Feng one short nod, and left. Her steps went down the stair, quick and even, and the lamps by the door swayed after her.

The room was quiet.

The cup Long Caili had filled sat steaming in front of the empty cushion. The princess didn’t touch it, and she didn’t explain it.

“She’s right about one thing,” Long Caili said. “The north will be colder to you than she is.”

“She’ll get there ahead of me,” Shi Feng said. “Half a month, if she rides.”

“She’ll ride,” Long Caili said.

“You knew she’d leave first,” Shi Feng said.

“I know my friend,” Long Caili said. “She asked her question. She heard the answer. Now she has to go somewhere and think about it where you can’t watch her do it.” She turned her cup in her fingers. “That’s how she says thank you. Don’t expect a better one.”

“I wasn’t expecting any,” Shi Feng said.

“Good,” Long Caili said. “Then you won’t be disappointed.”

Shi Feng drank his tea. It had gone a little cold, and he finished it anyway.

He set the cup down and stood. He touched the old card through the cloth of his sleeve. Tomorrow he had to spend it, and he wanted to spend it before anyone else in the capital found out he had it.