Chapter 908 — The Cold Move

CHAPTER 908

The Cold Move

The hall had no name on its door, and no lamp inside it.

Linghu Yan knelt on the cold stone with his forehead to the floor. The cut on his face had been stitched badly on the road, and it had opened again. Blood dripped off his chin onto the stone. He didn’t wipe it.

He had ridden four days without sleep, rehearsing his report. The target was stronger than the reports. The target had found the folds with a forge beat.

Nobody had asked him for any of it.

Somewhere in the dark ahead of him, someone set down a teacup. It made a very small sound.

“You were seen,” a cold voice said.

That was all. Linghu Yan waited for the rest. After a while, he understood that it wasn’t coming.

The palace canal ran along the inside of the Imperial City’s west wall, green and slow, with willows on both banks. At dawn a Lantern Guard patrol walked the towpath with long poles, fishing out leaves.

The youngest guard’s pole hit something heavy.

They pulled it in together. Then they saw the face, and the youngest guard dropped his pole into the water.

“Commander!” the youngest guard shouted. “It’s the Commander!”

“Commander Linghu? Impossible! He was on leave in the north!”

“Don’t touch him! Don’t touch anything!”

By full sunrise, the whole Lantern Guard knew that its Commander, fourteenth on the Tianxing, had been found drowned in a palace canal with a sword cut across his face.

By noon, so did the court.

Censor Situ Kerang was a narrow man of fifty with a sparse grey beard and a very loud voice. He held his memorial in both hands, high, the way a man holds something he’s proud of.

“Your servant has the honour to report,” Situ Kerang read, to the whole Hall of Clear Rule. “On the twelfth night of this month, at Grey Goose Pass on the north road, Linghu Yan, Commander of the Lantern Guard, an imperial officer of the fourth rank and fourteenth on the Tianxing list, was attacked and grievously wounded by a man named Shi Feng.”

A few ministers looked at the princess, then away again. The others stirred along both sides of the hall.

“He returned to the capital to report it,” Situ Kerang went on, “and died of those wounds in the night, falling into the west canal. The Tianji Mansion has since moved this Shi Feng above the Commander. That proves the fight. The matter is as clear as looking at fire. And the whole capital knows whose man this Shi Feng is.”

He didn’t look at the princess. He didn’t have to. Every other face in the hall did.

Long Caili stood at the head of the left row in court robes of deep blue, with her hands folded in her sleeves. A veil of pale gauze hung from her brow to her chin, and it didn’t stir. She didn’t look at Situ Kerang. She looked at the curtained throne.

“Say it, Censor,” Long Caili said coldly. “You’ve come this far.”

Situ Kerang bowed to her, very correctly.

“Your Highness’s signed guest,” Situ Kerang said. “Under Long law, a member of the Long Family answers for the deeds of a guest under contract, and answers more heavily than a commoner would. Your servant only asks that the law be observed.”

The murmuring grew louder.

“Her own guest! The ink on the contract is barely dry!”

“The Situ never file a memorial they can’t stand behind.”

“Watch who stands near her today.”

“…”

“A question, Censor,” Long Caili said. “Was Commander Linghu on duty at Grey Goose Pass?”

“He was on leave, Your Highness,” Situ Kerang said.

“On leave, with a sword, on the north road at night,” Long Caili said, and her voice carried to the back of the hall. “And my guest attacked him there. Who reported that? The Commander himself?”

Situ Kerang hesitated for half a breath.

“He reported to no one, Your Highness,” Situ Kerang said. “He died first.”

“Then nobody living has told you who attacked whom,” Long Caili said, and turned to face the ministers. “The Tianji Mansion prints ranks. It doesn’t print who drew first.”

Situ Kerang’s face reddened. Before he could answer, a voice spoke from the head of the right row.

“Fourth Sister is right,” the Third Prince said.

The hall went quiet at once.

He didn’t step forward. He was the tallest man in the hall and the one every faction watched, and he stood very still in his black court robes, looking at nobody in particular. His name wasn’t on the memorial, and his seal wasn’t on any page of it.

“Nobody knows who drew first,” the Third Prince said gently. “An imperial officer is dead in the palace’s own water, and a Tianxing with him. Fourth Sister’s guest is named. I ask for a full inquiry under Long law, with the Censorate and the Lantern Guard both, so that my sister’s name can be cleared in public.”

He said it as if he were doing her a kindness.

The ministers bowed their heads one after another. Nobody could argue with an inquiry. An inquiry was what an honest princess should want.

“Full, then,” Long Jingtian said.

The First Prince stood alone below the throne steps, a little apart from both rows. Nobody in the hall could measure the pressure around him, and the ministers nearest him had kept half a step back all morning without knowing why.

“Full, as Third Brother asks,” Long Jingtian said, and looked at the Censor. “And when it’s finished, I’ll read every line of it myself. Fourth Sister answers for her guest. The Censorate answers for its memorial.”

“Your Highness, the Censorate only reports what—” Situ Kerang began, his beard trembling.

“I know,” Long Jingtian said quietly. “Report carefully.”

“Elder Brother is very thorough,” the Third Prince said mildly.

“Someone in this family has to be,” Long Jingtian said.

“The Second Princess married her general and left the race to her little brother,” an old minister muttered near the back. “That one never will.” The men beside him pretended not to hear.

Long Caili’s eyes went to the First Prince for half a breath. He was already looking at the throne again. Then she looked across the hall at the Third Prince.

He didn’t look back.

“Then let it be full,” Long Caili said, and her hands stayed folded. “Your Highness can be sure I’ll answer every line of it.”

The curtain before the dragon throne didn’t move. At last a eunuch’s voice behind it called out that the memorial was accepted and the inquiry granted.

That evening a rider left the princess’s pavilion by the north gate, with a letter sealed in plain wax and a fresh horse waiting at every second post.