Chapter 912 — Frost Pass City

CHAPTER 912

Frost Pass City

The forty people in grey bowed together, and the snow on their shoulders slid off together.

A plump man at the head of the rows hurried forward.

“Honoured guest elder! This humble steward is Xun Bai, of the Frost Pass tower!” Xun Bai called, bowing again. “Your name reached us nineteen days ago, by the Ninefold Tower’s own courier. We’ve had the lamps lit every night since.”

Xun Bai was sweating. It was cold enough to freeze the gate chains, and there were beads of sweat on his forehead.

“You’ve waited out here every night?” Shi Feng asked, returning the bow. “Get everyone inside, Steward Xun. I’m sorry I kept you all in the cold.”

“No, no! It’s the tower’s honour!” Xun Bai said, and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “This way, please. The northern houses have sent letters. Quite a few letters.”

Shuangguan, Frost Pass City, was the last great city before the passes. It sat in a notch between two black hills, and every caravan going north to the Serene Jade lands paid its toll here. The Pavilion tower stood in the middle of it, nine storeys of grey stone, and the people in the street stopped to watch the 6 Mark go in.

“That’s him? He’s so young!”

“Thirteenth on the Tianxing and a 6 Mark at once. Heaven isn’t fair.”

“Look at the old man behind him. Don’t look at him too long.”

The tower’s great hall had a long table and two dozen chairs. Representatives from five northern houses were already standing around it when Shi Feng sat down. Qin Wuyan took his place behind Shi Feng’s chair, and stood there.

Nobody else sat down.

Xun Bai looked at the empty chairs, then at the old man in grey, and didn’t suggest it.

There were eleven commission letters. Shi Feng read them all. Most of them wanted 5 Mark-grade pills, Shattering Void-grade work, for clan elders who’d been stuck at one stage for years. He set eight of them aside.

“These three,” Shi Feng said, and laid them out on the table. “The Wen house wants a Rift-Mending Pill. The Gao house wants a Stage-Pushing Pill for an elder at early Shattering Void. The Duanmu house wants a pill to settle a cracked spatial vein. I’ll take all three. Four hundred thousand each. Their herbs, and the spares are mine.”

Xun Bai’s sweat ran down into his collar.

“Master Shi,” Xun Bai said weakly, holding the letters as if they were hot. “The tower usually charges the northern houses two hundred and fifty for that work. Two hundred and eighty at most.”

“The tower usually sends them a 5 Mark,” Shi Feng said. “Now it’s sending them a 6 Mark who’ll refine all three in one day. A master in Tianjing told me to charge the north more. He’s never been wrong about a price.”

The representative of the Wen house, a lean man with a fur collar, opened his mouth to argue. He looked at Qin Wuyan, and closed it again.

“The Wen house accepts,” the Wen representative said.

“The Gao house accepts,” the Gao representative said at once.

“The Duanmu house accepts,” the Duanmu representative said. “A pearl is a pearl even in the dust. The Duanmu would rather pay a 6 Mark too much than a 5 Mark too little.”

Xun Bai signed all three orders with a shaking brush.

The ink was still wet when the hall doors opened.

Two men came in and bowed in the doorway. The first was a neat man of about forty in the dark blue of the Censorate, holding a scroll case in both hands. The second was tall and broad, in the black lacquer armour of the Lantern Guard, with a white mourning band tied around his left arm.

“Honoured guest elder Shi Feng. This official is Ruan Heng, inspector of the Censorate,” Ruan Heng said, very correctly. “This is Deputy Commander Pang Yue of the Lantern Guard. We bring a writ under Long law.”

Pang Yue bowed, but he didn’t speak. His eyes went once to the grey Sword at Shi Feng’s hip and stayed there.

Linghu Yan’s second, Shi Feng thought. He’s wearing white for his commander.

Ruan Heng opened the scroll case and read the writ aloud. It was polite from beginning to end. The inquiry into the death of Commander Linghu Yan requested the honoured guest’s deposition, and respectfully invited the honoured guest to return to Tianjing to assist the inquiry in person.

The five house representatives turned toward the windows. None wanted the inspector to mistake their interest for support in a royal dispute.

“Inspector Ruan,” Shi Feng said, folding his hands on the table. “I’ll answer every question the inquiry has. I won’t go back to Tianjing.”

“May this official ask why?” Ruan Heng said, without any change in his voice.

“First,” Shi Feng said. “Under Long law, Her Highness answers for her guest. She’s asked her guest not to come. A guest who ignores his host’s request in the middle of her inquiry shames her in front of the whole court.”

Ruan Heng inclined his head a little.

“Second,” Shi Feng said. “A guest elder of the Sky Pavilion is deposed in a Pavilion hall. Steward Xun?”

Xun Bai jumped. Then he hurried to a shelf, pulled down a thick book bound in grey and turned the pages with wet fingers.

“It’s here!” Xun Bai said. “Tower rules, the third volume. ‘A guest elder of the Pavilion shall give testimony to any court of the Empire in a hall of the Pavilion, before a Pavilion scribe.’ It was written in the reign of the third Emperor.”

“Third,” Shi Feng said. “Three northern houses signed orders with this tower a moment ago. The Pavilion’s word is on them. If I leave for Tianjing, the tower breaks its word to the north.”

He stood up.

“So I’ll be deposed tomorrow morning, in this hall,” Shi Feng said. “A Pavilion scribe will keep a copy. You’ll have every answer I have, Inspector. You just won’t have me in Tianjing.”

Ruan Heng looked at him for a moment. Then he rolled the writ up and put it back in its case.

“That is correct procedure,” Ruan Heng said. “This official will be here at the hour of the dragon.”

The house representatives looked at each other. A Censorate inspector had come north with a Long-law writ, and he was leaving with an appointment.

Pang Yue still hadn’t taken his eyes off the grey Sword.

“Tomorrow, then,” Pang Yue said quietly, turning toward the door. “I’ll have one question of my own.”