Chapter 928 — The Chief Disciple’s Horse

CHAPTER 928

The Chief Disciple’s Horse

The boundary stones were white jade, each as tall as a man, with a lotus carved on the face that looked north.

On the near side of the line the valley lay under a foot of snow. On the far side the ground was bare and brown, with green grass coming up between the stones of the road. The air past the line was a little warmer. The sect’s arrays kept the snow outside its boundary.

Six young men in pale grey stood across the road at the line, with swords at their belts and jade lotus badges on their chests. Their leader stepped forward as the horses came up.

“Serene Jade Sect, outer patrol,” the patrol leader said, and bowed correctly. “May this disciple ask the travellers’ names and business?”

Shi Feng got down and handed him the letter he’d carried from Tianjing. It was folded in white paper and sealed with a small jade lotus.

The patrol leader saw the seal and straightened. He opened the letter, read it, and read it again more slowly. Then he folded it with both hands and gave it back, and all six of the patrol bowed together, much lower than before.

“Elder Ye Wanqiu’s hand,” the patrol leader said. “Elder Shi is the sect’s guest wherever he walks. This disciple apologises for asking.”

“You were doing your job,” Shi Feng said. “There’s no need.”

The patrol stepped aside. As the horses passed the first lotus stone, Qin Wuyan spoke for the first time that day.

“On Serene Jade land,” Qin Wuyan said, looking straight ahead, “no blood is shed without the sect’s leave. Bandits included.”

Shi Feng understood what he meant. The grey sleeves couldn’t come for him here without answering to the Serene Jade. It also meant he couldn’t draw his own sword here without answering to them either.

“Then I’ll keep it in its sheath,” Shi Feng said.

A little past the stones, a girl in pale grey sat on the low wall by the road with a white horse beside her. The horse was saddled in white leather with a small jade lotus on the bridle, and it was much finer than the Helian horses they’d ridden from the Hold. When she saw them, she jumped down and bowed.

“Outer disciple Shu Wan,” Shu Wan said briskly. “From the chief disciple’s office, Elder Shi. This horse is from the sect’s guest stable. A 6 Mark guest of the Lotus Gate isn’t left to walk the sect’s lands. The office sent the horse. I’m only here to lead it.”

“Only the horse?” Shi Feng asked.

“Only the horse, Elder,” Shu Wan said firmly. “It’s an escort, not a guard. You have a guard.” She glanced at Qin Wuyan and bowed again, more carefully. “The office was clear about that.”

The chief disciple’s office was Shen Yaoqing’s. She had sent a horse, not a person, and she’d sent a disciple who would say so plainly. Shi Feng was amused. Shen Yaoqing had made certain he couldn’t mistake the horse for a personal welcome.

Shi Feng got up on the white horse.

Lü Wancheng’s caravan turned onto the lower road there, toward the sect’s herb halls. The steward came running back along the line of wagons to bow one last time, and the drivers shouted goodbyes after him. Then Shu Wan took the white horse’s bridle and led it north along the guest road, with Qin Wuyan riding behind.

Lianxia Town lay at the foot of the mountains, where the guest road met the first slope. It was a long town of white walls and grey roofs, built along a single main street that ran straight to the bottom of a white stone stair. The stair went up the mountain and vanished into cloud.

They came in through the south gate in the afternoon, and the street noticed them at once.

A grey-sleeved Pavilion guardian, a girl from the sect leading a white guest horse, and a young man on the horse. People stopped what they were doing. A woman selling steamed buns stopped with one in her tongs.

“That’s him. That’s the 6 Mark.”

“The one who asked after the Nangong girl?”

“Keep your voice down! Do you want the sect to hear you say that name?”

“Everybody’s saying it. It came up from the Pavilion a month ago. The asker’s name is sent north, they said.”

“Good news never leaves the door, but bad news travels a thousand li,” the bun seller said, and put the bun back on the tray. “Poor young man.”

“…”

Shi Feng heard every word. He’d expected the north to know his name. He hadn’t expected it to be famous for one question.

The Pavilion’s tower in Lianxia was small, three floors of grey stone at the bottom of the main street. Its keeper was an old woman with a grey shawl over her shoulders, and she came out to the steps and bowed as soon as she saw him.

“Elder Shi,” the tower keeper said. “Your name came up the road ahead of you. The sect has been told you’ve arrived.”

“Has the sect said anything?” Shi Feng asked.

“Only that the Lotus Gate will send for you when the gate is ready,” the tower keeper said, and folded her hands. “That’s how they always say it. Some guests wait three days. Some wait a season.”

Shu Wan bowed beside the horse and didn’t say anything either way.

“Then I’ll wait,” Shi Feng said. “Do you have rooms?”

“We do, Elder,” the tower keeper said. She hesitated. “But you may not need them. There’s a new pavilion on the main street, opened this month. Its manager has come to my door twice since yesterday to ask whether you’d arrived yet.”

“Whose pavilion?” Shi Feng asked.

The tower keeper looked at the black jade token at his belt, and didn’t need to answer.