Chapter 967 — The Summons

CHAPTER 967

The Summons

The forearm-long red lacquer tube bore two yellow wax seals: the Censorate’s, and a dragon coiled around scales. Every gatehouse disciple recognised the seal of Long law.

Gate Elder Qiu Moshan held the tube in both hands. He didn’t offer it right away.

“The Imperial courier stopped at the boundary stone, Guest Elder, as every Imperial rider must,” Gate Elder Qiu Moshan said, looking at the seals and not at Shi Feng. “He wasn’t allowed past it. Our patrol carried this up under the sect’s own seal, and it hasn’t been opened. The courier is waiting at the stone for your receipt.”

“Thank you, Elder Qiu,” Shi Feng said.

“The Serene Jade regrets that its gate had to carry this to its guest,” Gate Elder Qiu Moshan said, and bowed over the tube. “It wasn’t the sect’s wish. But the gate carries what’s brought to it. That’s been the rule for nine hundred years.”

“The gate did the right thing,” Shi Feng said, and took the tube from him with both hands. “If it had refused, the courier would still be sitting at the stone a month from now, and the whole valley would be asking why the Serene Jade was hiding me.”

Gate Elder Qiu looked relieved. He stepped back.

Shi Feng broke the wax. Inside was a single sheet of heavy yellow paper, written in a clerk’s perfect hand.

The Censorate, under Long law, with every respect, to the Honoured Guest Elder of the Sky Pavilion, Master of the Sixth Mark, Shi Feng.

An Imperial commission of inquiry has been convened concerning the death of Linghu Yan, Commander of the Lantern Guard, an officer of the fourth rank. The Honoured Guest Elder’s account is respectfully requested.

The commission will sit at the circuit court of the northern provinces, at Shuoyang, from the eighth day of the coming month. The Honoured Guest Elder may present himself at whatever hour suits his convenience.

The commission is aware of the Honoured Guest Elder’s standing and of the laws of the Sky Pavilion, and asks nothing that those laws do not allow.

Shi Feng read it to the end and laughed.

“They’ve even let me pick the hour,” Shi Feng said.

The young disciples by the gatehouse door looked at one another. Not one of them had ever heard of the Censorate letting anyone pick anything.

“It’s very polite,” one of them whispered.

“It’s a summons under Long law! What’s polite about it?”

“He’s a 6 Mark. Even the Censorate has to bow when it writes to a 6 Mark.”

“…It still says he has to go.”

Gate Elder Qiu cleared his throat, and the whispering stopped.

“First the rites, then the soldiers,” Gate Elder Qiu Moshan said quietly. “The Censorate’s most courteous papers are the ones it expects most to be obeyed, Guest Elder. The more bowing in a summons, the less room there is to refuse it.”

“I wasn’t going to refuse it,” Shi Feng said, rolling the sheet up again. “Where’s Shuoyang?”

“Three days down the river road, past the southern edge of our lands,” Gate Elder Qiu Moshan said, and pointed out of the gatehouse window, past the white slopes, toward a grey line of hills. “The circuit court for the eleven northern provinces sits there. It’s the oldest court north of the capital.”

Shi Feng looked at the grey hills.

Shuoyang was south of the Lotus Gate. But it was a long way north of Tianjing, and every road from it to the capital ran for another month. Long Caili had written that the hearing would sit at a northern circuit seat, so that answering it wouldn’t be turning around. Her elder brother had moved it there. Now the summons said the same thing in a clerk’s handwriting.

Shi Feng thought the distinction was clear. Answering at Shuoyang would honour his promise to attend without ignoring Long Caili’s warning about returning to the capital.

“The eighth day of next month,” Shi Feng said. “That’s twenty-two days.”

“Twenty-two,” Gate Elder Qiu Moshan agreed.

Shi Feng sat at the gatehouse table and wrote the receipt himself. He wrote that the Honoured Guest Elder had received the summons at the Lotus Gate on this day, in good order, with its seals unbroken, and would attend at Shuoyang as it asked. Then he took out the small seal of a Sky Pavilion guest elder and pressed it into the wax below his name.

Gate Elder Qiu Moshan sent a patrol disciple running to the boundary stone with it.

“People fear getting famous the way pigs fear getting fat,” Gate Elder Qiu Moshan said with a sigh, watching the boy go. “Forgive this old man, Guest Elder. Since you came up these steps, half the north has started writing letters about you.”

“I’ll attend the hearing, Elder Qiu,” Shi Feng said. “Please tell anyone who asks. I won’t give them a reason to accuse your sect of sheltering me.”

Qin Wuyan had stood so still in the corner that the young disciples forgot him. When Shi Feng rose, he stepped forward.

“This one goes where the guest elder goes,” Qin Wuyan said.

The young disciples jumped.

“We’ll leave in time to reach Shuoyang before the hearing,” Shi Feng said, tucking the tube into his sleeve. “I’d like a quiet meal before I meet the commission.”

“Agreed,” Qin Wuyan said.

That was all he said. He went back to the corner and stood there again.

Shi Feng left the gatehouse. Behind him stood the silent white Lotus Gate. The long steps ahead led down to Lianxia.

Twenty-two days. Enough to finish his work here and take his leave properly.

Shu Wan waited below the gatehouse steps with the unfinished gift list.

“Guest Elder,” Shu Wan said, and held up a folded slip. “There’s one more thing. Manager Kang Yi wrote this on the back of the courier’s docket. The new Tianji issue reaches Lianxia tomorrow morning.”