Chapter 974 — Shuoyang

CHAPTER 974

Shuoyang

Shuoyang stood on a bend of the frozen Shuo River, with grey walls four zhang high and a watchtower on every corner. It was the oldest city in the north, and the circuit court had sat inside it for six hundred years.

The commission reached its north gate on the afternoon of the third day. The gate guards looked at the Long-law pennant, then at the Censorate carriage, then at the young man walking beside it with an old man in Pavilion grey ten paces behind him.

“That’s him,” the first guard said under his breath. “The tenth.”

“The 6 Mark,” the second guard said. “The one from Grey Goose.”

“He’s walking. Why isn’t he in the carriage?”

“Because he isn’t a prisoner, you blockhead. Look at the Pavilion guardian. Would you put that old man’s guest in a carriage?”

Both guards bowed to Shi Feng as he passed. Neither of them sneered. Neither did anyone in the street beyond, where the teahouse doors filled with faces as he walked by.

“Hearing his name a hundred times isn’t as good as seeing him once,” an old tea-seller said to his customers, craning his neck. “He’s younger than I thought.”

“They’re all younger than you thought, Grandpa.”

Situ Mingzhao’s carriage turned toward the circuit court. Shi Feng turned the other way, toward the Sky Pavilion’s tower, which stood seven storeys high on the city’s main square with its doors open.

A thin man of about fifty was waiting on the tower steps. He wore a plain dark robe with the Pavilion’s law badge on the collar, and he held a single sheet of paper in one hand. There was ink on his middle finger.

“Guest Elder,” Yan Lianbi said, bowing deeply. “Yan Lianbi, law-steward of the Sky Pavilion. The Old Tower Master sent me north when the summons was issued. I’ve been here six days. I’m to stand beside you in every sitting of this inquiry.”

“Six days,” Shi Feng said. “You were here before the commission.”

“Before the commission left the capital, Guest Elder,” Yan Lianbi said. “The Pavilion reads the Censorate’s papers too.”

He led them to a quiet third-floor room and set the paper before Shi Feng.

“The rules of a circuit hearing,” Yan Lianbi said. “I’ve kept them to one page. I’ve never needed two.”

Shi Feng read it.

First. The commission hears. The circuit court keeps the record. Nothing said outside the hall counts.

Second. The named man may question every witness himself.

Third. A finding needs three seals: the commissioner’s, the Lantern Guard’s, and the Long seat’s. The Long seat must be filled by a member of the imperial family before the hearing opens.

Fourth. Under Pavilion law the guest elder is not bound, and a law-steward of the Pavilion stands with him.

Fifth. The dead man’s clan may petition under the old law.

“The Long seat,” Shi Feng said, putting his finger on the third line. “Who fills it?”

“The court hasn’t said yet,” Yan Lianbi said. “It will send someone. Which someone is being argued about in Tianjing as we speak.”

“And the fifth?” Shi Feng asked.

“Nobody has used it in sixty years,” Yan Lianbi said. “I put it on the page because nobody had used it in sixty years.”

Shi Feng looked at Yan Lianbi with new respect. The steward hadn’t dismissed an old provision just because nobody used it. He was warning Shi Feng about a lawful attack the commission could still make.

Before he could ask more, there was a knock at the door. A Pavilion attendant came in and bowed.

“Guest Elder, Steward Yan,” the attendant said. “There’s a rider in the square from the Long household. He asks to make an announcement to the guest elder.”

The young rider in Long household blue had frost in his eyebrows. His horse was exhausted. He stayed on the tower steps and read a yellow sheet loudly enough for the square to hear.

“By the leave of Long law, which allows the bonder to answer for the bond,” the rider called, “Her Highness the Fourth Princess will answer in person for her surety. Her Highness will arrive in Shuoyang tomorrow.”

He rolled the paper up, bowed to the tower and rode off toward the south gate.

The whole square stood frozen. Then it exploded.

“In person! The Fourth Princess is coming here?”

“The Tianxing’s first name, in Shuoyang!”

“Answering for the tenth! Did you hear? She’s bonded herself for him!”

Shi Feng stood at the third-floor window as people hurried across the square to spread the news. He was stunned. Long Caili hadn’t only sent a token and letters. She was coming to face the hearing with him.

By supper, Yan Lianbi came back up from the circuit court with the commission’s first notice.

“Two things, Guest Elder,” Yan Lianbi said, and sat down without being asked. “First, the Censorate has filed the name of its eyewitness. Cao Shuncai, a hand from the Grey Goose waystation. He’ll testify that he saw the first blow.”

“And the second?” Shi Feng asked.

“The Linghu clan arrived in Shuoyang this afternoon,” Yan Lianbi said. “Thirty of them, all in white mourning. They’ve taken the whole east inn. Their elder visited the circuit court an hour before I did.”

Qin Wuyan, sitting by the door, opened his eyes.

Shi Feng took a fresh sheet of paper and wrote three lines on it, plainly.

A witness who was paid.

A clan that was told.

A dead man who reported to someone.

He turned the sheet around so Yan Lianbi could read it.

“The first I can take apart in the hall,” Shi Feng said. “The second I can deal with if they come at me. The third is the only one that matters.”

“And the third?” Yan Lianbi asked quietly.

“The third is the one nobody will let me touch,” Shi Feng said.