Chapter 981 — The Leave Papers

CHAPTER 981

The Leave Papers

Linghu Zhongshu brought the papers himself, an hour before midnight.

The commission had kept its lamps lit to wait for him. Situ Mingzhao sat at the table in the court’s side hall with a clerk at his elbow, and Pang Yue sat at the end of the table in Lantern Guard black. Shi Feng stood with Yan Lianbi. Qin Wuyan stood by the door.

The old man’s face was white. He set a flat lacquer case on the table, opened it, and stepped back from it.

“The late Commander’s leave papers,” Linghu Zhongshu said stiffly. “As the clan agreed.”

Situ Mingzhao lifted out a single folded sheet and read it under the lamp. His expression didn’t change. He passed it down the table to Pang Yue without a word.

Pang Yue read it once. Then he read it again.

“Lantern Guard leave,” Pang Yue said flatly, and put the sheet down. “Commander Linghu Yan, twenty days, for the north road. Countersigned by the Deputy Commander.” He laid one finger on the name at the bottom. “That’s my name. That isn’t my hand. I never signed this.”

The clerk stopped writing.

“The Deputy Commander is certain?” Situ Mingzhao asked politely.

“I was his deputy for fourteen years, Commissioner,” Pang Yue said. His voice stayed flat, but his finger hadn’t left the page. “In fourteen years he never took a single day of leave. If he’d asked for twenty days, I’d have known about it before the ink was dry.”

Linghu Zhongshu opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

Shi Feng looked at the date and counted backwards.

The leave was dated three days before he had left Tianjing. Three days before he set out, somebody had already known he’d be on the north road, and had sent a Tianxing to wait for him there with a forged leave in his pocket.

Linghu Yan hadn’t gone north on his own. He’d been sent.

“The commission receives the document,” Situ Mingzhao said, and nodded to the clerk. “Entered as delivered by the Linghu clan, under the terms of the duel. Its weight will be heard tomorrow.”

Shi Feng watched the clerk enter the papers and felt some respect for the commissioner. Situ Mingzhao served the Situ family, but he wouldn’t hide an inconvenient document. Shi Feng would make him deal with everything in the record.

“Elder Linghu,” Shi Feng said, as the old man turned to go. “Your clan was told he went north on leave.”

Linghu Zhongshu stopped in the doorway with his back to the room.

“We were told,” Linghu Zhongshu said hoarsely. His shoulders stiffened with anger, but he left without arguing. The forged signature was there for everyone to see.

The hearing opened at the first bell the next morning.

The circuit court’s main hall was long and cold, with black pillars and high windows. The commission’s table stood on a raised floor at the far end. Situ Mingzhao sat in the centre seat. Pang Yue sat on his left. On his right, in the Long seat, Long Zhenlei sat with his arms folded and one boot on the rung of his chair.

To one side of the raised floor stood a single tall chair carved with the Long dragon. That was the surety’s chair.

Long Caili sat in it, veiled, in court blue, with her hands folded in her lap. She had come in before the gallery opened. She didn’t look at the accused’s bench and she didn’t look at the commission.

The gallery was full. The Yelü had the front rows in grey. The Linghu sat across the aisle in white. Behind them half of Shuoyang was standing.

“They’re both here. The first and the tenth on the list.”

“She won’t say a word. That’s the law. A surety who talks can be called a witness.”

“Then why come?”

“So everyone in this hall can see she came.”

“Paper can’t wrap fire for long,” an old man muttered at the back.

Situ Mingzhao struck the table once with a jade block, and the hall went quiet.

“This commission sits under Long law to hear the matter of the late Commander Linghu Yan,” Situ Mingzhao said, and bowed to the accused’s bench with perfect courtesy. “Master Shi Feng, guest elder of the Sky Pavilion, is named. He is not charged. The commission will read what it has.”

He read it.

First came the memorial of Censor Situ Kerang, in the Censor’s own loud phrasing, which sounded strange in Situ Mingzhao’s quiet voice. Then came the Tianji Mansion’s issue, in which Shi Feng had risen above Linghu Yan on the list in the same month. Last came the coroner’s record from Tianjing.

“One sword cut, across the face, from the left brow to the cheek,” Situ Mingzhao read. “Stitched on the road. No other wound. Water in the lungs. Death by drowning, in the west canal inside the wall of the Imperial City.”

He set the page down.

Shi Feng rose from the bench.

“Commissioner,” Shi Feng said. “May the named man ask a question?”

“Ask,” Situ Mingzhao said.

“You’ve read me two things,” Shi Feng said. “A sword cut at Grey Goose Pass, on the twelfth night. And a drowning in the palace canal, four days later and more than a thousand li south.” He let the hall hear it. “I was in the north for both. Which of the two does the commission mean to charge me with?”

Nobody answered.

“If it’s the cut, I’ll answer for the cut,” Shi Feng said. “If it’s the drowning, someone will have to tell me how I got inside the palace wall.”

At the Long seat, Long Zhenlei laughed. It was one short bark, and he didn’t try to hide it.

Situ Mingzhao didn’t look at the prince.

“The commission charges nothing yet, Master Shi,” Situ Mingzhao said mildly. “It hears.” He turned a page. “It will now hear its witness. Bring in Cao Shuncai, of the Grey Goose waystation.”