Chapter 989 — Brother and Sister

CHAPTER 989

Brother and Sister

“The palace canal is the palace’s own water,” the Third Prince said gently. “I’d rather the palace didn’t have to drag it.”

He spoke to the curtain, not to the hall. Every minister listened anyway.

“Commander Linghu came home wounded,” the Third Prince went on. “He’d ridden four days without sleep. The coroner found the sword cut and the water, and nothing else. I propose the court rule his death misadventure, to spare the palace a second inquiry inside its own walls. Fourth Sister has been dragged through enough paper this winter.”

He said it as if he were doing his sister a kindness again.

The ministers along the right row bowed their heads one after another.

“It’s better to have one less matter than one more,” a Minister of Rites said, nodding slowly.

“Family shame shouldn’t be aired outside the gate,” another said, and several men around him agreed.

Long Jingtian didn’t nod. He looked at his younger brother, and he went on looking at him for one long breath.

Several ministers lowered their eyes. Long Caili was furious but kept still. A Lantern Guard commander had returned to report and died inside the palace. The coroner’s findings didn’t explain who’d put him in that water.

Nobody said it.

The Third Prince met his elder brother’s eyes calmly. He looked calm and patient, and he waited for the next item.

“Misadventure,” Long Jingtian said at last. “If Third Brother is sure.”

“I’m sure of nothing, Elder Brother,” the Third Prince said mildly. “That’s why I’d rather not dig.”

Long Caili’s hands stayed folded in her sleeves. She said nothing at all. A surety had answered for her guest, and her guest was cleared. The canal wasn’t her guest’s, and anything she said about it now would be a princess accusing her own brother with no proof.

Behind the curtain, the eunuch’s voice called out that the death of Commander Linghu Yan was ruled misadventure, and that the matter was closed.

The court rose at noon. A cold wind came across the palace courtyards from the north, and the ministers hurried out through the gates with their sleeves pulled over their hands.

Long Jingtian walked out under the long eaves of the eastern gallery. Long Caili walked half a step behind him. Their guards stayed thirty paces back without being told.

“Your guest makes a great deal of paperwork,” Long Jingtian said, looking at the frozen fishpond, “for a man who isn’t here.”

“It’s his paperwork,” Long Caili said coolly. “I only signed it.”

“You signed a surety seal before he’d even left the city,” Long Jingtian said.

“Somebody had to,” Long Caili said.

They walked on. The eaves dripped where the sun had touched the tiles.

Long Caili’s hands were in her sleeves. Inside them, she was holding her flat lacquer letter-case so tightly that the corners pressed through the silk. She’d held it like that since the Censor had knelt.

Long Jingtian glanced down at her sleeves.

“You’ve been holding that case since the hall,” Long Jingtian said.

“It has the copy of the finding,” Long Caili said at once.

“The copy is with the Censorate’s clerk,” Long Jingtian said. “I watched you give it to him.”

“…” Long Caili didn’t answer that.

Her hands loosened inside the silk, a little.

“It has my letters,” Long Caili said after a moment. “I have business in the north.”

“So I’ve heard,” Long Jingtian said dryly. “The whole court has heard. Fifth Brother wrote to me yesterday. He says your guest is the first man in two years he can’t read from across a yard, and he wants the ten days to go faster.”

“They’ll go as fast as they go,” Long Caili said. “The terms are written as a spar he asked for, and both guardians will sign them. The Pavilion’s law-steward drafted every line. Zhenlei complained about the ink.”

Long Jingtian almost smiled.

“Third Brother was very gentle today,” Long Jingtian said.

“He’s always gentle when he doesn’t get what he wants,” Long Caili said.

“He chose to stop digging,” Long Jingtian said.

“So did you,” Long Caili said.

“I had nothing to dig with,” Long Jingtian said quietly.

They reached the end of the gallery. The wind lifted the edge of her veil and let it fall again. Long Jingtian stopped by the last pillar.

“When your guest comes south again,” Long Jingtian said, “bring him to the east palace. I’d like to see what a man who causes this much paper looks like when he’s sitting still.”

“He can sit still when he wants to,” Long Caili said. “Whether he’ll let you question him all afternoon is another matter.”

She bowed to her brother and went down the steps to her carriage. Her guards closed in around her. The letter-case stayed in her sleeve the whole way back to her pavilion.

That night the hall with no name on its door had no lamp lit in it.

A servant knelt just inside the threshold with his forehead to the cold stone. He had been kneeling there for some time.

“The Shuoyang terms have been filed with the court, Your Highness,” the servant said softly. “The bout is written as a spar requested by His Highness the Fifth Prince. Both guardians will witness it. Neither side carries blame for any injury.”

Somewhere in the dark, a teacup was lifted. Nothing else moved.

The servant waited. He knew better than to speak twice.

“Fifth Brother should enjoy his fight,” the Third Prince said.

That was all. After a while, the servant understood that it was all there would be, and he backed out across the threshold without lifting his head.

The cup was set down very gently in the dark.