Chapter 17: Revenge Is Hers

"Tonight," Chengxiao said.

He stood at the study table with a map of the capital pinned under his good hand.

Shi An stood beside him, and Wanning sat across from them with her arms folded.

"Forty of my old riders are at the east gate. They've been there since the guard ran."

"They will take the Crown Prince out of his bed before he knows we have the Emperor's note."

"And then?" Wanning said.

"And then he is in a cell, and he is finished."

"On what charge?"

"On any charge Shi An can write by morning."

"No."

The word fell flat on the map.

Chengxiao looked up slowly.

"He sentenced your father to death," he said.

"He poisoned me for three years."

"I can end him by dawn, and you want me to wait."

"I want him to say it."

"Say what?"

"The whole of it. The trial, the false oath, the body that never came back."

She put both palms on the table.

"I want him on his knees in front of the Emperor, with every minister in the hall."

"And I want him to say it in his own voice."

"A man like that will never say it."

"Then you'll have to let me make him."

Shi An shifted his weight and looked, with great care, at the ceiling.

Chengxiao straightened.

"Wanning, he has men inside my walls. He knows what is in the cellar by now."

"Every hour I give him is an hour he uses."

"It is my revenge."