Chapter 5: The Inspector's Dinner

Inspector Seong stood in the General's courtyard with sixty soldiers behind him and a scroll tucked in his sleeve.

He did not look at the General first.

He looked at Ji-hwan, at his loosened hair and the sash he had tied in a hurry.

"The little bird has found a perch," Seong said.

"How charming."

"Inspector," said the General.

He had put on his coat and his hat, and the black cloth was wound tight at his wrist.

He stood very straight, and every inch of him looked like the man the court believed he was.

Ji-hwan knelt beside the gate with his head bowed.

He watched everything from under his lashes.

Seong drew out the scroll with a flourish, and it unrolled with the king's red seal at the bottom.

"By royal order," he said, "the Council wishes to hear from the hero of Cheongseong himself.

"A memorial on the state of the northern defenses, written in the General's own hand, and read before the court in twenty days.

"Not by a secretary."

His eyes flicked to Eo Hae-jun, who stood trembling at the General's shoulder.

"The king is curious to see what the General's hand can do."

The courtyard was very quiet.

Ji-hwan saw the General's knuckles go pale.

"I will write it," the General said.

"I'm certain you will."

Seong held out the scroll, and the General took it.

He held it in both hands, right side up, with his eyes on the red seal and not on the writing below it.

Ji-hwan noticed that, and he did not yet know why it made his throat tighten.

Seong stayed for dinner.

He sat at the head of the General's table and ate the General's food and praised the General's cook.

Ji-hwan played for them at the end of the hall, and smiled at the Inspector's jokes, and counted the ways he could kill him.

Halfway through the third course, Seong set down his chopsticks.

"General, I confess I have taken a fancy to your musician."

Ji-hwan's fingers skipped a string.

"I have spoken to the keeper of the Hall of Nine Strings," Seong went on, smiling.

"He tells me the boy's contract is for sale.

"I would pay three times the price.

"The boy would live in my house, in silk, and have a very pleasant life."

He turned his smile on Ji-hwan.

"You would only need to tell me what the General does in the night."

The room went still.

The General put down his cup, very slowly.

"The boy is a guest," he said.

"He may go where he likes."

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