Chapter 14: What She Promised

Meiyin did not answer, because she did not know the answer yet.

She stood, pulled her robe closed, and held out her hand.

Bai Ling took it.

They went down the stairs together, and Bai Ling picked up the grey sweater from the hall floor and put it on again.

In the kitchen Meiyin filled the kettle with hands that were not quite steady.

Bai Ling sat at the table and did not touch the tea when it came.

"Tell me," Meiyin said.

"All of it."

"I was born in the first year of Yongle.

My master took me into the Qingyun school at seven."

"That's 1403."

"If you say so."

Bai Ling turned the cup a quarter turn on the table.

"Su Wanyin lived on the north shore of this lake.

Her family kept a house here, and I was sent to guard it the summer I was nineteen.

She brought me tea every morning and told me my sword was too loud."

A small, sad smile crossed her face.

"We were married in the sixth year of Xuande, in a courtyard, with a red cord.

Ten days later, she took the lake fever."

Meiyin said nothing.

Her throat hurt.

"She died in that bed upstairs.

She was twenty-six."

"And you made the promise."

"At the water's edge, at midnight, with my sword in my hand.

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