The Immortal Emperor Returns novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Pine Court

The princess's carriage had black lacquered walls and a small brass lamp swinging from the roof.

It smelled of plum blossom, and of ink, and faintly of medicine.

Chu sat across from her with his wrist chained to hers across the narrow space between the seats.

Every time the wheels hit a stone, the links chimed.

Neither of them said anything until the noise of the Square faded behind the curtains.

"You could have let him chop my head off," Chu said at last. "It was the easy road."

"It was the shortest road," said Shuang. "I have never found them to be the same."

"You signed the sentence."

"Yes."

She said it at once, without blinking, and the plainness of it surprised him.

"I signed it at the second bell yesterday afternoon," she went on. "The file was complete. The letter was in your hand. The witness was your sworn brother. I put my name at the bottom and I sealed it."

"And now you do not believe the file."

"Now I believe the Chancellor skipped a line." Her mouth moved, very slightly. "I have never trusted a man who is in a hurry to be rid of someone."

"That is not an apology."

"It was not meant to be one." She met his eyes. "I did what a Director of Review does. I will not insult you by saying I was forced, or that I did not know. I signed. I would like to find out what I signed."

Chu looked at her for a long time.

He had expected a coward's speech, or a liar's.

He had not expected to like the shape of the answer.

"You are an odd princess," he said.

"So I am told."

The carriage turned a corner and stopped.

Pine Court was a low, walled house on the quiet side of the Inner City, built around a courtyard of old black pines.

Snow lay in the branches.

A lantern stood lit by the gate, though the sky in the east had barely begun to pale.

Shuang unlocked the manacle with a small silver key and let the chain fall onto the seat.

Her wrist was bruised red where it had rubbed.

His was not.

He noticed that she had shifted the cuff to take the strain on her own side, and that she was pretending she had not.

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