The Taster Who Caught the Regent's Poison novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Taster's Hand

Ye Shuhan ground the root on a white saucer and weighed it on a brass scale no bigger than a thumbnail.

Linyuan sat on the edge of the Emperor's bed with a bowl of plain gruel in his lap and a spoon in his fist.

He tasted the gruel first.

It was rice and water and nothing else.

Then he tasted what she tipped in.

"Three," he said.

"It should be four."

"It's three and a half, and the half is dust. Add what's on the tip of your knife."

She added it, and he tasted again, and held the spoonful in his mouth until he was sure.

"Four."

Sweat ran down his back.

He had said that number a thousand times.

He had never said it as the person about to feed it to a child.

Across the room the Regent stood against the wall with his arms hanging.

"Let me," he said.

"No," said Linyuan.

It was not unkind, and it was not up for argument.

The Regent shut his mouth and stayed where he was.

The boy lay with his head on Linyuan's knee, grey in the face, his eyes half shut.

"Open, Majesty," Linyuan said, and his voice was not his own.

"That's his line," Zhao Yunhe croaked. "The Regent's. You stole it."

"I'm borrowing it."

The boy opened his mouth.

Linyuan put the spoon in.

The boy swallowed, and made a face, and swallowed again.

"Cold tea," he said. "On a windowsill."

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