Chapter 6: Missed Court

The Empress Dowager stood at the foot of the Yongxi steps with the Prime Minister at her right hand and the Noble Consort behind her.

Su Ming walked out beside the Emperor and stopped one pace to his left, where a consort should never stand.

Xiao Jue did not tell him to move.

"Mother," said the Emperor. "You have come a long way to my door."

"Jue, my child," said Dowager Ji, and her voice shook with exactly the right amount of love.

"Three hundred ministers sat in the cold this morning, and the Prime Minister had to say you were ill."

"I have come to ask what has been done to you."

"Done," said Xiao Jue.

"There is talk that the new consort gave you a cup that puts a man out of his senses."

She did not look at Su Ming.

"A man who sleeps through a court is not a man who rules. Surely you see the danger."

Pan Liting stepped forward.

He was fifty-eight, thick-shouldered, with a broad calm face and a short grey beard, and he wore the purple of the first rank.

"Majesty, the ministers are frightened," he said.

"A consort from a county clerk's family, sent in on the first night, and the Emperor misses his duty."

"I only ask that the man be questioned. For the realm's sake."

"Questioned," said the Emperor again.

Su Ming kept his eyes on the flagstones and felt the Emperor's attention move across the crowd.

"The Prime Minister is concerned that I slept," said Xiao Jue.

"Majesty, we are all grateful for your rest, but"

"In nine years, how many times has the Prime Minister come to my door because I did not?"

Pan Liting's mouth closed.

"The Empress Dowager has been very kind," the Emperor went on, in the soft voice that made guards sweat.

"She has sent me physicians, and decoctions, and a very beautiful man for my bed who died in the night."

"She has never once come to ask why I could not sleep."

A small silence fell on the steps.

The Dowager's smile stayed where it was.

It did not reach her eyes.

"Bring me the cup," said Xiao Jue.

Gao Shun was holding it, wrapped in a cloth.

The Emperor poured what was left of the black bean tea into a bowl.

He held it out, not to Su Ming but to the Noble Consort.

"You said the cup was an evil drug, Noble Consort. You saw it with your own eyes, I think. Drink it, and be sure."

"Majesty, I," said the Noble Consort, and his lovely face went rigid.

"It is bean and licorice and a root. If you are right, it will make you sleep through supper."

For a long moment nobody moved.

Then the Prime Minister took the bowl out of the Emperor's hand, with a stiff smile, and drank a mouthful.

"A bitter nothing," he said. "Only a sickly man's tonic, Majesty. I regret the alarm."

"I am glad," said Xiao Jue. "Then my consort may stay."

Behind him, Gao Shun let out a breath so small that only Su Ming heard it.

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