Chapter 5: The Dawn Trial

By dawn the Hall of Unlit Lamps was grey with cloud light.

Shi Wen knelt in the middle of it with his hands tied in front of him.

Three hundred disciples filled the benches.

Eight elders sat at the long table, and at the end of it sat Han Zhuo, with his cinnabar ring and his grieved smile.

The Sect Lord sat in the black chair above them, upright and white-faced, with Gu Yan standing at his back.

Gu Yan's silver needle was in the small of that back.

Nobody in the hall could see it.

Shi Wen could not see the Lord's face either, only the hem of his robe.

He told himself that was fine.

"The accused is a third guard of the Black Cloaks," said Han Zhuo.

"He was the only man in this hall who moved before the cup was raised."

"I noticed her sleeve," said Shi Wen.

"He was found at midnight in my prison. He took a witness. He took the witness's brother, a boy whom my Hall held lawfully."

"Under what charge?" said a voice from the benches.

Han Zhuo went on without answering.

"And last week this man bought a jar of lamp oil in the market at Reed Street. Lanternbane is distilled from lamp oil."

A young Discipline disciple stood and bowed and said he had seen the purchase himself.

Shi Wen looked at the Lord's hem.

It did not move.

Time passed, and he counted it by the lanterns going out one at a time along the wall.

The disciple said more.

Han Zhuo said more.

An elder with a long white moustache asked whether the accused had anything to say.

He sounded hopeful about a short answer.

Shi Wen looked up at the chair.

The Sect Lord was looking at the disciple who had spoken, and at nothing else.

He did not look at Shi Wen once.

Shi Wen felt something cold settle at the bottom of his stomach, and decided it was only the stone.

"Yes," he said. "I have a few things."

"Then say them," said Han Zhuo kindly.

"The cupbearer is in the hall. Captain, please."

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