Chapter 18: The South Gate

The south gate stood open in the morning light, two tall posts of black wood with a rope of prayer flags between them.

A mule cart waited in the road beyond it.

Su Meiqing sat on the driver's bench in her pale blue shawl.

A travelling blanket lay over her knees, and a box of herbs stood at her feet.

Han Bailu stood at the mule's head, holding the rope, with a thin satchel slung over one shoulder.

Yuxi and Wanning came down the stone steps side by side.

Neither of them spoke.

Wanning's sword was on her back, and her sleeves were tied up with the cord.

Yuxi wore plain grey travelling clothes and the old white jade pin, and nothing that said heir.

She had left the blue-and-white robes folded on her bed.

Meiqing climbed down from the cart as fast as her lungs allowed.

She took her daughter's face in both hands.

"Ning-er."

"Mama."

"I am so sorry."

"Mama, it's finished."

Meiqing shook her head, and for a moment she only held her daughter's hands.

Then her chin came up, the way it had in the hall.

"Then I will spend what is left of me making sure Zhenghe never signs another page in this sect."

"You will rest first," Wanning said. "And then you will help me. Look."

She held out her left wrist.

Meiqing looked at the bare smooth skin, and her breath hitched, and she pressed it to her cheek.

"Gone," she whispered.

"Gone since dawn."

"Walk through," Meiqing said. "Please. I want to see."

Wanning drew a breath.

She looked at the black gate posts.

She had walked in through them as a bride's daughter with mud to her knees.

For weeks she had believed she would never walk out again.

She put out her hand, and her fingers crossed the line first.

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