Chapter 12: A Pass and a Purse

Shuyi walked back through Beiguan with the roll burning in her sleeve.

She did not look at the market, the bridge, or the tea sellers calling out their prices.

She walked fast, and in the general's courtyard she found Lanxin and Mo already waiting under the bare plum tree.

Lanxin's face asked the question before her mouth did.

Shuyi told them everything: the roll, the nephew, the offer, the box, the midnight deadline.

When she finished she put the yellow paper on the stone table.

Mo Hanzhang unrolled it and read it from top to bottom, his lips moving.

"It's real," he said at last.

"I know that seal."

"There was never a Lu in the eastern column."

"Of course there wasn't," Lanxin said, and her voice was cool.

"There was no Lu anywhere."

"He means to read it aloud at the Drum Tower," Shuyi said.

"In front of two thousand men."

"Then it will be read," said Lanxin.

Mo looked up sharply.

"General..."

"I have thought about it since the dawn."

Lanxin turned from the tree and faced them both, with her hands behind her back.

She stood as still as she must have stood on the wall at Frostgate.

"Du wants the box so that he can hold it over me."

"I will not give it to him, and I will not burn it, and I will not wait to be read out."

"On the day of the ceremony, I will stand on the Drum Tower stairs and tell the garrison myself."

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