Chapter 9: The Tea

The Deputy Chief's tea pavilion stood on a spur of rock above the valley.

Paper lanterns hung along the eaves, and a stream ran under the floor.

Woo-jin had been inside it once before.

He walked up the path with his hands at his sides and did not let them shake.

Mu-yeol came with him as far as the plum tree at the foot of the steps.

The page had said host-champion only.

Mu-yeol leaned against the trunk with his arms folded and the cloth-wrapped sword at his back, and settled in to wait.

"I'll be here," he said.

"I know."

"If you want me, put your cup down hard."

"I'll be fine."

"Put it down hard," Mu-yeol said, "and I'll hear."

Woo-jin went up the steps alone.

Ok Hwa-rim was kneeling at a low table in the lantern light with a tea tray in front of her.

She wore pale grey, and the jade bracelet on her wrist clicked against the pot as she poured.

She looked up, and her whole round face opened with pleasure.

"Woo-jin," she said. "My dear boy. You look exhausted."

"Deputy Chief."

"Sit, sit. I made the plum cakes myself. You like the plum."

Woo-jin sat.

The cushion was soft and the cake was on a white dish, and everything in him wanted to be sick.

"Your chest is better?" she asked.

"It was an old wound."

"You've never had a wound that old, silly boy. Drink."

He drank.

The tea was warm and fragrant and tasted of roasted rice and a little honey.

It was very good.

It had been very good the first time too.

"That match on the second day," she said. "Everyone is still talking about it."

"A draw with the Heretic Blade! My dear, the Chief wept."

"The Chief did not weep."

"He wept inside." She smiled. "I told him, that boy is the best sword we have."

"And nobody in this Alliance has ever told him so plainly."

Woo-jin's throat tightened.

"Nobody except you," he said.

"Nobody except me."

She poured again.

The jade clicked.

"I have been thinking," she said, "about what the Alliance needs."

"We need a sword of our own, answerable to no sect and no master."

"A man the Chief doesn't command, and the elders can't use. A wall."

She looked at him kindly.

"I would like to give that post to you."

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