Chapter 4: The Red Cord

The Chief's gift was a sword, and it was beautiful, and Ja-heon knew at once that it was a message.

Hong Gang-mun carried it into the Hall of the Crane on two flat palms, with every guest of the Assembly lined up to see.

The scabbard was black lacquer inlaid with silver cranes.

When Hong drew a hand's breadth of the blade, it showed a long cold line of folded steel.

"The Alliance's treasure, Heaven's Witness," Hong said.

"The Chief sends it with his blessing, for the Pavilion Master and his sword-brother."

Seon-woo sat in his white chair and said nothing.

Ja-heon stood behind him with his hands folded.

Then he looked at the cord.

A braided silk cord hung from the mouth of the scabbard, tied in a knot that was not the Alliance's knot.

It was dyed a deep rust red, the red of boiled plum bark.

Only one village in the southern marshes made that color.

Ja-heon had worn a bracelet of that same cord on his wrist every day from the age of six to the age of twenty-five.

It was the Blood Cult's thread, and it hung from a gift from the Chief of the Righteous Alliance.

His stomach dropped through the floor.

He did not let it reach his face.

Hong was watching him.

Hong had turned his head a little, the sword still on his palms, and his eyes rested on Ja-heon's face with mild attention.

Ja-heon told himself that Hong was only looking at the groom.

"The groom has no gift of his own," a visiting master said with a laugh.

"A guard marrying a sword is not a bad joke."

The hall laughed with him.

Seon-woo's hand lifted from the arm of his chair.

"The Crane accepts the Chief's generosity," he said.

"Steward, take it to the armory."

His voice was cool, but Ja-heon had learned to hear what lay under it.

Seon-woo was angry, and angry on Ja-heon's behalf, and the visiting master felt it and stopped laughing.

The armory was a long cold room with a high ceiling and racks of spears.

The steward set the sword on a stand in the middle of the floor, bowed, and went out without a word.

Seon-woo shut the door and dropped the bar.

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