Chapter 10: The Rescued Boy

The welcome feast ran for three courses before the Young Sword stood up.

Shi Wen had tasted forty-one dishes by then and felt every one of them.

The pavilion was lit with a hundred white lanterns, because Azure Peak did not like red.

Zhu Hongdao sat at the head of the guest table with his silver beard and his gentle smile.

Duan Linxiao sat opposite in the black chair they had carried across the court for him, cold and bored and upright.

Behind him stood the Senior Sister with her fans.

The captain stood at the door, with eight Black Cloaks he had picked himself.

"Lord Duan," said Qi Yunchuan, rising with his cup raised. "Elders. Honored friends of the Accord."

"I must confess a discovery that has weighed on me since noon."

Talk died along the tables.

"A child," said the Young Sword, and his voice caught beautifully on the word.

"A boy of twelve. I found him in the lower cells of the Discipline Hall, in chains, half starved."

"I took him out by a pillar door, and I could not keep silent."

A blue-robed disciple led the boy in.

He was thin and small and clean, and a rusty cuff and a short chain hung from his left wrist.

His face had been smeared with ash along one cheek.

A murmur ran around the pavilion, shocked and hungry.

Shi Wen, standing behind the Lord's chair, thought: Chapter Forty-Seven, word for word.

The author had never noticed that the chain was the wrong size.

"Lord Duan," said Qi Yunchuan, turning, with his hand on his heart. "What do you say?"

"I say I am surprised," said the Lord, "that the lower cells have a pillar door."

Someone coughed.

The Young Sword smiled the smile that made readers fall in love.

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