Chapter 13: The Banquet

The musicians stopped playing when the convict walked in.

A hundred guests sat at low tables under red lanterns, and every cup stopped halfway to a mouth.

Ruyun stood at the foot of the hall in her gray hemp coat with the washhouse stain on the cuff.

Four soldiers from Ironwall stood behind her, and behind them stood a line of old men with straight backs.

At the head table the Marquis put down his chopsticks.

Beside him sat a thin gray-bearded man in a minister's robe.

Next to Lingxue's empty cushion sat a young man with a flushed, pleasant face.

That was the Prime Minister and his son.

"Who let this woman in?" the Marquis said.

Nobody answered him.

Ruyun walked up the middle aisle with the tally in her fist.

She stopped at the head table and bowed to the Prime Minister, a deep correct bow, the one the Grand Princess had drilled into her when she was six.

"Excellency. Forgive the coat. It is the one I have."

"Seize her," the Marquis said.

The old men at the back of the hall took one step forward together.

The Marquis's steward looked at them and did not seize anyone.

"I am Qiao Ruyun," she said, loud enough for the back tables.

"Three years ago a bowl of water said I was no blood of this house."

"I was sent to the Northern Camp at Ironwall."

A murmur went around the tables.

"I served the sentence. I am here for one thing only. I ask for a second test."

"There will be no second test," said the Marquis.

"With the Grand Princess's blood," Ruyun said.

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