I Was Sent as Tribute to the Prince I Shot novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Article Nine

"Marshal," said Lin, from under Jiang's arm, "I'm not dead."

He sat up with the cloak around his shoulders and his hair wild, and looked at twelve drawn swords with real interest.

"I'm cold, and I've been shot at, and I would like very much to be left alone with my tribute.

Put those down."

Nobody moved.

Cen's face worked.

"Highness, the arrows..."

"Were shot at both of us.

Look at his arm."

They looked at the strip of teal silk around Jiang's forearm, dark with blood.

"You came back for us a little late, Marshal," Lin said.

"It was a long way to the gully."

The swords went down one by one.

Cen's did not.

The Council met the next afternoon in a hall of red pillars.

Forty elders sat in black caps, and Jiang stood in the middle of the floor with his wrists tied in red cord.

Cen's voice rolled across the floor.

"Yan arrows.

Found in the tribute's own hand, on the prince's body, in a hut the tribute chose."

"I did not choose it," Jiang said.

"Silence.

A Yan general of the Ninth Army, left alone with the heir of Liang.

I ask the Council to hold him as an assassin, and to bring the Rite of Answering forward to tomorrow."

An elder whispered.

Another nodded.

Jiang looked for the prince.

He sat on the dais beside the Emperor's empty throne, very straight, in the teal and gold.

Wen Lanxi stood at his shoulder holding a scroll.

Lin's face was calm and bored.

Jiang knew that look.

He had worn it before a charge.

"The Marshal's accusation names the tribute," Lin said, in his soft clear voice, "and so it names me.

I'd like to correct the record."

"Highness?"

"He isn't the tribute.

Article Nine of the Code of the Eastern Palace is plain.

Any man in the Crown Prince's bed may be registered as his consort, by the Prince's word, witnessed by his secretary.

I register him.

Lanxi, write it."

Nobody had asked Jiang.

He found he didn't mind.

For a breath there was no sound in the hall at all.

Then forty elders spoke at once.

"A Yan..."

"A man..."

"Unheard of..."

"It is the law," Wen Lanxi said, without looking up, scratching fast with his brush.

"Done.

Witnessed.

The Prince's consort cannot be charged by a single officer without charging the Prince's House.

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