Chapter 10: The Court Hearing

They learned forty-one characters in three days, and the General wrote every one of them wrong at least twice.

By the morning of the hearing he could write fourteen sentences in a hand like a fence in a storm.

They were short sentences about rice and arrows and snow.

They were all he had.

Ji-hwan carried his zither into the palace court behind the General, in a plain gray coat.

He was one of six musicians hired to play for the Council's winter audience.

Nobody looked at him.

Musicians are treated like furniture.

The hall was long and cold, with a hundred officials kneeling in rows in blue and red.

At the far end, behind a screen of carved bamboo, sat someone in yellow whom no one was allowed to see.

Inspector Seong stood at the foot of the dais with a polished brush in his hand.

Eo Hae-jun was not in the hall, which meant he was still in prison, and Ji-hwan saw the General's jaw tighten.

"General Ma," Seong said sweetly, unrolling a long sheet of heavy paper with a gilded border.

"The Council has been generous.

"We have prepared the proper form for the memorial.

"Forty lines in formal court script, on the Four Virtues of the Frontier."

Ji-hwan looked at the paper, and his stomach dropped.

It was a trap, and it was a beautiful one.

The General could not write the Four Virtues if he had a year.

He looked at the sheet, and Ji-hwan saw him go still.

He did not look at Ji-hwan.

A servant came forward with a tray of wine for the Inspector's table.

Ji-hwan had learned many things in the Hall of Nine Strings, and one was how to fall.

He rose with his zither as if to move to a better spot.

He caught his foot on the hem of his own robe and pitched sideways, straight into the servant.

The tray went up.

Wine, cups and a flask of plum liquor arced over the dais.

It landed on the Inspector's gilded paper.

It landed on the Inspector's sleeve.

It landed on the Inspector.

"My lord!" Ji-hwan cried, sprawled on the floor in the puddle with his zither in his arms.

"Forgive me!

"My foot, I..."

"You clumsy little..."

Seong's voice cracked.

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