Chapter 4: Kneel

Luan walked into the kitchen the next morning a little stiffly, and Mei looked up from the rice.

She looked at the red mark on Luan's neck, then at the way she held her hips, then back at the rice.

"Sit," said Mei. "Eat."

"I'm all right."

"I didn't ask if you were all right. I said sit."

Luan sat.

Mei put a bowl of congee in front of her and an egg on top, and stood with her arms folded.

"I'm going to say it once," said Mei. "You can go to him, or you can stay in your own bunk."

"Or?"

"Or you can pack your pay and walk out the gate. You're free. Nobody in this palace will look at you sideways, whichever you choose."

Luan broke the egg with her spoon.

"I know," she said. "I want to go to him."

"Good," said Mei. "Eat your egg."

She went back to the stove.

Her shoulders were less stiff than they had been.

Outside the window the maids were whispering in groups, and the word they kept saying was Boundary.

Somebody had seen the Sovereign at dawn, standing in the snow.

His bare feet had been on the wrong side of the white line.

Somebody else said he'd laughed.

Nobody in the palace had ever heard him laugh.

Captain Kuo found her in the laundry court at midday, in full armor, and he didn't whistle.

"He came back inside after an hour," Kuo said. "The thread pulled him up short at forty steps. It's not gone."

"I didn't think it would be."

"He's different." Kuo's beard worked. "I'm saying it as his captain, little ghost. I've followed that man for six hundred years, and he's different."

"Good different or bad different?"

Kuo thought about it.

"He asked me what I wanted for dinner," he said. "Nobody asks me that."

He walked off muttering.

At the Hai bell she climbed the steps again.

The door was open this time.

Cangjue stood in the middle of the room, barefoot, in his black robe.

The loose gold end of the thread lay coiled on the floor by his feet.

He was looking at it.

"Pick it up," he said.

"Why?"

"It follows you. It's never followed anyone." He took a breath. "I want to see what it does."

She picked it up.

It slid up her wrist and wound around it, warm.

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