[continuing chapter 1]
"I was not cutting at anything." I was trying to loosen the knot. "In fact, I don't even own a knife. The knife you have been given is the one your
guards tucked into my sleeve when they arrested me."
"You were not invited to speak, wretch." Li nodded and one of the men behind Wen
fetched him a solid blow to the shoulder blades. Wen fell over again, bruising the other
shoulder. He stayed on the floor this
time, unmoving, until Li said, "Oh, for heaven's sake. Somebody untie his wrists so he can adopt the
proper posture before me. I won't be
able to hear him if he's on his face that way." To his credit, the guard hesitated a moment
before pulling Wen back into a kneeling posture and removing the cords from
around his wrists. I wouldn't have
untied me either, Wen thought.
"Now," Li said, "since there is no need to
hear any further evidence in this case, I will pass sentence. Wen Xia, it is the opinion of this court that
you are an irredeemable person, and that the principality of Fusang only
suffers by your continued presence within our borders." Exile? thought Wen. I could stand exile, I think. "Therefore I sentence you to death,
sentence to be performed immediately. As
you are the son of an educated man and your father once held a clerkship in
this city, I will grant you the clemency of beheading rather than
boiling."
You probably really do think you're doing me a favor, Wen
thought. But that was in keeping with
everything Wen had learned about the magistrate. Sentencing a man to death for fondling a
lantern was stupid enough, but no doubt there was a precedent for it somewhere,
and if there was Li would know about it.
Likewise there must be some quirk of the law that allowed Magistrate Li
to circumvent the requirement that all death sentences be reviewed and approved
by the regent; that, or there was something that Li could turn into a suitable
exemption.
The fact that the magistrate had so carefully refrained from
even mentioning the true reason he had had Wen arrested told him all he needed
to know about the man. Li would no doubt
never admit to anyone what had really happened.
It wouldn't look good if anyone knew; it would reflect badly on his
honor as a magistrate.
Next Prologue Chapter 1
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