Emeralds and Enemies

Chapter Fifty-six

     Wen-Hou expected the invitation from the Dowager and could only smile when it appeared. He had been making discrete inquiries about the investigation into the deadly wedding banquet but was not closer to having viable suspects. Or maybe there were just too many possibilities.

First, there was the disgraced Qin Ambassador who might want to embarrass the allies who let his interference in local politics come to light. This included suspicions the Qin helped finance the attack on the Go family. There was also the deposed northern lord who had been caught plotting an overthrow but it was not clear who his backers might be. Different warlords from the island kingdom of Misao, including Lord Takimoto, might have looked for advantage but their plots were often multi-layered. He hoped the Dowager, with her knack of tracing the truth behind the rampant palace rumors would have a clearer idea.

He was disappointed. Her interest was not the banquet but a particular part of its aftermath.

"You really shouldn't bring your bastard to the palace without telling anyone." She reprimanded him without any sort of preamble. "The liaison should have been documented long ago."

Wen-Hou did not know if she was serious or not so just tilted his head and looked puzzled. "Do you remember what I was like in my early twenties?'

The old woman laughed heartily remembering how afraid of women the young soldier had been. His timidness around women lessened slightly after his short marriage but not much. Still, she was not going to let him off the hook about the rumors.

"Then tell me why there are whispers of dragon mists."

"I guess she must have saw fit to save me and seems to have rewarded my helpers with a healing."

"It might be possible to shape the story in that direction. The only difficulty will be the interest over the crystal work." She tapped her finger on the table.

Wen-Hou was surprised. He had never seen her display any sign of nervousness before. "The boy's training level should account for some of that. I mean, how many fifth dan have studied at the medical academy?"

"Does he attend a regular dojo? Maybe the other masters can help shut down the chatter."

"We are exploring options. He had been going to the Sun Temple but they seem very interested in his potential affinity."

"I'm sure they are."

"If it would not put him in more danger, I would ignore his Illidan family and claim him. They don't seem to be very interested. Apart from the delivery his grandmother arranged they seem to have left him to his uncle." His lips turned down as he mentioned the self-important headmaster.

The Dowager nodded sadly then asked, "Do you have a plan?"

"I am sending the team on training exercises out of town. Hopefully, things will have settled down by the time the senior qualifiers roll around."

Wen-Hou knew this was probably not sufficient. He resisted mentioning his suspicions. Then the Dowager surprised him by telling him about a rumor coming from the north there may be a new phoenix heir.

He started coughing and then whispered, "Nobody is saying twice royal, are they?"

"So, you do know," she said then nodded to herself and bid him farewell.

This exchange left him with too many questions but his soon realized his priority had to be getting the team safely out of the capital. The problem was trying to organize everything from his apartments instead of the forge so he headed over to the guard headquarters to see what he might negotiate.

As he half expected, the investigators pinned the poisonings on a servant. What had inspired the action, and source of the rare ingredients used, were now less urgent lines of inquiry. While this result did not make Wen-Hou feel at all safe, at least he was approved to move between his two residences in the city with the proviso he took a contingent of guards with him to first clear all his contacts.

He regretted not being able to be part of Min Yan's send-off but did arrange for a gift to be delivered. This reminded him of the wedding and how taken Haneul had been with the Go brothers. Then he remembered how they had all switched spots at the table before final dishes were served so she may have been one of the intended victims instead of him. He tried to think through the possible motives but realized he did not know enough about Admiral Jeon's family and their political associations. He wished he had thought of this before his meeting with the Dowager.

When he raised this with his friends Zhong-mi and Ying-so, they told him Admiral Jeon was known to be a square dealer and a firm supporter of the King.

"I'm not sure there was a strictly political motive. It could have been more personal." Ying-so studied the invitation list closely, "There were rumors about an affair between these two," he pointed out the names.

"That is such old news," Zhong-mi sniffed, "I wondered if it was less about the past than something planned in the future."

"You mean like another marriage alliance?" Ying-so asked.

"Perhaps, or maybe Takimoto caught wind of our plans and found an opportunity to also take down one of the Crown Prince's main supporters." Zhong-mi had clearly spent a good deal of time thinking this one through. He sketched out the possible combinations.

Wen-Hou looked at his friend with respect. It was a new angle to consider. It meant they would need to be more cautious with the planned patrols.

"If we can move out before the end of the week it might let us get ahead of an informant, especially if we run some convincing decoys." Wen-Hou did not need to explain more.