The imperial edict arrived at noon the next day.
The eunuch delivering it was surnamed Gao, in his fifties, pale-faced and beardless, with a shrill voice like a chicken being throttled.
He stood in the main hall of the Demon Suppression Division, spreading open a sheet of bright yellow silk with both hands, and read for the time it took half a stick of incense to burn.
Lu Chen knelt on the bluestone floor, his knees pressed against the cold seams between the bricks, listening as those neat, ornate official phrases drifted over his head.
"...Duke of State Lu Chen slew demons in the Northern Frontier, his merits serving the realm. He is additionally granted the title of Grand Tutor, and his fief is increased to eight thousand households. He is bestowed one thousand jin of gold and ten thousand bolts of silk. The Demon Suppression Army's authorized strength shall expand from ten thousand to fifteen thousand, and it is permitted to recruit and equip its own forces. So decreed."
Grand Tutor. One of the Three Excellencies. A Grand Tutor barely past twenty—the first since the founding of Great Xia.
Lu Chen kowtowed and accepted the edict with both hands.
The silk still carried the eunuch's body heat, warm and smooth as water.
As Eunuch Gao passed him the edict, his finger brushed the back of Lu Chen's hand. It was not accidental. His nail scratched an exceedingly fine white line across Lu Chen's skin.
"Lord Lu, His Majesty has another verbal decree." Eunuch Gao lowered his voice so far that only the kneeling Lu Chen could hear him. "Tonight, at the hour of Xu, the Hall of Mental Cultivation. His Majesty said to bring no one but yourself."
Lu Chen tucked the edict into his sleeve. Eunuch Gao stepped