Chains clinked once when Deming forced the Jackal to his knees in the yard.
There were no crowds around them to witness the punishment. No herald to list the crimes the Jackal had been convicted of.
Instead, there was only the five men surrounding the Jackal on his knees.
The high walls of the back yard of the palace weren't high enough to keep the midday sun out, but they were high enough to keep secrets and kills in.
Fall was just settling into the bones of the palace and the people of Daiyu. The mornings were cold, but the sun was still strong enough that the Jackal felt the heat punishing down on him, like even the sun was against him.
Yaozu dropped to one knee, looped iron through floor rings, and checked both locks with the half-turn that owned wrists without drawing blood.
Longzi filled the exit with a blade and a posture that closed arguments, while Yizhen leaned against a post, shook ash from a slip of paper, and slid it away inside his sleeve.
