The Eldest Prince did not come into the palace until the next day.

Prince Rui's army had withdrawn.

He must have had word of it and gone straight back to Xiangzhou.

Prince Rui's treason, though, was as good as proven.

The question of who to send to put the rebellion down was giving the Xuan Emperor a headache.

Before this, Ning Chen would have been the only man for it.

But now nobody even knew where the boy had gone.

The Xuan Emperor's eyes came to rest on the Eldest Prince.

"Ning Chen has been staying at the residence by the imperial tombs all this time?"

The Eldest Prince said quickly, "Yes!"

"Why didn't you tell this emperor sooner?"

"Your child is a man under sentence and has no right to send up a memorial... And on top of that, Ning Chen told Your child not to say anything."

The Xuan Emperor sighed. "What else did he say?"

"He told Your child to come back to the capital and protect Father Emperor, and nothing else."

The Xuan Emperor said, "You have earned merit in protecting the Emperor. Since you have come back, stay in the capital for now."

"Thank you, Father Emperor!"

The Eldest Prince was delighted. It had all gone exactly as Ning Chen had foreseen.

Just then a young eunuch came in and knelt. "Your Majesty, Lord Geng begs an audience!"

"Summon him in!"

"Yes!"

The young eunuch withdrew, and a moment later Geng Jing hurried in.

"Your subject presents himself to Your Majesty!"

The Xuan Emperor looked at him. "There's alarm all over your face. What has happened?"

Geng Jing knocked his forehead hard against the floor. "Your Majesty, the Sixth Prince struck his head against the wall in his cell last night and died. Your subject failed his duty. Your subject asks Your Majesty to punish him severely!"

The Xuan Emperor's head rang.

The Eldest Prince and Eunuch Quan were both struck dumb.

The Sixth Prince had killed himself?

It was a long moment before the Xuan Emperor came back to himself. His face was chalk…