Sect Year 1 · ninth month · day 20 · Azure Stream Sect, the Elders’ wing gate
The Sect Master’s clerk gave Su a second slip at the door of the hall, folded twice and sealed with the sect’s plain wax. It was the summons for the lamp bell. It had to be delivered to every Elder’s gate and signed for there, one name at a time, so that no Elder could say afterward that he hadn’t been asked. Su read it through once, slid it into her sleeve, and said, “Walk the wing with me.” It wasn’t a question, and Lin did not treat it as one.
The Elders’ wing lay along the eastern side of the Inner Court, behind a wall of old grey stone with a gate at the end of each courtyard. The lamp-boys were going along the wall with their poles. They touched each wick in turn, and the lamps came up one after another, like a count being made by someone who did not mean to lose his place. The air had turned cold and clear. Over the ridge the sky had gone the colour of a bruise that is starting to yellow at its edges.
