Sect Year 1 · ninth month · day 30 · Azure Stream Sect, Inner Court, north ridge
The council let him go at first light. A runner from the Sect Master’s box had gone up the hall steps in the dark, and by the time Lin reached the gate the guard on duty had already been told what had happened on the ridge. The guard had decided not to repeat it. He lifted the bar and stood aside, and Lin did not stop to thank him. He ran.
The Inner Court path climbs in a long slant through the pines, then drops hard onto the ridge. Lin had walked it so many times that his feet knew each stone by its tilt. He had never run it. His breath caught on the drop, and he didn’t slow for it.
The courtyard flags were white.
Lime lay across the stones in drifts, heaped against the cave step and scattered down the path like frost that had come up through the ground. Someone had swept a narrow lane from the lower door to the step and stopped halfway. One body lay under a grey sheet on the step itself. Beside it, a bronze mask had been turned face-down on the stone.
