Sect Year 1 · tenth month · day 1 · Azure Stream Sect, Inner Court, north ridge
Lin told her at dusk.
He had waited until the light was low at the cave mouth, so that he wouldn’t have to watch her face while he said it. He knew it was a coward’s arrangement. Su saw through it before he had finished the first sentence.
“We leave at dawn,” he said. “By the Ninefold Pass road.”
“You told Pei she was staying.”
“I did.”
“She heard you.” Su set her pen along the spine of the book, very square. “She has been listening at that door since the bolt came back. I would have said the same thing, in her place.”
“You’re staying too,” Lin said. “The council can’t count you if you’re here. Nobody has written your name on the charge.”
