Sect Year 2 · third month · day 7 · the western road, the Wastes’ edge
Lin woke with his back against the cart wheel and the sky going pale above the grey plates. He breathed in before he had decided to, all the way down to the bottom of his chest, and waited for the catch that had sat under his ribs since the grass stopped.
It didn’t come.
He breathed again, slower. The air went down cold and dry and came back up without a rattle in it. He lay still with his hands on his stomach and listened to himself. He hadn’t known until this morning that he had been bracing for the cough. Now there was nothing to brace against, and the feeling was so strange that he sat up too quickly and had to wait for the camp to settle.
The copy of the Hall roll was inside his coat in its grey cloth. He put his hand on it, and then he took the hand away.
Pei slept across the blanket with her list over her face. It rose and fell with her breath. Su sat on the far side of the cold fire with her back to the other wheel and her book open on her knee. She was writing so steadily that she didn’t look up until he spoke.
