Sect Year 2 · sixth month · day 9 · the rim of Sallow Basin
The rope came down at first light with a water skin knotted to its end and a loaf wrapped in oilcloth beside it. Lin let the skin hang until it stopped turning. Then he reached up, took it down, and checked the stopper with his thumb before he let himself drink. He had done that every dawn since the milestone camp. Su had told her wardens to keep the rope coming, once, in the voice she kept for orders she didn’t expect to hear repeated, and every morning since, the rope had come.
Pei was still asleep against the bronze with her coat over her head. Her boots stood side by side in the mud, toes together, exactly as she had left them. Lin set the loaf by her knee without waking her and sat down with his back to the rim.
Four days after Su rode south, they came back down the milestone road. Pei walked ahead the whole way and did not once turn to see whether he was still behind her. The paper bundle was lighter by one sheet, which had gone home in the carter’s pack. The rest was in his coat, with Su’s brush, her pen, the jade slip and the wax.
