Sect Year 3 · second month · day 6 · Azure Stream Sect, the east gate
The thaw came down the Qingliu road in the night. By first light the ruts had filled with brown water. The stones along the verge had gone dark and slick, and every hollow between the hills held a pool that caught the grey sky and gave it back. Lin walked at the head of the line with his boots sinking to the ankle at each step. When he lifted a foot the mud let go of it with a wet sound, like a cork drawn from a jar.
Behind him the carriers came on in a long uneven file. There were thirty-four of them. He had counted them at the fork when they set out, and again under the post-house roof edge in the dark, and each time the number had come out the same. He didn’t write it down. He carried it the way he had carried the granary tally across the Wastes, in breaths and steps, letting each face settle into the count as it passed him.
Pei walked at his shoulder with her hood down and her notebook buttoned inside her coat. She hummed while she walked. It was the lullaby, the first verse, the one with the river in it, and her voice was thin and steady. When she reached the end of the verse she stopped, as she always did, and began again from the top, as though the…
