Sect Year 3 · third month · day 4 · Azure Stream Sect, the east gatehouse
The carter came in from the west road in the middle of the morning, and he came in fast. The gate-warden had to step back from the mule’s nose. He was a lean man, sunburnt across the cheekbones, with a grey scarf wound twice round his throat, and the cart behind him held nothing but straw and two empty oil drums. He pulled up in the gate yard and called for the Deacon as though he had been sent for. Then he saw Lin on the gatehouse step and changed his mind about who he wanted.
“You’re the Core student,” he said. “She said you’d be sitting on that step.”
Lin stood. His left arm came up with him, heavy from the shoulder, and he let it hang until his balance was his own again. “Who said so?”
“The girl with the notebook.” The carter spat to one side, well clear of the mule. “Obed. I carry for the post-house at the third stone. She gave me this at the second milestone. She was sitting in the road with a man under a cloth, and the others had walked on ahead. She said to bring it to the Core student, and to let the Deacon read it over your shoulder. Because he’d do it anyway.”
