Sect Year 3 · third month · night of day 9 · the twenty-sixth life: the granary road of Tal Orun, Cado’s thirteenth year
The rain had been on the outer court tiles since the afternoon before. It fell in a steady grey curtain that ran off the roof edges in long strings and filled the water-butt by the well-wall until it spilled over the lip. Then it ran across the flags toward the drain.
Lin lay on the cot in the corner under the roof edge with his coat rolled beneath his head and his boots set side by side on the stones, the way Su set things. Just then, she wanted them found in the morning. He had slept. He couldn’t have said for how long. The rain had kept the count for him, and when he woke the strings were still running and nothing had come through the gate in the dark.
He was calm. He noticed it cautiously, because calm had come too easily to him before, and each time it had turned out to be only tiredness. This was not tiredness. Su had said sleep, and he had slept, and the obedience sat in him without any weight to push against.
