Sect Year 3 · eighth month · day 9 · Azure Stream Sect, the spring below the cave residence
The terraces were grey and wet with dew when Lin went down the slope at first light, with Pei at his elbow and Gao Wen behind him on his pole. The stones were slick with dew. On the steep stretch Lin leaned on the ash pole and felt Gao Wen’s breath come close behind his shoulder, and on the flat he let Pei take his arm. It she did with the air of someone holding a door shut in a wind.
“A man who can walk three hundred steps before breakfast can walk down to his own grave,” said Gao Wen.
“That isn’t the same as being carried.”
“No. It’s worse. You have to walk back up.”
At the bend where the spring path left the terraces and dropped into the trees, Lin stopped to get his breath. From there he could see the whole of Azure Stream laid out below him. The roofs of the Outer Court, the flagged yard, the wall with the east gate in it, and beyond the wall the milestone road running down the valley toward Qingliu like a pale thread dropped on the hillside.
