Sect Year 3 · eighth month · day 11 · Azure Stream Sect, the east gate and wall
The gate-room smelled of lamp oil and wet wool. Morning came in through the arrow-slit at the far end and lay across the flat stone slabs in one pale bar, and Lin sat on the bench inside the door with his back to the wall. There, the stone was cool through his coat.
He had walked the length of the gate-road twice that morning. The second time he had done it without the pole. He hadn’t told anyone. Pei had seen him from the bend, and she had said nothing until he reached the gate-house, and then she had said that she would have to write it down.
She sat on the step outside, on the wall-walk, with the notebook on her knee and the metal pen in her teeth. Her face was turned toward the valley. She had been quiet since first light, which was unusual for her, and Lin had let her be.
“Say it again,” she called through the open door.
“I’ve said it twice.”
“Say it a third time. I want to have it right before the runner gets here.”
