Sect Year 3 · ninth month · day 6, dusk · Azure Stream Sect, outer court gate, then the lower lane
The note came up the north path before the sun cleared the ridge. The boy who carried it was from the outer court, thin and out of breath, with ink on the side of one hand. He held the folded sheet out without looking at Lin’s face.
Lin opened it on the cave step. Pei’s hand was square and pressed hard into the paper, the strokes standing up off the other side like raised scars.
The bucket is by the gate. I kept the band on it.
Nothing else. He read it twice. The boy shifted from one foot to the other on the stones.
“She said you’d read it twice,” the boy said. “She said you’d then ask me how I got up the path.”
“How did you get up the path?”
“Carefully, sir.”
