Sect Year 3 · ninth month · day 12 · Qingliu pier, on the river, at the morning water
The Ministry’s order came down the river road in the night. A rider of the Ministry’s Board brought it, a thin young man who had changed horses four times between the capital’s relay and the Qingliu yard. He arrived with his cloak black to the knee and his mount blown, and he asked for the checker by her title and then asked again for the sect’s bearer, because the order named him too.
Lin heard about the order at first light on the pier, from Jiang, who had sat up with it on the bottom step and had not yet decided how she felt about it. He had ridden down the valley road with her two days before, and had slept badly on the pier-master’s bench since.
The Qingliu pier lay on the river where the valley widened and the water went slow. Mooring posts stood out of the mud in a line like the teeth of an old comb. At the far end the Registry junk Even Sum rode low at her ropes, her sail furled and her deck still wet from the night.
