Sect Year 3 · tenth month · day 4 · Azure Stream Sect, the Outer Court gatehouse
The gatehouse smelled of wet stone and the lamp oil the gatekeeper burned all night. Lin came up the path before the outer court bell had finished its first stroke. He had slept badly. Sometime in the dark he had turned onto his side, felt the folded writ press against his ribs through the cloth, and after that he had lain still until the window went from black to grey.
Outside the gate someone was sweeping. The stroke was long and even, and it had been going since before the bell. Gao Wen would sweep the gate path until the gatekeeper told him to stop, and the gatekeeper had not told him to stop in five months. The outer court had never agreed whether this was a punishment or a kindness. Gao Wen had not offered an opinion.
Lin walked past the water buckets stacked along the wall. The rope that had strung across the east lane had come down after the Ministry’s order, and the lane had families in it again, drawing in turn. Their names were chalked on a board beside the gate. He read the board as he passed. Nine lines, nine households, and someone had put a small tick beside each one, as if the water had been checked against the names and found to be there.
