Sect Year 4 · third month · day 2 · Azure Stream Sect, the outer court gate
The rain had followed them up the valley road from Qingliu the whole of the last day. A month of the sea road lay behind them, and it had rained on nearly every day of that month. By the time the sect wall came out of the grey, it had worked through the seams of Lin’s boots and under the collar of his coat. His left hand had stiffened on the rein until he had to open it with the right.
The cold had been in that hand since Gao Wen’s Cold Ash palm, and the Wastes had worked it deeper. He got down at the foot of the gate steps. He counted them as he went up, thirty-three, the number Pei had written to him in a letter the winter before. He got thirty-three again and was not surprised.
At the top he stopped and put out his right hand. Before he took hold of the iron ring, he tapped it once with a knuckle, as he tapped any metal he meant to trust with his weight. The note came back short and dull. Wet iron. Nothing wrong with it. He took hold.
