Sect Year 7 · first month · day 1 · the Reserve’s edge, below the Ledger gallery
First light came up the gallery stair grey and without warmth. Lin had lain awake for most of the night on the stool-bed in the sleeping room, listening to the lamps tick as they cooled, and when the grey reached the rail he was already sitting up with his boots on. He hadn’t slept, but he wasn’t restless either. He was calm the way a bowl is calm once the water in it has stopped moving. He distrusted the feeling and kept it anyway.
Pei was at the rail before him, as she always was. She didn’t turn when he came out onto the gallery. She had her book open on the wood and the pencil in her fist, and she said, without any greeting, “Twenty-six. Days we went down the slope last month. It’s in the margin.”
Lin had not counted. He stood still for a moment, working it out the way he worked out a tally, and the sum came out right. He laughed, short and surprised, and the sound went down the length of the hall and came back off the far wall.
