Sect Year 8 · second month · night of day 3 · Azure Stream Sect, record room
“Sixty-six,” he said.
Su’s pen touched the paper and made the number, small and square, in the margin. Then she wrote rest beside it, though the word was already there beside the others. She didn’t look up. She had the look she wore when she was reading against a source and did not want to be caught at it.
“A salt-store in the north,” Lin said. “I was the doorkeeper. There was a plank door with an iron bar across its back. I had my shoulder against the planks and the bar pressing into my spine. The line was outside. It ran down the lane from a notice board and round a corner into a square, and every face in it had a slip in one fist and a debt in the other. They wanted to be let in and counted. My purpose was to keep the door shut until dark.”
“Until dark,” said Su.
“Until the sun was down. I could see the sun through the gap above the top door beam.”
He stopped. His left hand lay on the table with its fingers curled loosely, and he looked at it, and then he made himself look at the lamp.
