Sect Year 1 · fifth month · day 18 · Azure Stream Sect, Outer Court herb beds
The drying racks stood in rows behind the Outer kitchens, and in the fifth month they were thick with thyme. Bundles hung head-down from the bars, grey-green and dusty, with nettle among them for the winter teas. The air smelled of crushed leaves and warm earth, and in the evenings the smell lay low over the beds, too heavy to lift.
Lin sat on the low wall at the end of the nearest row. The stone was still warm from the day. Across the yard the first lamp had been lit in the kitchen window, and someone was frying onions, and the smell reached him a moment after the sound of the pan. Pei sat cross-legged on the flags with her back against the wall and her hands in her lap, and she was counting the sparrows.
They came every dusk. They came down from the roof edges of the kitchen roof in twos and threes, chattering, and went along the racks picking at the seed-heads with small quick beaks. Each time they lifted off the bars, the wind from their wings shook the thyme. Pei counted them out loud, under her breath, and each time they lifted she lost her place.
