The smell of oil was stronger now. Pei Jing crossed to the south wall and rolled two heavy oak barrels aside. Behind them lay a three-foot square door set into the floor. Iron bands crossed the granite, and three keyholes showed inside thin ward rings.
Key four turned in the main lock. He tried the second and sixth keys in the others. The deadbolts drew back. Counterweights lifted the two-ton slab, and six steps led down into the stone.
The vault was ten feet square, dry and cold. A five-foot cedar chest stood on a raised bench. The seventh key opened its padlock.
Green light filled the cellar. Seven velvet-lined trays, sixty stones in each. Four hundred and twenty mid-grade spirit stones.
Three gray leather storage pouches lay beside the trays. Each held a cubic zhang. Below them sat fifteen bound volumes on the guild’s trade. He recognized the titles on inks, Golden Ray Charms, and grounding arrays. Three other ledgers recorded payments to the Crater Array Wardens. He looked at the payments. The first names belonged to the very wardens who would take his complaint. Beside those names were addresses and payments charged to people the guild had leaned on. Gu’s name was there too. The port had no office he trusted with both lists. He had room to take the ledgers. He chose to let them burn. It would make it harder for the guild to trace Gu’s patients. It would also leave those patients without proof of…
