Chapter 6: The Cave Where It Rained

Every team at the Assembly had to bring a stone from Hush Cave, and nobody had told Mian that Hush Cave was a day's walk.

"It is a rule," said Shouyi, striding up the muddy trail with a pack on his back.

"The Council wants proof that the team can climb."

"Can't they just take our word?"

"They took your word about the noodle tally."

"And look how that turned out."

"Yes," said Shouyi. "Look."

Mian walked behind him, enjoying the view of the straight back and the stiff topknot and the stubborn pack.

The sky over the ridge was the color of an old pot lid.

"It's going to rain," Mian said.

"It will not rain."

"The sparrows have all gone home."

"Sparrows are not a source."

It rained when they were still an hour from the cave.

It came down in ropes, straight and cold.

Mian was quickly soaked to the knees, and Shouyi had gone grim and silent.

They ran the last stretch with their sleeves over their heads and slid into the cave mouth in a shower of mud.

Hush Cave was dry, dark and shaped like an enormous teacup.

At the back stood a lump of pale stone the size of a pumpkin, humming faintly to itself.

"The echo stone," said Shouyi, wringing out his collar. "We take it at first light. We cannot cross the ridge in this."

"So we're stuck here."

"We are delayed."

"With one blanket."

Shouyi looked at the pack.

He unrolled the blanket from it, damp at the corners, and held it.

"Rule fourteen," he said. "A guard shall not..."

"Rule fourteen is about the gate."

"Rule sixty-two."