By the time the new decree reached Haojin, the river was wearing ice on its edges like thin, uncertain bracelets.
Du Yan read it in the lamplight of his cramped office, jaw clenched hard enough to ache.
The characters were precise, familiar. Ji Lu's hand, smoothed under Zhang's voice.
Prior offer of grain for confession has been abused by certain western halls, who mistake mercy for weakness. Revoke all promises. Any hall displaying the sparrow-mark or claiming 'Road City' protection is to be treated as suspect and brought to obedience. Ringleaders are to be publicly punished as example. Captains who fail to carry out this order will be considered sympathetic to sedition.
The title at the top made his lip twitch: On the Correction of Misled Subjects.
"Correction," he muttered. "As if men were ledgers."
The lieutenant with the eager jaw—Chen—shifted across from him. "Sir?" he prompted.
Du folded the decree and set it down on the table, gently, as if afraid of breaking something brittle inside himself.
"We have our orders," he said. "Tomorrow, we go to Lin Chang's hall."
Chen straightened, hungry. "At last," he said. "They've been mocking us with those tiles. The men say the sparrow is watching them piss."
"Does the sparrow write reports?" Du asked mildly.
Chen flushed. "No, sir."
"Then it is not the sparrow you should worry about," Du said. "It is my brush. Tell the men: full kit. No torches. We are enforcing an edict, not sacking a town."
Chen looked disappointed. "But, sir—"
"Do you plan to write to the Regent and tell him you put his town to the torch?" Du asked. "Or shall I?"
Chen shut his mouth with a click. "No, sir."
"Good," Du said. "Sleep. Tomorrow, you stand where you can see every face in the hall. You will remember them. If any of them are later missing and their houses are empty, I'll ask you whether it was your hand that left them that way."
He did not read the decree again after the lieutenant left. He knew the words too well already.
He blew out the lamp and lay on his cot, staring at the particular darkness of men who must decide how to obey.
When he finally slept, he dreamed of sparrows hammering nails into his boots.
Lin Chang had the frying pans already on the stove when the soldiers arrived.
She could hear them from half a street away, armor tapping the stones, horses snorting steam. The hall filled with the particular quiet of people who have decided not to panic yet because they need to think.
Sun Wei stood under the tablets with his hands behind his back, as if he had been carved there. Shuye sat at the table with a ledger open and a brush in his hand. Chen Rui leaned against the far wall, arms folded, expression promising that any man who forgot the rule about no beating without witness would find out how many bones a woman could break with a spoon.
"Remember," Lin Chang said, wagging the spoon in question. "Whatever you feel, you keep it behind your teeth until after they leave. We are witnesses today, not heroes."
"Heroes die early," Shuye said. "Witnesses live to be annoying."
The door slid open without a knock.
Du Yan stepped in first.
He wore full armor, cloak pinned tight. Behind him came a double file of soldiers, boots leaving damp prints on the floorboards. Chen was among them, jaw set, hand on hilt.
The second thing through the door was the cold. The third was the decree, rolled in Du's left hand like a bad promise.
"Captain," Lin Chang said, as if greeting a regular customer who had brought too many friends.
"Madam Lin," he replied.
His gaze went up, took in the tablets and the newly added board with its UNDER ROAD CITY LAW neatly painted. Something flickered in his face; it did not make it to his voice.
"By order of the Regent," he said, projecting for the room and the crowd gathering behind his men, "this hall is declared suspect. It displays seditious marks and gives shelter to self-proclaimed Road City 'judges.'"
He let the word hang a moment.
Sun Wei did not move. "Captain," he said. "You have your paper. We have our witnesses and scale. As before."
Du gave the slightest nod. "As before," he agreed. Then, louder: "The previous offer of grain for renouncing these marks has been revoked. Any who still hang the sparrow now do so in open defiance. The Regent commands that ringleaders be punished."
His hand tightened on the scroll. "He commands me to seize them. Here. Before witnesses."
Chen's fingers twitched around his sword-hilt in excitement.
Sun Wei stepped away from the wall, slow.
"Then ask your paper a question, Captain," he said quietly, stepping into the space between the soldiers and the crowd. "Who are the ringleaders?"