Chapter 11: Two Sisters

Registrar Han was waiting by her desk when she came in, holding a bundle of old papers tied with faded red string. "Don't say anything," he said. Ming hadn't been going to. She stood in front of her desk in her blue robe and warm jacket, with her seal case on her sash and Nine at her back, and looked at the bundle. The outer hall was cold. The clerks were bent over their work with the concentration of people listening hard. Han held the bundle out. "Three complaints," he said, under his breath. "Filed by three dead men, over thirty years. All from houses outside the north gate. All about the same fox." He didn't let go of the string. "I looked them out last night. I wasn't asked to. I'd be grateful if you didn't mention it." "To whom?" "To anyone with a seal bigger than mine." He…