Chapter 34: Han's Secret

Han didn't start at once. The Hall was cold, colder than she had ever felt it, and her teeth had begun to chatter on the ladder rung. He saw it. He unfastened his outer robe, the mustard-yellow one, three hundred years out of fashion, and leaned forward from where he sat on the stone and put it round her shoulders. It weighed almost nothing. The dead didn't warm things. It warmed her. At the foot of the stair, Nine bowed his head. Ming opened her mouth to argue, and closed it again, and pulled the robe tighter. Han drew a breath, out of old habit, and opened his mouth. "No," said Ming. "Let me." He stopped. "I've been doing the sum for a month," she said. "Let me say it. Stop me where I'm wrong." She held the Ledger open on her knees, at the line he had shown her.…