Location:Seven Peaks — The Hall; The North Camp; The North Gate
Date/Time:TC1858.03.10 – TC1858.03.11
Boots, mostly. A boot at the foot of every bedroll, toe up, and Hanne Lowther counted them with her fingertips in the dark.
There was no light to read the Wall by at the third hour, and she couldn't have read it lying down anyway, so she had stopped trying on the first night. She went down the line under the Wall on her knees, from the east end, and touched the toe of each boot and said the name over it without sound. Where there was no boot there was bare flag, and the bare flag was cold in a way the rest of the floor wasn't, and she rested two fingers on it for one breath and went on.
Three hundred and some. She knew the boots now. One pair near the east end had a split welt. One pair was too big and stuffed at the toes with straw. One woman slept with hers inside the blanket, so you touched wool and felt through it for the shape of the toe.
