Three hundred and twenty-seven river lanterns stretched from the entrance of Sacrifice River Village to the Mouth of the Ghost Gate. At a quarter past five, the flame of the first lantern upstream had dwindled to the size of a bean. Shen Yan trimmed the wick. The flame leaped up half an inch, then sank back down. The oil was wrong. Green oil clung to the fingers and burned with a scorched fragrance, but this oil was as slick as well water, and up close it smelled fishy. He lifted the burlap covering the barrel. A ring of fine white foam floated on the surface. Beneath the foam, the waterline sat higher than the oil. While he had been gone for those few dozen steps, someone had taken half the oil from the barrel and mixed in river water.
The ninth lantern swayed twice and went out. The tenth followed. The river suddenly sank by an inch, as if something below had taken a breath. Five long, thin shadows rose from the black mud of the riverbank.
Twelve black-armored riders came down the embankment. Pei Changgeng seized Shen Yan's wrist and turned his palm over, then pulled out a piece of bone and held it aloft. Engraved on it were Shen Yan's birth date and an accusation that he had conspired with the Ruin Gate and let the shadows escape. More than three hundred faces on the embankment took half a step back.
Shen Yan did not kneel. He said, "The lamp oil has been mixed with water. I sealed the three barrels upstream myself at the hour of the Monkey. I smeared lampblack on the rims as a mark, and the marks haven't been disturbed, but half the oil is gone. Oil mixed with river water floats white foam. The wick can't burn through it, so the flame is only the size of a bean. The lanterns went out one by one, starting upstream and moving downstream. It wasn't the wind. The shadows looked as if they came out of the water. They don't travel on the wind. They travel through the water."
The old fishmonger from the village crouched beside a barrel and sniffed. His face changed. "It really does smell like water. Green oil doesn't smell like this."
Shen Yan kicked away half a piece of wet burlap, revealing a circle of frost-like white powder at the bottom of the barrel. "Whoever mixed in the water was afraid the foam on the oil would give them away, so they sprinkled salt into it. The salt dissolved in the water and left frost at the bottom of the barrel. This frost is fresh, formed tonight."
Pei Changgeng's smile froze for half a beat, and then voices erupted from the more than three hundred people.
