My name is Harin. The night before the execution, every time I closed my eyes, I saw the scaffold posts.

This was the little room where an old man named Yeomun had let me sleep for one night. Now the Compact Office had made it my room for good.

HarinThe beasts' words on the wall… "Before the rain comes, we must move the young." And next to it, in another hand… "Beast howled." "We want water." And next to that, in that same other hand… "Beast confessed." …Here too. "Beast confessed."

Someone had scratched words into the corner of the desk.

HarinArticle Seven. A beast's life rests in the interpreter's hand.

Under it, smaller words, carved in a hurry. "So that's why they kept me out." It sounded just like Yeomun. He'd told me they never once let him in to hear Rugar. If a beast's life rests in the…