Chapter 304: The Final

The channel check ended with Vesper raising a hand on the viewing surface. Ren took his hand off the plate while the attendant confirmed the connection and moved on.

The delta filled the surface below him. Its main channel ran between the two staging areas, with four shallow tributaries branching toward the outer banks. Six supply sites held eight marked tokens each.

Ren had chosen the two sites nearest the main channel, one on either bank. Ward could reach both without entering the narrow water. The remaining four lay farther out, where smaller carriers had more routes available to them.

Shuli’s receiving pad stood inside protected staging at the far end. Ren followed the approaches on his map, including the ones that passed nowhere near the sites he intended to guard.

The score showed zero for both squads.

In the public seats, Yueying sat beside Yuelan, with Sol a few rows below. Ren glanced toward them before the signal sounded, then turned back to the water.

— • —

Ward entered the main channel with Keep mounted above the waterline and Tarin travelling beside it. Riptide turned toward the first site and took position at its shallow approach. Pell continued upstream toward the crossing below the second.

Vesper waited at the receiving pad with Mistwhisker. The handling space was clear, and the empty stretch beside it left Ward room to arrive and turn back out.

At the first site, Ward came alongside the bank. Tarin rose beside the cache, its Lawfire in the water below, and lifted four tokens into the pack ahead of Keep’s cradle. Two more went into the small container secured beside it.

Four in the pack, two in the container. Tarin checked both fastenings before Ward turned downstream.

Across the delta, Shuli’s entrants were already collecting. Ren watched a container move down a bank through a short line of broad hands, then settle onto a carrier at the water’s edge. Elsewhere, two single-token loads were approaching her staging area by separate paths.

Her first token registered while Ward was still travelling. A second followed before it reached the receiving bend.

Tarin came alongside the landing as Ward stopped at the pad. It took the small container first, clearing the fastening beneath it. Vesper released the pack behind the container, and together they brought both loads onto the marked receiving area.

Ren’s count rose to six.

The seats stirred. He checked the unloading interval against his practice note, then looked back toward the two sites. The transfer had been clean, and Ward was ready to leave again.

— • —

Ren pressed the plate while Tarin was still beside Vesper.

"Last two from the first site, then two from the second. Keep Riptide on the first approach and Pell at the crossing."

Vesper turned toward Tarin and spoke, pointing up the main channel. Tarin returned to the water beside Ward, and they set off while she cleared the receiving space.

Shuli’s count reached four, then five.

Her individual carriers moved more slowly through the shallow routes, but several were travelling at once. One pair brought a loaded container down a bank while another entrant returned empty along the path above them. At her pad, a receiving group took each arriving load before the carrier turned back out.

Ren watched that return path. It ran clear of the incoming route, so an empty carrier could leave without making a loaded one stop. Another container reached the pad while he followed the movement, taking Shuli’s count to seven.

Ward was still upstream.

At the first cache, Tarin lifted the last two tokens into the pack. The marked ground behind it was bare. Riptide remained at the approach while Ward crossed toward the second site, where Tarin collected another pair.

The pack was full again. Six tokens remained in the second cache, and Ward’s smaller cargo position was still empty.

Tarin reached for its container as movement appeared at the crossing below.

— • —

One of Shuli’s loaded carriers was approaching along the tributary.

Its route came down from the nearest outer site, passed through the shallow crossing below Ren’s second cache and continued along the far bank toward Shuli’s pad. Pell waited in the crossing, where that route met the main channel.

The carrier checked its approach and turned toward the wet shelf beside the water. It held a two-token container against its body, keeping between the load and Pell as it worked toward the bank path.

Tarin left Ward and moved through the shallows to intercept it.

The carrier quickened, but the container caught against the shelf as it tried to lift the load higher. Tarin reached the lower handle from the water. The carrier pulled back, bracing with one broad hand against the bank while Tarin held the handle and brought its spear across the narrow way ahead.

For a moment they held the load between them. Then the carrier released its grip and scrambled up the bank without it.

Tarin drew the container into the shallows and returned to Ward. Both tokens were still inside. The carrier continued along the dry path toward its own squad, leaving the crossing clear.

Ward had waited at the loading bank with its four-token pack already secured. Tarin lifted the recovered container into the remaining cargo position, turned it to clear the pack strap and began fastening it down.

Shuli’s count reached twelve.

Tarin drew the strap through the handle and checked the other side. Ward held beside the bank, with Keep’s cradle upright above the water.

Another pair of tokens arrived at Shuli’s pad.

Fourteen.

Tarin finished securing the container and returned to the water. Ward turned downstream with six tokens aboard.

Ren watched it leave the bank. The interception had gained two tokens and taken them out of Shuli’s supply, but Tarin had spent part of the loading interval away from Ward. Her other carriers had continued delivering throughout.

— • —

Vesper cleared the receiving space before Ward appeared around the bend.

She moved an empty fastening away from the pack’s unloading position, then looked toward the channel. Mistwhisker stepped back from the landing edge as Tarin came into view beside the whale.

Ren recognized the arrangement from the cove. Keep’s positional reports went to the squad, and Vesper also knew the route and the expected return. From his seat, he could not tell what had prompted her to prepare at that moment.

Two of Shuli’s carriers reached her pad while Ward approached Ren’s.

Her count rose to sixteen.

Tarin removed the recovered container first. Vesper released the pack behind it, and they deposited both loads inside the receiving area. The unloading needed no correction from Ren.

His count increased by six.

Ren 12 — Shuli 16.

The sound from the seats was quieter than after Ward’s first arrival. Shuli had made several deliveries during the round trip, and another of her carriers was already on its way back from the pad.

Vesper set the empty pack ready for the next load. Tarin waited beside Ward while Ren checked the remaining supply.

— • —

Ten of his delivered tokens had come from the two near-channel sites: eight from the first and two from the second. The intercepted container accounted for the other pair.

Twenty tokens remained unscored. Six were still at the second site. The remaining fourteen were divided between Shuli’s outer caches and loads in transit.

Ren followed those loads on the surface. One carrier was nearing a bank transfer with a container, and another had just left an outer cache. Farther along the tributary, two entrants were returning empty to collect what remained.

Ward could bring six on a full trip. Shuli was keeping several smaller loads moving while it collected, returned and unloaded. Ren’s handling at the pad was working; the wider difference lay in how many tokens were travelling toward each receiving area at once.

At the crossing below the second site, another loaded carrier approached Pell’s water. It stopped short of the shallows, turned back and climbed onto the longer bank route around the ridge.

Ren traced that route to Shuli’s staging area. The detour would delay the load, but it passed clear of the crossing Tarin had used. Pell’s position still cost Shuli time without stopping the delivery altogether.

He looked back toward the first tributary.

Riptide held its mouth as ordered, facing the approach below the cache. No loaded carrier was heading that way. Ward had already removed all eight tokens from the site, and the serpent remained in the same shallow water where it had guarded the first collection.

Ren put a finger on that point of the map, then looked at the receiving pad where the emptied pack waited.

Riptide was still guarding the bank, but the last token was already on Ren’s receiving pad.