Chapter 320: The Wrong Approach

Ren tucked the map away and looked along the road toward the next survey stake.

"We keep to the road. Same order. Riptide ahead."

Vesper closed her notebook, the carrier’s position already recorded. Eira stepped back onto the slabs, and the party moved on while Ward followed in the channel beside them. The trail through the scrub disappeared behind the bend.

Riptide checked ahead in short runs, returning before Ward entered each new stretch. Pell kept to the shallows between the whale and the road. Tarin walked the bank with its spear over one shoulder and its Lawfire on the water below.

The mist lay thickest over the channel. Where the road rose, Ren could see several stakes ahead, all pointing toward the depot.

— • —

The side channel appeared a few stakes farther on, branching toward the inland low ground. The map carried a depth reading beside its mouth. Ren had checked that figure before leaving the cove: enough for Ward, and a course that would take them closer to the habitat site’s bearing. Beyond the mapped stretch, they would have to find their own approach.

Riptide entered the mouth and returned almost at once. It signaled Ward to stop, then came toward Ren at the bank.

The shallows began within a body-length of the main channel.

Ren followed the bank to a shelf of exposed rock. The survey sounding was marked just off its edge. He knelt and lowered the buckle end of his spare strap until it rested on the bottom, then drew it up and checked the wet length.

There was much less water than the map recorded. Ward would ground before getting through the mouth.

Above it, a long section of bank had collapsed. Grey earth and broken stone spread across the entrance, with silt gathered in the slower water behind them. Ren could see the bottom across most of that first stretch. Farther in, the water darkened, but there was no way to judge its depth from here.

He wrote the new sounding beside the old one and marked the visible extent of the slide. The rest of the channel would need checking separately. Nothing on the bank told him how long ago it had fallen.

Vesper came beside him to compare the marks. Ren pointed out the rock shelf he had measured from, so she could find the same spot again. They would need a usable approach here if the land scout found somewhere worth bringing Ward.

— • —

Vesper followed the rock above the slide to see where it ended, keeping Mistwhisker close. The cat stepped onto a flat slab at the lip. It tipped under its weight, spilling grit down the slope.

Mistwhisker scrambled back onto the firmer rock and raised one paw.

Vesper picked it up before it could try another step and carried it to the road.

"Eira."

Eira set her kit on a level slab and knelt beside the cat. Blood had wet the fur around one pad. She rinsed away the grit, examined the shallow cut, and held a clean cloth against it while Vesper steadied Mistwhisker.

The bleeding eased. Eira folded a small dressing over the pad and secured it with a narrow bandage, then checked around the toes before setting the paw down.

"A short walk," she said. "Let me see."

Mistwhisker stood on three legs, the dressed paw held above the stone. Eira kept her hand beneath it as the cat lowered it, tried its weight and took a step.

She withdrew her hand when it took the next one.

"Carry it over the rough ground," she told Vesper. "I’ll check the dressing again before it goes farther."

Vesper gathered the cat against her chest. Ren waited while Eira packed away the used cloth and closed her kit, then took out the access conditions.

— • —

The low ground beside the channel lay within the authorized area. Reports still had to go through the landing; the office offered no assured contact out here. Beneath the boundary description, the region carried its Guild rating.

Danger classification: D-Class.

Ren read it once before folding the sheet. The rating covered the region. It gave him no particulars about the ground beyond the failed channel.

Opening a passage for Ward would mean shifting the fallen material and checking the banks that remained above it. They had yet to measure the water farther in, or establish how much of the route it would serve. Ren looked over the low ground beyond the slide. He wanted to see what lay ahead before committing the party to that work.

"Ward holds in the deep channel, clear of the bank. Tarin, you have the water group. Riptide and Pell stay with you. Keep stays mounted."

Tarin brought its spear upright. "We hold."

"Vesper, Eira, with me. We’ll look from the dry side. Ward stays in sight."

A ridge of bare rock rose beyond the low ground, its crest visible through the mist. Ren pointed it out to both of them.

"That ridge is the limit. If the ground hides Ward before we reach it, we turn back sooner."

"And if there’s a way through beyond it?" Vesper asked.

"We come back and plan the next stretch. Tarin needs to know where we’ll be."

Vesper marked it in her notebook. Before they left, Ren took a spore from Keep and secured it inside his coat. Tarin would have their position reports, with the delay they had already checked at the landing.

Ward moved into the deeper water away from the junction. Riptide remained nearer the mouth, while Pell held the shallows below the road. Ren watched them settle before leading the land party around the slide.

— • —

They crossed above the broken bank, leaving a wide strip of intact ground between themselves and its edge. Beyond it, wet grit and low scrub covered a series of shallow rises.

Ren kept to the higher ground. At the first dip he stopped and looked back: Ward was still visible, its back dark against the channel. He followed the shoulder of the rise instead of descending. Vesper came behind with Mistwhisker in her arms, and Eira watched the footing along the scrub.

From the next rise, they saw the mound.

It lay below the ridge they had chosen, low and rounded, with denser growth on its upper slope. Pale-green stems stood together above the grey scrub. Thin vapor rose from wet ground near their base and dispersed before reaching the top of the mound.

Eira paused beside Ren.

"Might be warm water coming up there," she said. "I’d need to check it."

He looked back toward Ward. The channel remained visible from this shoulder, and the ridge was still ahead. They could approach along the higher side without dropping into the hollow.

They had gone only a little farther when the grit at the mound’s base shifted.

A broad plated back lifted out of it, shedding loose earth. The creature beneath was low to the ground, its plates the same grey-brown as the mud. It turned to face them and stopped across the slope, between the party and the pale stems.

Vesper adjusted her hold on Mistwhisker. The cat had gone still against her arm.

Ren stepped back. Vesper and Eira withdrew with him until they reached the shoulder where they had first stopped.

The native stayed on the mound. As they halted, it lowered its body closer to the grit, but its head remained turned toward them. It had not pursued them, and it had not returned beneath the surface.

Eira shifted just enough to look past its flank.

"Can you make out the stems?" Ren asked.

"Upright, close together. I don’t recognize them from here."

She stayed beside him. The distance was too great to see the base of the cluster clearly, and the native covered their approach to the wet ground. Ren checked Ward once more, then looked back at the mound.

Vapor curled between the stems and drifted across the creature’s plates. It settled farther into the grit while keeping its head raised toward them.

Something was still growing on the ground the native held.