Chapter 331: One Claimant

Ren filed the report at the landing before they left.

It described the waterworks above the road’s end: two channels, a basin, an overflow, and a maintenance stair with damaged lower steps. The fitted closure stood beside the small landing at the foot of that stair. He included the approach they had checked and the hollow they couldn’t see into. The carving and its response stayed out of it.

Vesper waited beside the post while he put the sheet in the box.

"If I enter, you command outside," he said. "You file the reports under my permit and sign them yourself. State where I am and whether I’ve come out."

"How long do we wait?"

He showed her the limit on his slate. It left time to collect the water group and reach the landing before the next report was due.

"That’s the latest you leave the works. We’ll check the terms first. If they don’t allow for this, I don’t go in today."

Eira closed her kit. "And if you’re still inside?"

"You report me overdue. Ask the office to notify Iris, Lyra, and Halvern."

Iris and Lyra had their own instructions for a missed report. He wouldn’t leave them waiting for one when Vesper could send word sooner.

There was no new reply on the landing contact. Ren put the slate away and called the party together.

— • —

They went past the depot to the final stake, then followed the old stonework along the water side of the rise.

Riptide checked the deep pocket before Ward entered it. The fallen rock still blocked the shallows above. Ward turned and settled beside the bank with Keep dry in the cradle. Tarin took its place above the water, its Lawfire below. Pell stayed near the shelf where the supplies were laid out. Mistwhisker lay beside them with its dressed paw tucked under its chest.

Ren showed Tarin the time by which Vesper and Eira should be back.

"They may return without me. Vesper commands. If neither comes back by then, take everyone to the landing, report, and wait there."

"Everyone to the landing," Tarin repeated.

Ren went first along the ledge, Eira behind him and Vesper last. At the exposed shoulder he stopped to watch the crest. No movement showed against the sky. They crossed one at a time and continued beneath the shelter of the slope.

The hollow below the works remained out of sight.

At the top of the maintenance stair, Vesper checked the firm ground back from the edge. From there she could watch both the shoulder and the steps.

"Here?" she asked.

Ren nodded, then started down against the wall, testing the lower treads before putting his weight on them. The others followed.

— • —

Water ran beneath the sluice frame beside the closure. The blocks sat flush in their opening, with no handle along the seam.

Ren asked the System silently for the full entry conditions.

[ONE RECOGNIZED CLAIMANT. NO ACCOMPANYING PERSONS. NO DEPLOYMENT OF BONDED SUBJECTS WITHIN.]

[THE CLAIMANT’S OWN ABILITIES, WORN EQUIPMENT AND CARRIED SUPPLIES: PERMITTED.]

[NO COMMUNICATION CROSSES THE CLOSED ENTRANCE DURING THE ATTEMPT.]

[THE CLAIMANT MAY RETURN TO THE ENTRANCE AND END THE ATTEMPT. REWARDS NOT EARNED BY THAT POINT ARE FORFEIT.]

[DURATION: NOT SPECIFIED.]

He read the withdrawal condition again. The Old Ladder required an uninterrupted commitment once begun. This entrance allowed him to return to the door and leave, provided he could reach it.

Vesper stood a few steps behind him with her notebook open.

"I can use my own abilities and carry my equipment," he told them. "Nobody comes with me, and I can’t deploy any Subjects inside. The door opens if I return to it and end the attempt. Anything I haven’t earned by then is lost."

"Messages?"

"None through the closed entrance."

Vesper wrote that down. "Then we can’t warn you if someone comes."

"No. You’ll have to leave without telling me."

Eira looked at the seam. "And if you’re hurt in there?"

"Nothing reaches me until I come out."

"Can you get back to this door from wherever it sends you?"

"It hasn’t said what’s beyond it."

She looked at him for a moment, then down at the kit beside her feet. Ren waited while Vesper finished writing.

"No duration given," he added. "We keep the time we agreed."

— • —

He pointed up the stair.

"Wait on the ground above. Stay back from the hollow’s edge. Watch the shoulder and the stair. Keep the ledge clear behind you."

"Mistwhisker stays with Tarin?" Eira asked.

"Yes."

"And at the limit?" Vesper asked.

"You leave together, collect everyone at the pocket, and go to the landing. File the report even if I haven’t returned. Put that plainly in it."

She checked the time against her slate.

"If anyone comes up from the hollow or appears over the shoulder, withdraw while the ledge is clear," Ren continued. "Don’t wait to find out whether they’re looking for us. Nobody holds this door."

"And if they’re already between us and the pocket?" Eira asked.

Ren looked up toward the turn in the stair. They couldn’t see the whole ledge from here. Nor could they see what lay below the overflow.

"Then you take cover on sound ground and look for a way back together. If you have to fight to reach the ledge, do it. I can’t give you another route from what we’ve seen."

Vesper put a mark beside the withdrawal time.

"We don’t stay for you," she said.

"You don’t stay for me. If you’ve gone when I come out, I head for the landing."

She read the arrangements back: their watch position, the early withdrawal, the time limit, and the report. Eira picked up her kit. Neither had anything to add.

— • —

Ren took Keep’s spore from his coat.

It lay in his palm, a small dry knot. Keep had used it to place the land party on its reports, always with a delay. The entrance forbade Subject deployment. Ren didn’t know whether carrying part of Keep’s network would count, and he had no need to test it.

He gave it to Vesper.

"Keep this outside."

She tucked it into the pouch beside her pencil. Keep could continue reporting on the group that carried it. Those reports would still arrive late; nobody was to wait for one before withdrawing.

Ren checked the rest of what he carried. His slate held the route records and the agreed times. The working notes and his drawing of the carving were inside his coat. The seed-torc rested at his collar. The seized original remained where he had stored it, with copies already in other hands.

He fastened his coat and turned back to the sluice frame.

The same curve lit when he brought his hand near the carving. He watched it for a moment, then spoke aloud.

"I accept the terms."

Stone scraped against stone. The fitted blocks withdrew into the wall, opening a passage beside the basin.

Ren lowered his hand. The curve faded.

Vesper stepped back to let him pass. He crossed the threshold and heard her boots on the stair as the closure began to move behind him. Eira followed her upward. Their footsteps stopped reaching him when the blocks met.

— • —

Water ran through a channel raised above the chamber floor.

The inlet opened high on the left wall. From there the stone trough crossed the room on a row of piers and entered an outlet opposite. A line cut into the outlet’s inner wall met the surface of the flowing water.

Below the trough, the floor sloped into a shallow basin. A drain at its lowest point took the water dripping from the joints overhead.

Ren stayed near the entrance while he checked the room. He followed the flow with his eyes, then walked beside the piers toward the outlet.

The third pier from that end stood on a cracked base.

Its outer edge had settled, leaving the trough above it slightly lower than the next section. Water seeped through the opened joint and fell onto the pier, spreading down its face before running across the floor to the drain.

Ren crouched to inspect the base. The crack passed through the supporting block. He could see where the two sides had shifted. Above it, the trough still carried most of the flow to the outlet.

He stood and put his palm against the pier. A faint vibration came through the stone.

[MAINTAIN THE CHANNEL’S SUPPORT AND ITS FLOW TO THE OUTLET THROUGH THE CHANGING INFLOW. COMPLETION: THE INFLOW CYCLE HAS ENDED, THE CHANNEL REMAINS INTACT, AND THE OUTLET LEVEL HAS RETURNED TO THE MARK.]

Ren looked from the cracked base to the line at the outlet. He would have to keep the trough carrying water while the load changed. Breaking it open to relieve the pressure would fail the task.

At the inlet, the stream thickened.

Water struck the trough in a heavy sheet. The joint above the damaged pier opened a little farther, and the trickle down its face became a stream. Splashes reached the floor on either side.

Ren took his hand from the stone and checked the drain. It was still running freely, but water was spreading beyond it faster than it could empty the basin.

The water in the room had already started to rise.