Chapter 345: The Tide Street

The port officer at Ebbmere checked Ren’s permit against the accepted contract, then looked up at the party.

"Wake and Keep?"

"Inside my world," Ren said. "They’ll come out at the harbor’s deep berth."

She checked the named deployment area, marked their arrival and returned his copy. Beyond the gate hall’s doors, Sol waited beside a cart loaded with lifting gear. Vesper and Eira joined him while Ren put the papers away.

— • —

The town climbed the cliff in stone terraces, with stairs between them and hoists projecting over the lower quays.

Grey-green water filled the harbor below. Ren could see a row of folded counters beneath its surface, fixed against the walls of a submerged street. Higher up, painted lines crossed quay walls and lower doorways. Goods stood on shelves above the marks; empty hooks and bare stone occupied the space below.

A trader was lowering a handcart down a ramp. He stopped on the terrace above the water and joined several others waiting there.

"Tide Street," Sol said, following Ren’s gaze. "Our guide’s meeting us at the stairs."

The street’s paving was still hidden. Water moved over the folded counters, catching on their brackets and carrying scraps of weed along the walls.

— • —

Oda Venn met them at the head of the harbor stairs. She wore a salt-stiff coat, with a coil of line over one shoulder and a slate hanging on a cord.

She introduced herself, checked the contract reference and asked about the carrier.

"Wake’s still in my world," Ren said. "We need the deep berth clear before it comes out."

"The officer’s clearing it now." She opened her tide table beside Sol’s. "You’re within the arrival window. The channel stays deep enough at the working tide. It’s the last walking approach we’re waiting on."

She pointed down to a black iron pin set into the quay wall.

"When the water drops below that, we leave. By the time the boat reaches the landing, the path will be exposed."

Ren checked the mark against the water. There was time to ready Wake and the equipment before it reached the pin.

Oda led them to a food stall on the terrace above Tide Street. The owner was lifting fish from a pan, with fried shelfweed draining in a basket beside it.

— • —

They ate standing at the rail while Oda laid out the latest report.

"Six on the platform. Safe and supplied when they sent this, during the morning tide." She showed Sol the entry. "That tide tore out an outer bed. The great tide will put more force through the same opening."

Sol checked the report against the sketch.

"Which bed?"

Oda marked it near the broken gate. "Here. The neighboring mat held, but they haven’t been able to inspect underneath it."

Ilse leaned over the sketch. Sol had introduced her on the walk from the gate hall; she had stopped once to examine the rooted growth along a drain before catching up with them.

"We’ll need to see that edge before putting a frame under it," she said.

"Yes. The growers on the platform can show you what moved."

Beside the cart, Corin and Dray had set their lifting frame on level stone. One held a joint aligned while the other withdrew and reseated its pin. Sol went over to check the frame’s width against Oda’s loading sketch, leaving Ilse space to study the damaged beds.

Ren finished his flatbread. The shelfweed was crisp and salty, with a soft green center. Below the rail, more of the counters had emerged, water dripping from their lower brackets.

— • —

Lyra’s question came back to him as Ilse turned the sketch.

"Lift or cut?" he asked Oda.

"These young beds? Lift." She used her slate pencil to draw the mat beneath one. "Keep the connected growth together and support it from below. Cut it into pieces to fit your carrier and you’ll lose much of what you came for."

"How far apart are the lifting points?" Ilse asked.

"The frames were built to the same spacing. What’s sound after the storm is another matter. We’ll check before we put weight on them."

Ren looked from the drawing to the frame Corin and Dray were testing. Wake would be carrying connected mats, with their weight spread across supports. The loading crew would need room to bring each one alongside without folding it over itself.

Sol came back to the rail.

"Show us the loading reach first," he said. "Then Ilse and the growers can choose the first bed while we position the frame."

Oda marked the landing on his copy.

— • —

Vesper opened her notebook beside the tide table.

"The refuge and the route out," she said.

Oda turned to a broader sketch of the cliff. Above the platform she marked a square building, joined to it by a rising path.

"Stone pump house. Above the great-tide line. If you have to leave the beds, take this path. The workers know it."

She traced a deep inlet at the cliff’s foot.

"The carrier waits here. It’s sheltered from the main channel and stays deep through the tide. I’ll show you both approaches before we start unloading gear."

"And the signal?"

"Three strikes on the platform bell means withdraw. Make the load you’re holding safe and leave the rest. The harbor gives two when the access route opens; three is the one you act on."

Ren looked at Vesper and Sol.

"If I’m cut off or can’t continue, Vesper directs our group. Sol keeps his crew. Nobody waits for me past the cutoff."

Vesper followed the path on the sketch. "People to the pump house. Wake and Keep to the sheltered inlet."

"Yes. Eira goes up with you."

Sol checked where the platform path joined the pump-house approach, then copied the turn onto his own sheet. They would walk it with Oda before committing a load to the damaged shelf.

— • —

While the others packed the drawings, Eira returned to the stall and ordered six more portions.

The owner wrapped them separately, then tied them together in oiled paper. Eira settled the bundle above her kit where it would stay dry and uncrushed.

Ren helped her tighten the pack strap. Below them, a trader had set one foot on the highest step toward Tide Street, watching the water recede from the next one.

Oda checked the pin and waved to the officer farther along the quay. The officer waved back.

"The berth’s clear," she said. "We can bring Wake out."

— • —

The deep berth opened off the harbor channel between two stone arms. Its mouth had been cleared of small boats, leaving room for Wake to enter and turn.

The harbor officer checked the names on Ren’s permit and directed them to the level working quay. Corin and Dray brought the cradle down on the cart while Vesper laid out its straps.

Wake emerged from Verdance into the cleared water. Its back rose alongside the quay, wet and grey in the daylight, and a broad ripple spread toward the stone arms.

It sank beneath the surface before they put anything aboard. Ren watched its shadow move into the deeper part of the berth. When it rose again, it had turned toward the mouth.

Wake swam out far enough to meet the channel current, then turned against it. Its tail moved slowly as it held position. After another turn it came back alongside, with room between its body and the quay.

Ren crouched and put his hand into the water. It was cold against his fingers. Wake had found depth and turning room here; the nursery approach still lay ahead of them.

"The cradle," he said.

Corin and Dray helped bring it over. Vesper guided the seat into place while Ren steadied it, then checked the straps against the fit they had prepared at home. Wake held alongside throughout.

Keep came out onto the cleared stone. Eira lifted it into the cradle and checked that it was seated securely above the waterline. Once she stepped away, Wake eased out from the quay and held still while Vesper inspected the straps again.

She and Eira secured the spores they would carry. Ilse came over as Vesper closed her pouch.

"Keep’s reports give us the spore-carriers’ positions," Vesper told her. "They arrive late. I’ll pass on anything you need, with the age of the report."

Ilse looked toward the boat. "I’ll stay close enough to hear you while we’re loading."

Ren went to the quay’s edge and gave Wake the withdrawal order. Oda would show them the sheltered inlet on arrival. If Vesper called the retreat, Wake was to take Keep there without waiting for him.

Then he helped move the remaining equipment into the boat.

— • —

The water had drawn away from the lowest steps by the time they were ready. Tide Street appeared a strip at a time, dark paving shining beneath the walls. A trader went down with a broom and swept weed from the approach before signaling to the carts above. ℯℯ𝑙.

Two bell strikes sounded across the harbor.

Oda checked the iron pin, now clear of the water, and took her place at the tiller. Sol and Ilse settled beside the lifting gear. Vesper counted the party aboard, then looked back to Wake, holding beyond the berth with Keep upright in its cradle.

Ren stood in the bow. Ahead, the marked channel led between the harbor arms into open water.

Behind him, a shopkeeper lowered a counter from the wall and set its legs onto the wet paving.

Oda cast off as the first handcart rolled onto the uncovered street.