Chapter 357: The Shaded City

The contract came back approved, with the full brief and the garden’s handling notes attached.

Ren read the brief, then passed the notes to Eira. She asked for the lifting points to be marked on the bed drawings before she agreed to the handling work. The extra sheet arrived with those marks and the keeper’s contact beneath them.

Sol confirmed Ilse, Corin and Dray. The pair checked their lifting frame against the bed dimensions and the clearances along the proposed access. Vesper arranged travel to Kilnreach’s port at Shadewell and checked the return connection against Ren’s Carrow appointment. The expected finish left room. If the work ran late, they would have to contact the survey office before that margin disappeared.

Lyra’s arrangements arrived while they were packing, and she left for her lake survey. Ren sent her the confirmed destination, reporting window and contacts before his own departure.

Got them. We’re starting at the first site. The water’s cold. Tell me what Kilnreach’s like when you get there.

Iris walked him to the transit hall. At the door, she caught the loose end of his coat strap and tucked it through its loop.

"You’ll catch that on something."

"Thanks."

She kept hold of his sleeve for a moment, then let go as the others moved toward the entrance.

"See you when you’re back."

Ren squeezed her hand before following them inside.

— • —

Kilnreach’s port was a long hall with shutters drawn against the glare. Heat reached them as soon as they stepped out of the arrival area.

The clerk checked their travel papers and contract reference, entered the lifting frame as equipment, and directed them to a counter beside the exit. A woman in a pale coat issued protective clothing to the seven travelers: cloaks, hoods and hand covers, with sizes checked before she handed each set over.

"You can loosen them under the shade," she said. "Fasten everything before you step into an opening. Keep to the covered routes where you can."

Ren put his on over the harness. The worked-glass guards had passed a controlled Fire test at home, but the backing and straps had only been tested with that working. He checked that the cloak covered both pieces before taking his bag.

Corin and Dray lifted the frame. Ilse joined Eira with the bed drawings, comparing the marked supports while Sol checked the garden’s route from the port.

Through the exit, Ren could see pale ground falling away below the settlement, its edges blurred by heat. Above the roofs, the slope rose toward gray-white heights. The brief placed Shadewell on the habitable stretch between them.

Sol folded the route sheet and led them out beneath the first canopy.

— • —

From the port, the city’s roof had looked like planted terraces climbing the hillside. Beneath it, Ren could see the framework supporting the growth: timber spans resting on stone posts, with thick branches trained along them and smaller shoots woven across the gaps.

The cover ran in sections above the street. Between them, sunlight reached the paving in bright strips. People followed the shade around the wider openings, leaving the exposed stone empty.

The air beneath the leaves was warm, but it moved. Open spaces above the posts let it pass through, stirring the loose edges of Ren’s cloak. The framework stood high enough for loaded carts, and the nearest branches had been tied clear of their route.

A crew was repairing a thin section farther up. Two keepers worked from the crosspieces, drawing rooted shoots across bare timber and securing them with broad ties. A third stood below with a coil of cord, watching the branch as they eased it into place. Pedestrians passed on the opposite side of the street.

At a stall, a patch of sun reached the corner of a produce rack. The vendor pulled it back on its wheels without breaking off his conversation with a customer. A group of children came down a covered lane, turned around a bright opening and reappeared beyond it. None tried the shorter way across.

A water counter occupied a recess beneath a stone arch. Its well opening was covered, with a spout beside it for filling cups and flasks. A worker set down her tools to drink while the attendant filled the vessel she had brought.

Vesper stopped there to refill their water. Corin and Dray rested the frame on its feet under the arch until she was ready.

— • —

They ate before reporting to the garden, at a counter shaded by several overlapping branches.

The vendor served sliced fruit from a covered tray and flatbread from a hot stone. Eira touched the cool side of the fruit bowl before asking how he kept it that way.

He lifted the tray’s cloth edge. Beneath it, the shallow stone basin held water fed through a narrow channel from the well. The cloth hung into the water around the tray.

"Keep the channel clear and the cloth wet," he said. "Move it back if the sun reaches it."

Eira looked up at the branches, then shifted her bowl away from a small gap between the leaves.

Sol checked his stock list with Ilse while they ate. She pointed to an entry and asked him to leave the final quantity until they had inspected it. He changed the note and folded the list away. The purchase would come after their work arrangements with the keeper.

Ren pushed his hood back and opened the cloak. The fruit was cool enough that he ate another piece before reaching for the bread. After the heat of the port hall, it was pleasant to sit where air moved across his face.

When they finished, Sol checked the route again. The garden lay farther up the slope.

— • —

Maren Taske was examining a bed when they arrived.

The garden’s terraces rose beneath their own canopy. Near the end of one row, a bed tilted toward a shallow depression. Maren crouched on the sound side, following its rim with her hand. She finished the inspection before standing to meet them.

"Ren? Sol?"

They introduced the others. Maren turned to Eira.

"Did the marked sheet reach you?"

"Yes. I’ll need you to show me those supports before we lift."

"I’ll have one of our growers with you." She shook Eira’s hand, then greeted the rest of the crew. "Come this way. You can see the settled section from the path."

A cord marked the boundary along its lower side. Maren kept them behind it, with Corin and Dray setting the frame down on the level space she indicated.

"Stay on this side. The edges haven’t all been checked."

One end of the terrace had sunk below the neighboring beds. Soil had pulled away from a rim, leaving a narrow hollow beneath it. The tilted bed sat partly over the depression, its plants drooping toward the exposed edge.

A crack crossed the ground below it. As Ren followed the path, a warmer current reached him from that direction. He stopped beside Maren without approaching the cord.

Above the settled terrace, the canopy was thin. Yellow leaves remained among the green, and fallen ones lay across the beds. Sunlight reached growth that the surrounding branches still shaded.

"The canopy changed after the ground moved," Maren said. "Its roots run beneath this section."

"Do you know what’s damaging them?"

"Not yet. We noticed the settling first, then the crack. The leaves began dropping afterward." She pointed farther along the terrace. "The specialists have reached the service gallery. They need access beyond it to inspect underneath these beds."

Ren studied the bed’s exposed underside. He could see where it had lost support, but the crack gave him no view of what lay farther below.

"What do you need us to hold first?"

"They’ll show you from the gallery. We need to keep the remaining beds supported while they open the inspection area." Maren looked toward Ilse and Eira. "Our growers will mark anything that needs moving and work with you on the lifts."

Sol opened the brief at the access drawing.

"And the heat route stays with your specialists."

"Yes. They’ll mark what must be left clear before you start."

She pointed out the service entrance below the path, then waited while the pair picked up the frame.

— • —

The covered path ended short of the terrace wall. Maren stopped them in the shade to fasten their clothing before crossing the opening.

Vesper pulled up her hood and checked her hand covers. Ren reached for his cloak clasp, but the fastening caught against the raised edge of his shoulder guard.

"Wait," Eira said.

He lowered his hand while she eased the fabric free. The cloak had bunched above the guard. She spread it over the curved glass, settled the fastening clear of the edge and closed it.

"Raise your arm."

He did. The cloth moved without pulling the clasp back against the harness.

"That’s better."

"Thanks."

She checked her own hood before following Maren. Ren let Vesper go ahead of him, then crossed behind her.

The exposed stretch was short. Heat built against his covered shoulders before he reached the stone doorway, and he was glad to step beneath its lintel. Corin and Dray followed with the frame, keeping it level through the entrance.

— • —

Maren took a lamp from a bracket inside the doorway and lit it.

Stone steps descended into a dry, warm passage. Along the walls, inspection recesses exposed packed soil between the supports. Thick roots ran through it, with finer growth spreading around them. Ren kept his bag close as Maren brought the light past the first recess.

"The canopy and the beds both root through here," she said. "Leave those openings clear."

She lowered the lamp toward the steps. Its light reached the turn below, where the passage continued beneath the garden.

"The specialists are waiting below."