Chapter 297: A Different Agreement

Hadrin read Corren’s proposal standing up.

He reached the list of workers, stopped, and went back to the beginning. Rod took off his wet coat while the keeper read it again. Nessa put their damp bedding near the stove, leaving enough room for the air to move around it.

"He wants the same thing." Hadrin said.

"He wants loaded carts to cross." Rod replied. "That part was never likely to change."

"He wants me to accept Branth’s footing."

"He wants Branth to inspect it with you. We asked for that."

The keeper looked up.

Rod remained beside the table. "Neither of you gave us enough to decide which repair is sound. We will not pretend we can settle it from a drawing."

Hadrin put the paper down.

"Then you have accomplished very little."

"We found the bell, confirmed that it is undamaged, and brought terms for returning it. We also learned about two attempts to move the briarback."

"I told you the crossing was dangerous."

"You did. You did not explain how your contest was supposed to reopen it."

The keeper turned toward the stove, found nothing there that required his attention, and sat at last.

Rod gave him Senn’s message about Ferris. Hadrin’s expression softened briefly. He asked whether the man’s foot still swelled in the evening. Nessa explained what she had observed and how she had adjusted the binding.

"The ointment helps bruising." she said. "It will not make the broken bone bear weight."

"I know."

The reply came quietly enough that Rod let a few moments pass before continuing.

"You both want the route open. You both offered work toward it. Somewhere between the rain, the old footing, and the wager, you stopped discussing how to do that."

"Corren wanted me to carry the responsibility for a road built against my judgment."

"Would you inspect it with Branth?"

Hadrin rubbed his palms over his knees.

"If he comes to inspect rather than explain what I should already have done."

"We can ask the same of you."

The keeper looked at Dain, then at Lana and Dirk. Nobody appeared ready to soften the condition.

"Very well." he said.

They had the first part of an agreement. The second took longer.

Rod explained that the original commission paid for returning the waybell. Clearing a dangerous beast and helping restore a bridge were additional work. His party would inspect the crossing before committing to the fight. If they accepted, both households would contribute to the reward.

Hadrin objected to paying twice for his own bell.

"You will pay once for its return." Rod said. "The new payment is for clearing the route you maintain."

"Which benefits Corren."

"And your station."

The keeper looked around the empty common room. Rain tapped against the shutters. One sleeping room stood open with no belongings inside.

He named what he could add.

It was less than Rod expected, but Hadrin opened his accounts and showed why. With guided traffic reduced, the station earned money from occasional deliveries and travelers using the outer roads. Stores and maintenance had consumed much of what remained.

Rod did not ask for the book. Hadrin kept it on his own side of the table while describing the figures.

Lana proposed part of the payment in services. Two guided journeys to Lethren, introductions to particular craftspeople, and storage at the station for goods they purchased there. Hadrin agreed to those more readily than another large payment.

Dain added a condition about the road itself.

"Your agreement with Reedbank needs a way to change the loads after you inspect the repair. You cannot name the weight today and discover later that the bank will not support it."

Hadrin fetched the broken bridge shoe and set it on the table again.

"Then the first loads stay small."

They wrote a staged reopening into the proposal. Empty carts first, then measured loads while both sides inspected the supports. Hadrin could close the crossing during dangerous weather, but he would send a specific reason and arrange a joint inspection if the closure continued.

Nessa asked who would keep workers away during the fighting.

The keeper named a dryad called Theren, who maintained growth near the station paths. He could identify which roots supported the stream bank and which thorns could be cut without loosening it. Two station workers would accompany him.

Rod asked whether Theren knew about the offer.

"Not yet."

"Ask him before promising his help."

Hadrin left after supper to speak with him. The party remained at the table, reviewing what they had learned while their clothes dried.

Dirk placed the thorn shaving beside the lamp.

"It found the second group before they entered the hollow." he said. "If that is more than hearing, we need to know before setting an ambush."

Lana studied the dried sap.

"I want samples from the living growth. This tells us what the armor is made of. It does not tell us how it uses the thicket."

Rod agreed. They had spent enough time talking that the temptation to act would only grow. A survey gave them a useful next step without committing them to a fight they did not understand.

Hadrin returned with Theren before the lamps burned low.

The dryad had gray-green skin and dark hair tied behind his neck. Small leaves grew along one forearm. He inspected the shaving without touching its point, then asked where it had been collected.

"From the hide after the first attempt." Rod said.

Theren shook his head.

"Then bring no more of it through the kitchen."

Nessa moved the packet immediately.

"Poison?" she asked.

"Sap irritates skin. The dried dust is worse in a cut. Cover it before scraping."

He agreed to join the survey, provided no one burned the thicket without his approval. Dense roots held the upper bank. Killing too much growth at once could drop mud across the crossing even if the beast died.

"We use fire only if the other choices fail." Rod said.

Lana nodded. "I would prefer to see what my ice does first."

Theren looked at her with new interest.

"That may help."

The next morning, Hadrin sent a messenger to Reedbank. Senn and Branth arrived near midday with two workers carrying tools. Corren came with them.

Hadrin stared at him from the doorway.

"I asked for your builder."

"You received him." Corren replied. "I came to hear the terms I am expected to accept."

Rod moved a second bench to the table before the exchange could go farther.

They worked through the new proposal with both satyrs present. Corren accepted the staged loads after Branth supported them. Hadrin accepted written maintenance duties after Theren pointed out how much work had been done without anyone recording it.

The builder asked for the right to inspect beneath the crossing before choosing the footing. Hadrin agreed, reluctantly, and then added that he wanted Branth present during the first loaded passage.

"I intended to be." Branth said.

Corren committed a further payment to the adventurers. He offered part in coin and part in materials from his stores. Rod requested that the party choose those materials after seeing the settlement’s prices. Corren considered, then accepted a fixed value rather than a fixed bundle of goods.

The waybell would return to Hadrin after the crossing supported the agreed trial loads. Corren would bring it himself. Neither side would require Rod’s party to compel the other if they later broke the maintenance agreement.

Rod read that last line aloud.

"We are clearing a route. We are not becoming your permanent guards."

Both satyrs accepted.

Nessa brought the discussion back to the workers. They would accompany the survey with hand tools. During the fight, they would cut growth only within the areas the party assigned and withdraw when called. Senn would account for Reedbank’s people. Theren would account for Hadrin’s.

Corren glanced toward the dryad.

"He will tell us to leave before the old keeper does."

"Then listen to him." Hadrin said.

It was the first useful thing either had said directly to the other all afternoon.

By the time they signed, the new agreement covered two pages. Rod would have preferred one, but each extra line answered a question someone had actually asked. He folded the copies separately and left one with each household.

After the signatures were finished, Rod asked both households to leave the common room for a few minutes. His party remained around the table with the signed pages between them.

"We still have a choice after the survey." he said. "I want that understood before tomorrow."

Dain nodded. "If the ground cannot support a fight, we do not make it support one by promising harder."

Dirk turned the map toward the others. He wanted a clear firing position with a second way off it. Lana wanted to see living samples before committing to any method of clearing them. Nessa asked for a retreat point beyond the area the beast had previously reached, with someone responsible for keeping the path open.

They added those requirements to their own notes. Neither household would be permitted to turn the survey into an attack simply because the adventurers had arrived armed.

Rod also checked the time remaining before collection. If the work extended beyond their arranged flight, they needed a message at the landing. Dain offered to take it if necessary, but Dirk pointed out that traveling alone through the unfamiliar paths created another problem. They agreed to send a station worker who already knew the route, paying the ordinary fee.

Nessa counted their supplies. They could continue comfortably for several days, provided they bought food at the station. Her stock of clean dressings was more limited. Hadrin sold woven cloth; she would inspect it before depending on it for wounds.

Lana placed the sealed thorn sample in the center of the table.

"We have a useful lead, a possible town visit, and a local job that may be within our strength." she said. "We do not need all three to succeed for the journey to be worthwhile."

Rod looked at the party’s notes. They had already purchased test fibers, learned something of the roads, and established contact with two households. The thought eased the pressure to turn tomorrow’s survey into a victory regardless of what they found.

He folded the map.

"Then we judge the ground as we find it."

They would survey at first light.

That evening, the common room filled for the first time since Rod arrived. Reedbank’s workers ate beside the station workers. Branth and Theren argued over a sketch of the stream bank while Dain listened. Hadrin served an extra pot of stew without charging Corren for a separate table.

Rod sat beside Lana near the window.

"A lot of work before seeing the thing." she said.

"We know who is coming and what they expect now."

"Tomorrow we learn whether the boar accepts any of it."

Rod looked at the covered axe beside his pack. "Tomorrow we learn where to stand."