Chapter 728: The Waiting Steps

Chapter 728: The Waiting Steps

By noon on the second day, Leon could smell damp stone on the wind, though they had not crossed a stream since breakfast.

The northern road had climbed out of farmland that morning. Water channels and low green fields gave way to scrub, then bare slopes. Ahead, the white plume they had seen from Asterbank spread across the ridge.

Several other parties were taking the same road. Families pushed handcarts with wrapped tools tied beneath them. A larger company carried long poles and collapsible frames. Seraphine watched that group until it took another branch of the path, showing no interest in them.

Leon’s household had no cart to slow them. Their supplies were in his ring, along with enough empty containers to make the trip thoroughly worthwhile.

Ira was trying to work out how long hearthseal took to form.

"Longer than this opening," Loriel said. "The manual describes an old deposit becoming accessible. It doesn’t say the stone grows in a morning."

"I wasn’t asking whether I could sit down and watch one grow."

"You asked how long you’d have to wait for another."

Leon glanced back at Ira. She considered defending the question, then shrugged.

"If it was a week, I’d wait."

Vyra laughed. The conversation moved on, and for a while they walked without discussing cultivation at all. Leon liked that nearly as much as the prospect of the harvest. Nobody was asking him to lead thirty people around the next bend.

They reached the ridge late in the afternoon.

Hollow Steps occupied most of the opposite slope. Broad courts had been cut into the hillside in uneven rows, linked by stairs and narrow approaches. Low walls divided them, and channels followed the rear edges beneath the higher ground.

Steam rose from those channels. Some courts were pale and almost bare. Others carried dark growth around their margins or patches that glittered in the lowering sun.

At the foot of the slope, roughly two hundred people waited among tents and handcarts. Several camps had permanent stone fire pits. Children carried water under close supervision, and an older man was sharpening a set of long-handled hooks while arguing with someone inside a tent.

Leon stopped to take it in. After so many empty reaches of the realm, the noise of people preparing supper still surprised him.

A girl was trying to repair a basket handle with cord. Her father showed her the knot once, then waited while she undid her first attempt and tried again.

The nearest approach was a ramp of broken stone. Pebbles slid down it despite the absence of anyone climbing, and a larger piece turned slowly against the slope before dropping back.

"Not yet," Seraphine said beside him.

"No." Leon followed the current moving through the rubble. "But it’s easing."

They chose a place at the edge of the gathering. Before their small shelter was ready, the young man from Sella’s shop came over.

"You collected your boxes, then."

Leon recognized the pale green coat and three-leaf badge. The man had a serious face, looked around Leon’s age, and still had ink on two fingers.

"We did," Leon said.

"Tobin Arle, Three Willows Hall." He gave a polite bow. "I saw you on the lower road. First visit?"

"Yes. Leon." He returned the greeting. "You’ve been here before?"

"For six openings. The Hall’s records go back much farther." Tobin glanced at the containers Vyra was arranging. "What are you hoping to collect?"

Leon considered how much to tell him. Their interest would be obvious soon enough.

"Hearthseal, if we find suitable pieces. Cultivation fuel as well."

"The warm courts," Tobin said. "Which ones will stay warm is what everyone wants to know."

"Where was it last time?" Ira asked from beside the shelter.

"Fourth row from the top, east side. It doesn’t always return there." Tobin pointed up the hill. "Slow steam along a channel usually means a steady supply. Watch it speed up. That often comes before a change."

"And if it reverses, leave the beds," Leon said.

Tobin looked pleased. "Someone translated the warning for you."

"Pell Orrow."

"Then he probably made you listen twice." Tobin’s mouth twitched. "My first time, I thought I could pull out one more piece before the turn. I spent the rest of the day looking for my tools."

Leon could appreciate the admission. It was more useful than being told the ground was dangerous by someone determined to sound mysterious.

He asked about the upper courts. Tobin explained that they were rich at present, but that supply sometimes drained toward the eastern rows during the early changes. His Hall would watch before choosing where to settle.

"Are you always this helpful to people who might take your ground?" Leon asked.

"If you break a bed while we’re beside it, it becomes our problem." Tobin nodded toward the slope. "And I haven’t told you which court I want."

"That’s fair."

The young man returned to the pale green tents. Seraphine watched him go, then resumed fastening their shelter.

"He chose what he shared," she said quietly.

"So did I." Leon crouched to help her. "I’d be more worried if he offered us everything."

They ate before dark and watched the channels from their camp. The steam was visible long after the hillside lost its color. Leon could feel currents strengthening beneath some courts and weakening beneath others, but he resisted deciding too quickly what that meant.

The locals had returned here for years. His senses gave him an advantage; they did not tell him which pale root was worth a jar or which glittering deposit would spoil when cut.

He woke before dawn to the sound of cart wheels.

Outside, people were packing with the practiced haste of an expected departure. The steam had begun moving along the channels in smooth streams. At the lower ramp, the rubble lay still.

Leon examined the approach while the women finished packing. The troublesome current had withdrawn from between the stones, leaving a rough but stable path.

The first families began climbing. Three Willows moved with them, its porters carrying the folded frames.

Leon’s household entered Hollow Steps among the early parties.

As they climbed, he extended his perception across the slope. He possessed every elemental affinity, and the differences reached him separately: heavy Earth beneath the pale courts, Water along the planted margins, Fire gathering farther east, colder currents feeding the glittering upper ground.

The nine affinities developed within his Scripture were only the beginning of what he intended that method to carry. Here, the breadth of what he could sense mattered before he drew anything into himself.

He stopped at a junction.

The upper courts were rich, but their supply was beginning to decline. Through a lower connection he felt Fire strengthening while the surrounding Earth remained steady. The change was still slight. It was also continuing.

Ira looked toward the summit, where several parties were heading.

"Young Master?"

Leon followed the gathering Fire to a row of plain courts on the east side.

"There," he said. "Fourth row from the top."

Across the next approach, Tobin had stopped to consult an older Hall member. The man pointed at the steam, then east.

Leon smiled and started up the narrower stair.

"We should hurry."