Chapter 394: Before It Closes

Tamsin was writing on her stock slate when Ren stepped off the nursery’s boat. The hand that had been wrapped was bare, with a thin mark left across the skin.

His booked service had brought him to Ebbmere in time for the boat and the tide she had specified. He carried his notes in his coat. The hollow block remained at the cove in Verdance.

"Hadde’s waiting at the sluice," Tamsin said. She finished the entry and tucked the slate under her arm. "We’ve brought some back. The others are still on the receiving shelf."

Pale growth stood in the nearer beds. Farther along, empty supports had been swept clear. A worker moved between the planted rows with a watering can, wetting the edges of the mats.

"These were ready to move," Tamsin said. "The rest come back when the growers are satisfied and we have the water for it."

Tamsin checked a bed’s tag against her slate as they passed. Ren waited on the path until she had finished the entry, then followed her toward the upper channel. Hadde waited beside a small stone slide, salt dried in her coat seams and the iron hook hanging from her belt.

Tamsin left them there and returned to the rows.

— • —

Ren walked along the channel before putting his notes down.

Water came from higher ground, with enough fall to supply the beds during the agreed tide window. The slide ran between two guides, a lifting eye above it and scored notches showing its position. Beneath its lower edge, water passed into a short straight channel.

Two mouths opened in the side walls upstream of the slide, below the waterline. Their passages curved through the cultivated stone and emerged farther down, beyond the straight stretch. All three routes joined the lower channel serving the bed row.

Hadde let him look, then pointed to the outlets.

"Close the slide and the sides carry the supply past that stretch. We can clear it without stopping the water to the beds."

"They take all of it?"

"At this feed, yes." She showed him the supply mark in the upper channel and the two level marks below. "Watch what happens while I close it."

She lowered the slide a notch. Ren followed her Water working upstream of the narrowing opening, where she turned part of the flow into the side mouths. The trickles at their outlets strengthened. The grown curves carried the flow once she had turned it. Her working remained at the approach to the mouths, adjusting how much entered them as the direct opening narrowed.

As the slide descended, she guided a greater share around it. Ren could follow the change from the approaching water to the mouths, then see that water emerge downstream. By the last stretch, little was still heading beneath the slide. Hadde brought it onto its seat without an abrupt increase in resistance.

The direct opening closed. Water continued through both side outlets, and the lower channel remained between its marks.

"The slide still bears a load," she said. "But the current isn’t pressing into the closing edge. I’ve turned it before it gets there."

Ren looked back along the grown curves beside the seat. The old gate’s seating pieces had shown him that relationship during the graft. Here, he had watched Hadde maintain it through the whole descent.

She put the hook through the lifting eye and raised the slide, easing her diversion as the direct opening widened. At the starting notch, most of the water ran straight through again.

"Match what I’m doing here."

Ren brought Water into the flow ahead of the slide. He held the adjustment while Hadde eased hers away, until he could feel only his own working guiding that part of the current.

"The slide is mine," she said. "The water in front of it is yours. I’ll tell you if I take any of it."

— • —

Hadde lowered the slide to the first notch.

Ren turned a small share into the sides. At the next notch he increased it, and the outlets ran more strongly. He watched the lower channel remain within its marks while the slide continued down.

For the next part of the descent, he kept the same division.

Hadde stopped.

"Resistance. I’m holding it here."

The remaining gap was narrow. Too much of the approaching water was still heading toward it, pressing against the closing edge before he turned it aside. The side outlets were running, but he had let that reassure him while the opening changed. Water still passed beneath the slide, and the lower channel remained within its marks. Hadde held it without pulling farther down.

’I’d waited until it caught.’

"Turn it before it reaches the edge," Hadde said. "You’re leaving it nowhere to turn."

He moved the adjustment farther upstream and led more of the approaching flow into the side mouths. The pressure against the closing edge eased. Hadde waited until she could lift the slide freely, then hooked the eye and raised it a notch.

As she opened it farther, Ren reduced the diversion. Water returned to the direct route, and they let the channels settle before starting again.

This time he watched the water approaching the gap as well as the slide’s position. As the opening narrowed, he turned a greater proportion aside. The amount passing through the sluice could change; he followed what was reaching him instead of trying to send the same quantity through the side mouths.

Near the seat, he made the turn while the water still had room to enter those mouths. Hadde lowered the slide through the final stretch. It seated cleanly, with both outlets carrying the supply onward.

"Better."

She raised it while he guided the flow back to the direct opening.

"I’ll vary the pace now, within the sluice’s ordinary range."

They checked the starting notch and the supply level. Hadde waited for the lower channel to settle between its marks before lowering the slide again.

The notches passed sooner this time. Ren increased the diversion sooner too, following the narrowing opening and the current reaching it. He kept the turn upstream of the edge, where the side mouths could still take the water. Both outlets strengthened as the direct flow diminished.

Hadde brought the slide onto its seat. She had given him no corrections. Ren held the adjustment while she checked the lower channel.

They reopened it and let the water settle. On the next run she returned to the first, slower pace. Ren allowed more water through the direct opening for longer, increasing the diverted share as the gap closed. The slide seated without catching.

"I’m taking the water now."

He felt her working meet his, then eased his own away as she took over. Hadde checked the flow at both outlets with her hand and read the level marks. She raised the slide to the nursery’s ordinary feed notch, guiding the water back through the direct opening.

The side outlets returned to a trickle. She watched the lower channel settle before putting the hook back on her belt.

"You’ve managed this sluice at those rates," she said. "The wall has the tide behind it."

Ren looked along the upper channel, then down to the open water beyond the nursery. He had been able to see where every route discharged here.

"The block," Hadde said. "Have you kept it whole?"

"Yes. I can repeat the exchange you taught me, with both withdrawal rates."

He collected his notes from the dry ledge.

"At home I let it drain clear. What changes when the next chamber won’t take the water as quickly?"

Hadde glanced at the side outlets.

"Then that route may not take the share you’ve chosen. You need to know what’s beyond the mouth."

"Can I see that in the wall?"

"There’s a connected stretch where we can watch it. We’ll need the right tide."

"When should I come?"

"Bring the block’s sketch," Hadde said. "Tamsin will send you the tide."