Chapter 407: The Tide Hadde Chose

Tamsin had two cups waiting when the nursery boat came alongside.

Ren stepped onto the landing with the sketch inside his coat. The hollow block was drawn on one side, the approach and its two receiving chambers on the other. More beds had returned to their rows since his last visit. Others remained on the receiving shelf.

He drank while two workers carried a coil of line and a wrapped bundle down toward the wall. One went back for the lamps. The other waited with the bundle resting against her knee.

"Hadde’s by the inner stair," Tamsin said. "The fittings are ready. I’ll stay with the boat and stock. There’ll be a hand at the stair to pass word between us."

Ren set his empty cup beside the workers’ cups on the post.

"Which one’s Orrin?"

"The one with the lamps. Wenna has the fitting."

Orrin had caught up with the bundle. Ren followed them down.

— • —

Hadde held out her hand for the page. Salt lay in the seams of her coat; the iron hook at her belt struck the stair rail as she leaned over the drawing.

Her finger stopped at the far chamber’s outlet.

"This drops into the lower channel. How far did you follow it?"

"To the bend."

"The channel continues beneath the gate-stone course. We’re going down to it."

The wind folded a corner over her hand. Ren caught the page and held it flat.

"Next time, two sheets," Hadde said.

"I wasn’t expecting the back of it to need a boat."

She smiled and gave it back. He folded it along the old crease and returned it to his coat.

"The lower beds have been filling late," she said. "Some chambers still hold water when they should have drained. We checked the replacement gate. It’s sound. Farther in, we found a worn fitting in the old regulator. We’ve prepared its replacement."

"And this tide gives you room to reach it?"

"Enough to open the lower access and work beside it. We chose it from the records." She looked down the stair. "You can help us move the closure and the gear. Follow what you can of the working, but leave its controls to me."

"All right."

The stair descended past the landward branch and its stone service closure. Ren recognized the opening he had worked beside. Below it, the steps narrowed, and he turned a shoulder to keep his coat from brushing the wet wall.

Swell struck outside. Water shook from a joint above him, though the tide was still falling.

The older closure sat deep in a frame at the foot of the stair. Orrin had hooked a lamp beside it. Wenna stood between two inspection slots, comparing their levels with the nursery’s chamber records on her slate.

"Both low," she told Hadde. "The inside’s below its last reading at this point. The difference is within the opening marks."

Hadde checked the slots herself.

"We’ll read the holding chambers before we move the fitting."

Orrin set the lifting hook in the closure’s eye and fitted the bar. The stone moved, then caught. He crouched to examine the lower edge.

"Ren. Take its weight here. I’ll draw it back."

Ren lifted where Orrin showed him. The weight came easily; the difficulty was keeping the edge clear while Orrin worked it along the grooves. He stopped when Orrin raised a hand, waited for the bar to be moved, then lifted again.

Wenna watched through the widening gap. The water beyond remained below the sill.

They secured the closure against its stop. Ren let go, and Orrin checked it before handing the lamp to Hadde.

"Watch the left end of that bundle," Orrin told him. "It’ll catch the frame."

Ren turned it upright and carried it through.

— • —

The lower course ran beneath the wall in a long, low gallery. Openings on either side showed water passing through channels cut into cultivated stone. Farther along, the ceiling descended until it hid the end of the course.

Here the channels had rounded walls that met without mortar. The upper repairs ended at a straight seam overhead; beneath it, the grown stone continued around openings at different heights. Ren had to stoop to see water passing behind a thick dividing rib.

They crossed a return channel on a low stone span. Water ran beneath it, leaving a dark strip of wet stone above its surface. On the far side, Orrin hung another lamp beside a flight of narrow steps.

"Upper crossing," he said. "It rejoins the stair above the closure. Keep the bottom step clear."

Ren set the bundle on a ledge beyond the steps.

Hadde waited while Orrin passed a call up the stair. The reply came back through the hand stationed above: the outside marker was still falling.

"Come here," she said to Ren.

He rested his palm beside hers. Beneath the surface of the gate stone, a Water working continued along the course. He followed it past the nearest opening and lost it at the next turn. Water moved in the channels below, but the working extended through stone above and around them, joining places he could not see.

The gate stone he had brought home had taught him about a seat and a closing gap. Here he could feel several responses passing through the same grown connection. He could distinguish the nearest one, but trying to follow the rest made him lose even that.

"The regulator," Hadde said. "The oldest living part we still use. Its core’s rooted at the far end. These connections govern the chambers together."

"You can reach the core from here?"

"I can follow farther than you. I still need the chamber readings."

Wenna moved ahead, checking the slots against her slate. At one she stopped and crouched for a second look.

"This chamber’s still holding."

On Wenna’s slate, each chamber mark had a bed row written beside it. She added the new level beneath the previous reading. Ren recognized the row they had passed above.

Hadde looked over Wenna’s slate, then led Ren to a pair of receiving mouths. A stone slide controlled the approach. He could see enough of the chambers through their openings to recognize the arrangement from his earlier work.

"Follow these while I move the slide," she said.

She opened it a little. Water entered the approach and divided. Ren read both mouths, then the water beyond them. The nearer chamber filled faster. As its level rose, less passed through its mouth. The far route continued carrying into the lower of the two chambers.

"Near one’s taking less now," he said. "The far one’s still receiving."

Hadde left the slide where it was.

A change reached Ren’s hand through the cultivated stone. Below the near chamber, its outlet began to draw more strongly. The level fell, and the unchanged mouth took more water from the approach.

He checked the slide. Hadde had not moved it.

"That didn’t start at this mouth."

Wenna called from farther along the course. Another chamber was draining.

Hadde pointed toward her.

"The regulator answered that change here. Follow the connection."

He moved his hand along the stone. At the next opening he could still distinguish the response; beyond it, the working continued, but he could no longer separate it from the other changes passing through the course.

"I lose it here."

"Then keep that as your limit. Wenna’s reading tells us what happened farther along."

Ren looked back at the two mouths. His earlier reading had been right. What he had missed was the working governing the outlet, and the other chambers it answered to. His sketch ended too soon to show any of that.

"When that chamber holds instead?" he asked.

"It changes what this one can discharge. We’ve been finding water held at several points. That’s why I wanted your notes from the approach."

Ren took out the page again and rested it on a dry part of the ledge. There was room beneath the bend for the junction he had just followed. He drew that much, marked where his reading ended, and asked Wenna which chamber mark belonged beside it. She leaned over to point it out.

They continued to the next junction. Hadde showed him a coupling seated beside a control passage. The cultivated fitting had worn hollow along one face; the edge no longer met its seating evenly. He could still feel the Water working within it.

"This is coming out," she said.

Ren put the sketch back inside his coat while Orrin brought the bundle along. Orrin set it beside the coupling and unfolded the wrapping. The replacement had been grown from the nursery’s stock and dressed to fit the junction. Ren could see its formed passage and the surfaces that would meet the old stone.

"Does it join straight into the core?"

"Into this run. The core stays where it is. Once this is seated, I’ll join its working and check the response."

Ren crouched beside the bundle, looking between the replacement and the fitted piece. A narrow approach served the junction from this side. Beyond it, another ledge ran toward the far end of the gallery.

"Where do you want me?"

Hadde was about to answer when Wenna spoke.

"The return’s rising."

She had moved to the inspection slot beyond the junction. Ren stood. Water had reached a stain on the slot’s lower edge and was climbing past it.

Orrin called for the outside marker. While they waited for the reply, Wenna checked the preceding slot, then came back.

"Here first," she said. "It’s reaching the next one now."

"Still falling outside," the answer came down.

Ren put his hand against the stone beside the slot. He could follow the water entering the return from the direction of the far end. Beyond the bend, he lost it. Several chambers had held water through the ebb, but he could not tell which one was feeding this passage now.

"It’s coming from farther in," he said.

"Before the recorded return," Wenna said. She lowered the slate and watched the slot. The water covered another of its marks.

Behind them, the sound beneath the low span deepened. Ren looked back. The dark strip above the water was gone.

Hadde turned from the coupling, which was still seated and untouched.

"Upper crossing. Ren, take the replacement. Orrin, the lines."

Orrin folded the wrapping over the exposed fitting. Ren took the bundle before he could reach for its carrying loop. It was light enough for him to keep one hand free.

Wenna stowed her slate inside her coat and went ahead. Hadde checked the recess beside the coupling, then followed the others with her lamp. The crew had left the fitting in place; they could leave at once.

At the span, water washed over the low walk. Orrin caught a loose length of line before it dropped into the channel and gathered it against his chest.

Ren kept the bundle clear of the wall as they reached the lamp marking the upper steps. Wenna was already climbing. He put a foot on the first step and shifted the fitting higher under his arm.

Water struck the heel he had just lifted from the walk.