Chapter 418: Their Side of the Fight

Ren brought the spare feed down to the landing before he climbed.

He set the sack against the wall beside the raised gate and laid the spare dressings and packing cloth above it. The landing joined the bank path to the water route back toward the regulator basin. Supplies left here would be easy to collect when they moved out.

The main kit stayed in the court. Ren kept his food and the cracked specimen in his pack; Balm’s tray and the cased chamber remained fastened to Anvil.

They had rested before attempting more work. Anvil could climb the shelf, though it still took a short step on turns. Ren’s ribs hurt when he reached across his body. He adjusted his pack before looking along the channel.

Beyond the fort, the outgoing course passed through another raised sluice. Riptide had explored past it and returned through a narrow passage whose other mouth opened into Bolt’s side pool. Ren had watched it use both ends, but could not see the enclosed passage between them. The water running through that opening carried only a small part of the flow.

Toward the regulator basin, flat stones crossed the channel from the far bank. A side track descended to them. Their near end met a higher neck of the bank path, broad enough for Anvil to turn with the ridge wall behind it.

Ren walked up to that neck, then returned to the landing.

"Keep the bank and channel back to the basin open. Anvil, start at the landing. If you have to move, stay together."

He rested a hand against the shell.

"If I don’t come back, you take them out. Same as before."

Then he climbed to the terrace.

The ledge above the rear wall narrowed as it approached the conduit. Ren firmed a loose patch with Earth after examining the stone beneath it, then moved on. At the collar joining the conduit to the wall, he could stand with both boots on the ledge.

He put a hand against the grown stone.

The working ran through the collar and continued below his reach. He could follow its nearest connections, but lost them inside the wall.

Ren pressed along the joining face. The resistance held through the grown links instead of shifting to meet him as the commander’s working had. He could break the collar outright. Keeping the break out of the surrounding stone would take longer.

He worked along the seam, separating a short stretch before moving his hand. Once, his ribs caught as he reached across. He stopped, changed his footing and continued from the other side.

When the join parted, Ren followed the exposed edge with his palm. The working on either side ended at the separation. He had cut this connection.

The landing was hidden below the wall. He would have to go down to learn what had changed in the racks.

— • —

While Ren worked at the collar, Riptide passed beyond the farther sluice.

A man came along the far bank and stopped beside its release bar. He set his spear against the stone, put both hands on the bar and leaned into it.

The catch lifted.

The gate dropped across the channel behind Riptide.

At the fort, Bolt turned as the current against its flank slackened. Water spread over the submerged step beside the captured gate, then climbed toward the landing.

The stone prop remained beneath the gate’s lower edge. Water passed freely through the arch.

Beyond the closed sluice, Riptide turned back. It followed the gate’s lower edge to its seat, then moved along the bank. A stream emerged from the narrow opening there.

Riptide entered against the flow.

At the first bend, water drove against its head and pressed its clear body toward the outer wall. It withdrew far enough to turn, then advanced along the inside of the curve. Behind it, the outlet to the closed course narrowed from view. Ahead, water ran over the low stone lip it had passed on its earlier journey.

Its clear body bent through the passage. The current pressed harder as water rose on the fort’s side of the gate, but Riptide continued toward the pool through which it had returned before.

The man at the release bar took his spear and followed the far-bank track toward the crossing. He stayed below the bank’s lip where it rose beside him.

At the landing, Anvil reached for the cache.

The bottom of the feed sack had darkened. Water lifted the loose edge of the cloth bundle above it. Anvil hooked a claw through the sack’s strap and pulled toward the bank path.

The sack caught beneath the water.

Anvil shifted its grip. The seam split, spilling feed around its feet. The crab drew back a step, keeping the strap in its claw.

Bolt passed beneath the crossing stones.

Another man stood at their far end. He tested the first stone with his spear butt, stepped onto it and brought the weapon across his body. Water covered his ankles. He continued toward the higher neck on the near bank.

Anvil turned toward him.

The cloth bundle had caught against the sack. Anvil reached toward it with its other claw, keeping the strap held. Across the channel, the man lowered his spear toward the bank path and stepped onto another stone. The crab’s reaching claw stopped short of the cloth.

The strap tightened as the sack dragged against the submerged obstruction. Anvil opened its claw and left it.

The cloth bundle rolled off the sack. One fold caught briefly against the landing, then slipped below the disturbed water.

Anvil climbed the bank path. Its injured rear leg took a shortened step onto the higher stone. The dressing dragged against the wet edge and slipped down the joint.

The crab reached the neck, turned and set its feet with the ridge wall behind it. Balm’s tray remained level. The chamber’s case stayed fastened beside the carrier.

The man stepped onto the last crossing stone below the neck.

He thrust up the slope toward Anvil’s injured side. The crab brought a claw across the shaft and forced the point away from the joint. Its rear leg stayed close beneath the shell as it shifted against the ridge wall.

The man pulled back before the claw could close. He raised the spear for another thrust and moved his foot to the stone beside him.

Bolt’s jet struck behind his knee.

His leg folded. He fell between the stones, caught at one edge with his free hand and pulled his head above the surface.

Bolt turned beneath him.

The second jet drove his head against the stone. His hand opened, and he sank beside the crossing.

The man from the sluice stopped on the far bank.

Anvil extended a claw toward the lower step, then brought it back as the man moved along the opposite edge. The crab remained across the neck. The spear point followed it briefly before dropping toward the water beneath the stones.

He watched Bolt circle below the stones, then crouched at the bank’s edge with his spear angled into the water. When the jetmaw passed beneath him, he thrust.

The point scraped along Bolt’s back.

A thin red streak spread behind it. Bolt rolled clear and descended before the man could draw the spear back for another strike.

Riptide emerged into the side pool.

It crossed toward the far bank beneath the surface. The man lowered his spear again, following Bolt’s dark outline with the point.

Water pulled at the submerged end of the shaft.

He kept his grip and leaned farther over the edge. Riptide drew the current outward. The spear dragged through his hands, and his forward boot slipped into the water.

Bolt came along the bank from below his other side.

Its jet struck the exposed ankle. The man fell forward, his spear striking the bank as he tried to catch himself.

Bolt turned under his reaching arm. A second jet struck beneath his jaw and drove him against the stone lip.

He went loose in the water.

Bolt remained below him until the body drifted away from the bank. Then it returned toward Anvil.

Water began spilling over the farther gate. The rise at the landing slowed and stopped below the higher neck. Feed drifted in patches against the flooded wall; the cloth bundle was no longer visible.

Anvil stayed across the passage.

Bolt circled beneath the crossing, its back trailing a little blood. Riptide moved between the pool and the raised gate, then drew the two bodies toward the near shallows, clearing them from the crossing.

Nothing else came down the far-bank track.

Anvil lowered its shell beside the water. The injured leg folded close beneath the carrier, with the slipped dressing exposing the upper wound margin.

Balm spread from its damp turf.

The moss followed the carrier’s support onto the shell, then down the plate to the exposed skin. It covered the reddened edge. Anvil kept the leg still while the moss settled around it.

Bolt approached the bank with its grazed back near the surface.

A narrow strip of moss extended across the wet stone and touched the cut. It remained there briefly, then drew back along the same surface toward Anvil’s joint.

Most of Balm stayed over the leg.

Bolt turned with the grazed side toward the bank again. The moss’s outer edge touched the wet stone but did not extend back across the cut. Anvil shifted its front claw clear of the water while keeping the treated leg still. Balm spread farther over the exposed wound margin, leaving the rest of the damp plate bare.

Bolt slid into deeper water and resumed its turn below the neck. Anvil’s forward claws remained clear of the bank, facing the crossing.

— • —

Ren saw the flooded landing when he came down from the terrace.

He followed the bank path to the higher neck. Anvil rested there with its claws toward the crossing. Bolt waited below it, and Riptide passed through the water arch before returning along the bank.

The gate was still on its prop.

Ren looked from the remains of the sack to the two armed men lying in the shallows. Water covered most of the crossing stones. Behind Anvil, the path toward the regulator basin remained clear.

He knelt beside the crab.

Balm covered the exposed wound margin. Ren lifted the loose dressing clear of the moss and checked the joint around it. The leg was strained, but Anvil could still put weight through it.

Bolt came close when Ren moved to the water.

The graze across its back was shallow. It turned beneath his hand, then moved away with an even stroke.

"You kept the passage."

Ren brought the bodies onto dry stone beyond the path. He returned for the main kit in the court and carried it down to the neck. The intact chamber’s case had stayed secure; its cord had not shifted against the carrier.

He put the remaining feed beside Anvil and left the dressings within reach.

When Balm withdrew enough for him to cover the joint, Ren replaced the wet cloth. The moss remained outside its tray, spread along the plate above the wound.

He took a cloth from the main kit and went up to the store with the lamp.

The row nearest the conduit no longer received the changes he had felt before. Within its chambers, the curved workings continued to their cut and seated edges.

Ren moved to the far row.

A change arrived through the rear wall and passed into the rack beneath his hand. He followed it toward the ridge and lost it inside the masonry.

The upper cut had separated only part of the store.

Ren returned to the near row. He traced one chamber’s bearing into the frame, keeping his working below the curved wall of the chamber itself. He could separate that contact without cutting through the source.

He copied the section’s mark and its position before working it free.

The first bearing took time. Once it parted, he lifted the section onto packing cloth in the aisle. He examined its exposed join, then began on the one beside it.

Both came out whole.

Ren laid them apart with their marks visible. Each retained the working he had felt within it. He added their new positions to his record and left them inside the store.

Below, Anvil had settled against the ridge wall. The main kit rested on dry ground beside it.

Ren sat down to eat from his pack.

Bolt returned from the direction of the basin with a fish. It left the catch on the wet stone below him and waited in the channel.

"That one’s yours," Ren said.

He moved it back to the edge. Bolt took it into the water while Ren unwrapped his own food.

A fastening on Anvil’s carrier had loosened. Ren tightened it, checking that the strap lay clear of the moving plate. Then he stayed beside the crab with one hand resting on its shell.

When Anvil shifted, Ren moved his pack clear of the injured leg. The crab stretched into the space and lowered a claw beside his boot. Ren kept his hand on the shell as it settled against the stone. His food lay open across his knees.

Balm withdrew along the plate and carrier support into its damp turf. Riptide moved through the pool below them. Ren finished eating without getting up.

When he returned to the store, he carried the lamp past the two sections in the aisle.

The far rack answered beneath his palm.

The change entered through the wall and travelled along the seated row. Ren followed it to the same point in the masonry before losing it. He could feel where it reached the fort, but not what lay beyond.

He went back to the detached sections. Their internal workings continued, with no incoming change at their severed joins. The separation had held there.

At the far row, the response continued.

Ren set the lamp where it lit the next bearing. He had freed two sections without damaging them, and the companions had kept the return route open against the scouts. Another connection remained to be separated, but he believed they could hold the fort while he worked.

He entered the next section’s mark beside its position in the notebook.

Then he put the notebook away.

He set his hand beneath the next section and began to free it.