Chapter 361: Thornwatch

Chapter 361: Thornwatch

Two hours into the flight, the man across the aisle was still asleep.

He had watched the shelter disappear after takeoff, folded his arms over his patched field coat, and dozed off. His pack rested between his boots, untouched whenever the hull shuddered.

Jin couldn’t stop looking outside.

The roads below had grown fewer. Farm belts gave way to rough gray-green country, broken by ridges and long stretches of forest. Guard towers marked the airship corridor, their signal masts catching the sun above concrete platforms.

Once, something dark moved across a distant ridge. Jin leaned closer to the glass, trying to judge its size, but the ship carried him past before he could make out more than its back.

He glanced at the sleeping passenger, then tried taking a photograph for Arthur. The reflection of his own face spoiled the first attempt. He cupped a hand around the phone and tried again, pleased when the distant ridge finally showed clearly.

Dad would know what to look for.

He saved it to send after landing. Elsa would probably complain that the beast was too small in the picture, but Arthur might recognize the shape.

A crewman stopped beside him later with news from the cargo deck.

"Your drake’s fine," the man said. "Keeps trying to lie down in the harness. We’ve adjusted it so he can rest without shifting across the pen."

"Thank you," Jin said. "He likes lying down."

"I gathered that."

Through the bond, Glitch felt bored and dissatisfied, rather than frightened. Jin sent reassurance and the promise of food. That improved his mood a little. Flicker had given up watching strangers and fallen asleep in her carrier.

Thornwatch appeared during the last half hour. It occupied a flat-topped ridge crowded with low buildings, beast pens, workshops, and an airfield. The defenses facing the wilderness rose in successive layers, with watch positions overlooking the approaches.

Farther out, an enormous wall crossed the land from north to south.

Jin had seen diagrams of the regional perimeter in class. The real thing continued beyond the edge of his window no matter how he leaned. Thornwatch and its permitted working sectors lay on this side of it. Crossing that wall was a different kind of journey, with different clearance.

As they descended, the man across the aisle woke, yawned, and began lacing his boots.

Jin called home once the cargo crew had Glitch off the ship. He sent the photograph afterward, along with one of Flicker inspecting her carrier door as though she intended to dismantle it before the return flight.

Registration took forty minutes. Jin’s license, academy authorization, and contract reference all went through a terminal in a concrete building near the airfield.

[Thornwatch Garrison — Registration]

[Astor, Jin — Rank 2. Class I interior license: verified]

[Frontier status: first outing]

[Assignment: Regional Resource Survey, Sector 4. Registered lead: Holt]

[Sector clearance: Sector 4 only. Outer perimeter: no clearance]

"You stay with Holt’s team," the clerk told him. "If the lead ends the outing, you return with them. This authorization doesn’t cover wandering off to investigate another posting."

"Understood," Jin said.

She returned his documents, then glanced through the window at Glitch, who was attracting professional interest from the ground crew.

"She’ll have work for him."

The team lead found Jin at the heavy-beast pens an hour later. She was small and wiry, with short gray hair, a crooked nose, and a field jacket faded almost colorless. Beside her walked a shaggy wolf whose shoulders reached above Jin’s chest.

"Astor? Dagny Holt." She offered her hand. "This is Tuck."

Jin shook it while the two beasts examined each other. Neither appeared particularly impressed.

His appraisal confirmed the wolf’s species and rank.

[Ridgeback Wolf]

[Combat Rank: 3]

Jin had expected a Rank-3 lead. He still straightened a little. This woman looked comfortable standing beside a beast that could make his strongest partner’s life extremely difficult.

Holt walked around Glitch, studying his plating.

"Gold?" she asked.

"Low," Jin said.

"Still Gold. He moves well under that armor." She turned toward the bird on Jin’s shoulder. "And her?"

"Flicker. Suncrest Sparrow. She scouts, and she has a short movement burst. We’re still working on her field experience."

"Useful," Holt said. "We’ll keep the first trips short."

Flicker leaned forward to inspect a loose thread on her collar. Holt moved it out of reach without interrupting the introduction, which Jin appreciated. Some people saw the little ring of fire on Flicker’s forehead and forgot there was a curious bird underneath it.

They sat outside the pens while Glitch ate. Holt rested her forearms on her knees, Tuck stretched across her boots.

"Everyone new to frontier work goes out with a registered local team first," she said. "Interior experience helps, but it doesn’t replace knowing the area."

Jin nodded. "Crowe made sure I read that part."

"Good. The rule came from years of casualty records. People trusted old routes or expected a familiar beast to behave the way it did near home." Holt rubbed her crooked nose. "They were wrong often enough that the garrison stopped leaving the introduction to chance."

Beyond the pens, someone was repairing a torn pack harness. Dark stains had dried into the leather. Jin looked away before he started imagining what had torn it.

"Fine by me," he said. "I’d rather somebody told me what I was missing."

Holt smiled. "That’s a promising start."

She led him to the survey office, where two people were bent over a map. Pim Arkwright, the surveyor, had ink on his fingers and a measuring tape clipped to his belt. His pack ox, Clover, waited outside beneath a wooden crate frame.

Sefa Lund was the botanist and collector. A black-and-white nose appeared from one of her coat pockets as Jin introduced himself.

"Nib," she said, noticing his glance. "He helps with soil samples. Keep your food closed."

The little badger withdrew into the pocket. Jin quietly fastened the flap over his trail ration.

Holt spread the map flat. "We go through the Sector Four gate, then north along Rattle Creek. Eight kilometers to the Ember Shelf, here on the western side. Last survey was four months ago."

Her finger stopped on a terrace marked above the valley floor.

"We assess the sage and establish a route for collection," she continued. "People reaching it isn’t enough. The harvest team has to bring full crates back."

Pim tapped his notebook. "Widths, gradients, footing. Clover gets a say in the result."

"And I check the stand," Sefa said. "Condition, quantity, harvest timing. We take samples, not a cartload."

Jin studied the map while they discussed equipment. The journey suddenly seemed easier to picture: a creek, a track, a shelf where the plants grew. He could already see how a bird would help.

Holt assigned him to scout with Flicker under her direction, with Glitch near Clover in the middle of the group. If anything exceeded their ability, she and Tuck would handle it.

"Tomorrow at first light," she told him. "Before that, we need supplies from the exchange. Be ready at five."

"Five," Jin repeated, trying to sound agreeable.

Pim looked up with sympathy. "The exchange opens then. Best time to get anything before the hunting teams clear it out."

Jin set an alarm while they were watching. He set a second one after Holt turned back to the map.