Chapter 362: The Route on the Map

Chapter 362: The Route on the Map

The exchange smelled of tar and poorly cured hide. At five on Saturday morning, half its stalls were already busy.

Jin followed Holt past crates of horn, hanging pelts, and sealed tins with handwritten hazard labels. She bought rope, harness straps, and heat packs. He picked up a waterproof map case and the reflective tape Pim wanted for marking their route.

Two stalls farther along, a woman in garrison uniform paid for a pelt with four cloudy stones.

The trader examined each through a loupe before putting them in a lined box. Jin slowed. The price board listed the pelt at either four stones or 2,700 Credits. A jar of resin cost one stone or 650 Credits.

"Looking for something?" the trader asked.

"Those are Astral Stones?" Jin had heard the term, but hadn’t expected to see them passed across a counter beside ordinary money.

"They are." The man took one out. It was about the size of a quail’s egg, pale and translucent, with a faint brightness beneath its surface. "Breck. First visit?"

"Jin. First time at Thornwatch."

"That explains the board-reading." Breck placed the stone on a square of cloth. "Most regulars ask for today’s price."

Jin leaned closer. "What makes them worth using as money?"

"Stored Astral Energy," Breck said. "Tamers cultivate with it. Beasts too. There’s always someone who can use a decent stone, whether they need anything else you’re selling or not."

He nudged it toward Jin, who picked it up carefully. It was smooth, cool, and disappointingly light for something he’d just seen buy a fine pelt.

Then his Core stirred faintly, and his interest sharpened.

"You absorb it directly?" Jin asked.

"Gradually. Draw and refine what you can handle. The stone’s quality matters, and so does your capacity. Getting a better one doesn’t mean you can force more through yourself safely."

"Or through a beast," Holt added from beside him.

Breck nodded. "These small plain ones suit modest needs. Stronger stones cost more, and you’d want proper guidance before using them."

Jin thought of the patient current he’d practiced receiving from Glitch. He’d spent just over a week learning to waste less of it. Having an outside source was an appealing idea, especially one that wouldn’t borrow from a beast who needed his own reserves.

"How much for this one?" he asked.

"Six hundred and fifty Credits this morning," Breck said. "Supply changes. So does the price."

Jin turned the stone once more, then returned it. He had a mission to complete before deciding how much to spend.

"I’ll come back before Tuesday’s flight."

"I’ll be here," Breck said, reclaiming the cloth.

Outside, Holt checked the supply list against their bags.

"He’s honest about stones," she said. "Ask twice about resin."

Jin glanced back at the hall, then hurried after her. He wanted another look already.

The Sector Four sergeant checked their team clearance and counted every registered beast through the gate. Beyond it, the paved road became a worn track descending into a narrow valley.

Rattle Creek ran loudly between gray rocks. The eastern slope rose higher than the west, with pines clinging to shelves above the water. Jin could still see the base when Holt stopped to explain their signals.

"Raised hand, everybody stops," she said. "If I call a direction, move that way. Don’t come back to help me unless I ask."

She checked that each of them had heard before they continued.

For the first few kilometers, the work was almost pleasant. Pim measured narrow turns and marked resting places. Sefa examined plants beside the track while Nib investigated their roots. Clover carried the equipment between her empty collection crates, with Glitch walking behind whenever the path narrowed.

Jin kept Flicker on short trips between visible perches. A pointing finger sent her forward; his recall brought her back. Her calm through the bond told him she hadn’t been alarmed, but he still checked where she had flown. She was much better at spotting movement than judging whether an ox would fit beneath a branch.

Holt watched one return and nodded. "Keep doing that."

Flicker landed on Jin’s shoulder with a chirp. He touched her breast feathers, pleased on her behalf, then ducked under the branch she had ignored.

At the fourth kilometer, the creek beside them dwindled to a trickle. They could still hear water ahead, though it came from the wrong side of the track.

Pim stopped first. Holt moved past him to look around a shoulder of rock, then raised her hand.

The east wall had collapsed.

A pale scar ran down the slope into a heap of boulders, mud, and broken pines. It blocked the old creek bed. Water had pooled behind the slide and escaped westward, spilling along the former track before rejoining the creek below them.

Jin could follow the route markers through the brown water for perhaps thirty meters. Then one leaned sideways and the rest disappeared.

"Recent," Holt said. She crouched beside a deposit of mud without stepping onto it. "Look at the needles."

Several fallen pines were still green. The grass along the new channel had only begun to flatten.

Sefa unfolded the old survey sheet. "They had firm ground all the way through here."

"They probably did," Holt said. "We don’t."

Tuck stood a little farther ahead, nose lowered over a print in the mud. Beside his paw, it looked enormous: five toes, broad heel, deep claw marks. More prints followed the flooded track toward the remains of a ridge elk dragged into the brush.

Holt inspected them before beckoning everyone back.

"Shalefang Bear. Large one," she said. "Fresh tracks. Treat it as a Rank-3 threat until we know otherwise."

Jin looked toward the elk remains and felt less eager to walk closer.

Pim found a note on the old map. "Dens on the east slope. Above the route."

"Above where the route used to be," Holt said. "The slide could have displaced anything living there. We’ll stay out of the valley floor."

They withdrew to a broad patch of rock below the new channel. Holt kept Tuck facing upstream while Pim spread the map.

The Ember Shelf lay another four kilometers north, high on the west side. Jin looked up that slope. From below, rock and pine crowded together, hiding anything between them.

"Can I send Flicker up?" he asked. "I’ll keep her in sight."

Holt considered the open air above the western slope. "Two hundred meters at most. Recall her if anything else takes wing."

Jin lifted his arm, and Flicker launched into a climbing spiral. Halfway up the valley wall, she angled toward a pale strip and slowed, looking for a place to land. He followed her movement with his eyes.

At that angle, the strip cast a shadow beneath it. It was a ledge.

He stepped sideways for a better view. The line continued north, disappearing behind pines and emerging again farther along the slope.

"There," Jin said, pointing it out to Pim. "Could that get us above the flood?"

Pim shaded his eyes. "Possibly. If there’s a way onto it."

Jin recalled Flicker before she reached the trees. She came down readily, pleased with her flight. He rewarded her with a brief rub beneath the beak while studying the foot of the slope.

A narrow gravel gully climbed toward the ledge. It was steep, but it was dry enough to examine.