Chapter 377: What the Water Uncovered [Bonus]

Chapter 377: What the Water Uncovered

Jin had drawn the scree fan three times and still couldn’t get the cracks above it right.

He sat at the dry edge of the overhang with the map on his knee and Flicker on his wrist. She had stopped complaining, though she occasionally pecked his pencil when it moved too close. Lucian rested nearby with his forearm over his eyes. Kite watched from the lip of the shelter, while Glitch slept along the shaded wall.

Jin reached for his empty flask. As he turned towards the seep, something beneath the water caught the light.

A pale curve protruded from the grey silt at the wall’s base. He would have taken it for an ordinary pebble if the brightness hadn’t seemed to linger inside it.

He eased Flicker onto his shoulder and crouched beside the water.

The stone came loose beneath his fingers. It was almost the size of a hen’s egg, cloudy rather than clear, with a dim light suspended within it.

Jin turned it in his palm.

He remembered Breck’s tray at Thornwatch, and the smaller stone he had struggled to draw from on Brand’s practice mat.

*Oh. That’s familiar.*

He looked along the wet band of rock. Another pale knob showed through the silt, and a third sat beneath it.

“Lucian.”

“Mm?”

“Come and look.”

His partner lifted his arm, saw Jin’s face, and sat up.

They knelt beside the seep with a lamp directed along the wall. Water had exposed a narrow band of softer material beneath the solid rock. Some of the cloudy stones lay loose; others remained partly embedded. Farther back, pale curves disappeared into a seam they couldn’t reach without digging.

Lucian picked one up.

“Astral Stone?”

“Looks like the ones I bought.” Jin held his beside it. “Ordinary grade, as far as I can tell. But nearly twice the size.”

“What did yours cost?”

“Six hundred and forty each.”

Lucian looked at the wall again.

“These could be worth over a thousand apiece,” Jin said. “If they’re sound. We’d need them assessed.”

He tried to say it sensibly. His grin spoiled the attempt.

Lucian laughed, making Kite turn towards them.

“Equal shares?”

“Of course.”

They shook hands, both wet to the wrist.

Jin had spent so much time calculating what he could afford that finding something useful without first having to buy it felt faintly suspicious. He glanced along the seam once more, half expecting the light to fade and leave him holding ordinary gravel.

It didn’t.

“I was putting off another conditioning course for Kite,” Lucian said. “Her technician recommended it. This would help.”

“You’re selling yours?”

“Maybe some. Depends what they’re worth.” Lucian rolled the stone gently between his fingers. “I like the idea of keeping them, too.”

Jin understood that immediately. He remembered how small the improvement on Brand’s tablet had been, and how pleased he had felt anyway.

He wanted another look at that tablet with one of these in his hand.

Then Glitch shifted in his sleep, scraping a plate against the wall, and Jin looked back towards the slope.

They had stopped because the beasts needed rest. The marten hadn’t become any easier to catch while they admired stones.

“Only the loose ones,” he said. “And whatever we can free without proper digging.”

Lucian nodded. “Twenty minutes. We mark the rest.”

They took turns. Lucian eased the accessible stones out while Jin watched the approaches with Kite. Then Jin worked while Lucian moved to the shelter’s edge. Flicker remained close, interested in every stone he lifted, but he let Glitch sleep.

Several pieces came away with the silt. Others refused to move under careful pressure. Jin left those despite the temptation to prise harder. Breaking a seam open with tired beasts beside him would turn their recovery pause into another job.

When they stopped, Lucian spread his jacket on the dry ground.

They counted twenty-two stones.

Jin photographed the exposed seam and the surrounding rock, then marked the location on his map and phone. He packed the stones in his spare kit sack, padding them with cloth and keeping them away from the remaining bait.

The weight made him smile again.

He shifted the sack higher in his pack so it wouldn’t strike his hip while climbing. Finding the stones had been easy. Carrying them through the rest of the hunt was still his problem.

“You know we still haven’t caught anything,” Lucian said.

“Let me have this for a minute.”

Lucian leaned back against the wall. “I’m having it too.”

They stayed until the beasts were ready to move. Glitch stretched, accepted water, and inspected the empty patch of jacket where the stones had been. Finding nothing edible, he turned his attention downhill.

By three, they were back above the marten’s sunny ledge.

This time Flicker watched from a dead pine snag instead of waiting on Jin’s shoulder for a chance to chase. Kite circled far to the east. Glitch settled below the scree, where his body blocked one approach without looming over the target’s usual basking place.

The carrier had become their trap.

They couldn’t afford to damage it. Lucian checked the sliding door before they propped it open with a peeled stick and attached a release cord. Jin placed the remaining hen carcass at the back, beyond comfortable reach from the entrance.

There was no spring or snapping mechanism. Once the animal was fully inside, pulling the stick would let the door descend. They would still have to reach it and secure the latches.

Jin tested the movement with an empty carrier, then reset it.

“If any part of it is under the door, we wait,” he said.

Lucian nodded. “Tail included.”

They withdrew behind a slab with the cord running back to Lucian’s hand.

The marten appeared well after they had settled.

Flicker spotted it first. Her body straightened on the snag, and Jin followed her gaze to the crack above the carrier.

The animal remained there for a long time. Then it descended, stopping twice to examine the ground before approaching the bait.

Jin kept his cheek close to the stone. A sharp edge pressed into his elbow, but he didn’t move it.

The marten sniffed the doorway, the stick, and the line. It investigated the place where Jin had knelt.

Then it put its head inside.

Lucian’s fingers tightened slightly.

The hind legs remained outside. So did most of the tail.

The marten stretched forward and reached with one forepaw. It couldn’t touch the hen. It tried once more, then backed out, sat beside the carrier, and began washing its face.

Jin closed his eyes for a moment.

*Yes. Make yourself comfortable.*

When he looked again, it was walking towards the crack.

They waited well beyond its disappearance. Flicker changed perches twice. Glitch shifted behind his ledge. Nothing returned to the bait.

Eventually Lucian let the cord go slack.

“It wanted it,” he said. “Just not enough.”

They retrieved the carrier and checked the door. It still ran smoothly. Jin repacked the bait while Lucian removed the cord and stick.

“Another box won’t fix this,” Jin said.

Lucian looked over the slope. “I was hoping a different one might.”

“So was I.” Jin unfolded his map. “But it can inspect anything we put here and leave through whichever gap we aren’t standing on.”

“We need fewer gaps.”

“Ones we can check properly.”

They followed the wider circuit east, keeping to the upper bench. Here the shale gave way to larger stretches of worked stone, crossed by narrow bands of scrub. Jin marked the remaining openings instead of assuming the smoother ground was clear.

Several hundred metres along, an old cart track climbed from below and ended in a quarry cut. Drill marks scored the wall. Grass grew through the spoil heaps, but a broad apron of bare rock remained in front of a dark recess.

Lucian stopped beside him.

“Could be shallow.”

“Could have another exit.”

“Then we look.”

Glitch approached and lowered his head towards the entrance. The central opening looked high enough for him to pass beneath with his horns lowered, though the edges narrowed sharply.

Jin noticed the dust before he brought out his lamp.

Something had worn a broad, smooth track across the mouth. It was far too wide for the marten.

He caught Lucian’s attention and pointed.

They left the carrier outside and readied their lights. Whatever they used this place for, they needed to know what was already in it.