Chapter 359: When the Air Turns

The draft keeper stopped on the last stair to examine the lamps. The two nearest the opening leaned toward the cavity; farther along, the flames still pointed toward the flue. He followed them with his eyes before coming down beside Tobin.

"Joss Harlan," Vesper called from the entrance. "Maren sent him."

"What did you change?" he asked.

"Reduced the branch before we opened the face. When the draw turned, I took the gallery slide to its open mark. It straightened the flames briefly."

Joss checked the slide and left it there. From a bundle in his hand, he took a strip of cloth and held it beside each of the lower passages. Along the sound section, it lifted outward. At the passage nearest the cavity, it barely moved.

"Was this flowing before?"

"Yes," Tobin said. "It’s on the neighboring branch."

Joss looked from it to Ren’s hands against the supported stone.

"Secure the face first. We’ll need him free to help."

Lenna set her slate on a ledge and brought the lamp closer to the opening.

— • —

The four pillars still supported the original footing. What Ren held now was the section exposed when the brittle pocket fell away. Lenna checked the stone around that cavity before marking two positions on the gallery floor and a third on a sound ledge between the root recesses.

"A pillar at each floor mark. Bring a short rib up from the ledge here. Leave this recess clear."

Ren formed the supports while maintaining his working above the face. He brought each into contact without lifting the stone, then checked how the load rested before shaping the next. At the ledge, he curved the rib away from the root space and left the opening accessible.

Lenna examined the joins, then laid her hand on the cultivated wall.

"Ease it onto them."

Ren withdrew his working in stages. The new supports took the exposed section’s weight alongside the pillars already beneath the footing. Lenna watched the contact points while he released the last of his hold.

"It’s standing."

He lowered his hands and checked the smallest passage behind the rib. Air still moved through it. With the structure supported, he could turn his attention to the current entering the cavity.

— • —

Joss held a cloth strip beside the opening. It stretched inward.

"Vesper, ask Maren to check the warm crack below the bed we moved. Have someone watch a strip there from the clear side."

She relayed the request. A garden hand carried it beyond the terrace wall, and the answer returned through Vesper.

"Outward flow at the crack. They’re staying to watch."

Joss nodded. "Now we check whether the openings are connected. Ren, what Air work have you done?"

"Hadde, a grower on Ebbmere, taught me to guide the exchange between connected passages. I’ve practiced it on a section of their cultivated wall."

"Good. Keep this opening clear. Guide less air into it and more along the gallery. Hold the change until we have the report from above."

Ren brought his working to the opening and the current approaching it. He eased part of that current along the gallery toward the flue, reducing the amount turning into the cavity. The strip at its edge sagged without falling still.

Joss had Vesper send the signal. Ren maintained the adjustment while they waited for the runner to return.

"The strip above has dropped," Vesper called. "Still flowing out, but less."

"Release it," Joss told Ren.

The cloth beside them lifted into the cavity again. Another message went up, followed by confirmation that the surface flow had strengthened. Joss repeated the check with a smaller adjustment and received the same response.

"This opening feeds that crack," he told Tobin. "We haven’t ruled out other connections, but we know one route now."

"Past the damaged lining."

"And the neighboring passage loses flow when this draw strengthens." Joss indicated the strip that had barely moved. "Have Maren keep people clear of the affected ground above."

Vesper sent the instruction while Tobin returned to the branch control.

— • —

Ren continued guiding some of the gallery current toward the flue. At first the neighboring passage recovered enough to lift Joss’s strip. Then the flow through the cavity strengthened, and he had to adjust again.

He could work between the nearby openings. What he couldn’t follow was how their response changed with the unseen passages farther inside. His correction improved one part of the exchange, then needed altering as the current elsewhere changed.

"Keep that amount moving along the gallery," Joss said. "I’ll bring the bed passages back."

His Air working reached through the cultivated structure. Ren felt it at the nearest mouths, where the flow strengthened without an abrupt rush. Farther along, strips lifted at openings he hadn’t been working on. Joss checked each before returning to the cavity.

"The passages were grown to distribute the draw," he said. "We tend the Air working through them as the heat supply changes. Here, we’re also dealing with an outlet that shouldn’t be open."

Ren followed the adjustment between the two nearest passages. Beyond them, he lost track of how Joss balanced the rest. He could see the results in the cloth without being able to reproduce the full working.

"I lose it farther in," he said.

"Stay with what you can follow. When they lower the cover, keep this current moving toward the flue. I’ll handle the changes through the beds."

Tobin closed the damaged branch’s feed slide to its stop.

"No new supply from here. The lining still holds heat, and the breach will keep releasing it."

"Can the neighboring beds keep their feed?" Ren asked.

"They’re on the other branch. I’ll check their outlets throughout."

He went along the marked channel, leaving Joss beside the opening.

— • —

Before Lenna went above, the keepers checked how the remaining heat would leave once the surface crack was covered.

Joss proposed keeping the inspection opening clear and directing its discharge along the uphill side of the gallery to the flue. Tobin checked that stretch and had the loose equipment moved away from it. The stair and the working side of the gallery remained clear.

"We lower the cover a little at a time," Joss said. "If the gallery can’t take the discharge, they stop and lift it back."

Vesper repeated the instruction up the stair. Lenna inspected the supports once more, marked the opening’s edges, and went to direct the seating of the cover. Nobody was to narrow the relief opening below.

Ren stayed beside Joss. Reports came through Vesper as the surface crew prepared: checked bearing ground on both sides of the crack, then a fitted stone cover brought on Corin and Dray’s frame. Sol directed its approach while Lenna checked the seats and the hold-down fittings.

"Ready above," Vesper called. "Maren has everyone else behind the cord."

Joss checked Tobin’s position before answering.

"Lower to the first hold."

As the cover restricted the surface outlet, the pull into the cavity weakened. Ren guided more of the approaching air along the gallery. Joss adjusted the connected passages, and the strip at the neighboring bed lifted farther from the wall.

"Holding above," Vesper reported.

Tobin checked the air beside the cavity and farther along the cleared wall. Joss kept the discharge moving toward the flue. The warmth increased there, but the current stayed clear of the stair and did not spread across the working area.

They held that position while Tobin checked the neighboring supply again. Only after both keepers agreed did Joss call for the next lowering.

The surface draw weakened further. Ren adjusted with it, keeping the flow smooth through the changing exchange. The strip at the cavity’s edge hung briefly, then began moving outward into the gallery. Warmer air followed the path Joss had established along the wall.

Tobin walked beside it to the flue and returned.

"It’s carrying the discharge. Continue."

The last report came after the cover was seated and its bars secured. Joss kept Ren at the opening while Tobin checked the branch outlets and the relief path again. Above them, the crew waited for the result before leaving the cover.

— • —

"Withdraw your Air working gradually," Joss told Ren. "I need to check this with only the garden’s tending."

Ren reduced his part of the exchange. The cloth beside the cavity continued moving toward the gallery, and the bracket flames leaned toward the flue. He released the last of his working and stepped back.

Joss checked the neighboring bed passage, then the others along the wall. Tobin watched the warm discharge while Vesper passed word above that Ren had stopped assisting.

They waited through another round of checks. No fresh leakage was reported around the surface cover, and the neighboring passage maintained its flow. Lenna returned to inspect the supports and the marked opening.

"Nothing has moved," she said.

"I’ll maintain the relief flow until the branch is ready for repair," Joss told her. "Keep this side clear."

Tobin checked the accessible lining before setting his lamp beside the damaged face.

"The outlet air will cool before all this stone does. I’ll check the lining itself before we take anything out."

Ren looked through the opening. The split still continued beyond the part they had exposed.

"Will you be able to tell what started it?"

"We’ll be able to examine the ends," Lenna said. "That may tell us more. This opening hasn’t settled it."

She put her tool with the inspection gear. The face was supported, the gallery had a controlled relief path, and the keepers could continue without Ren holding either the stone or the air.

— • —

On the surface, the cover lay secured beneath the thinned canopy. The cord still kept people away from it.

Eira and Ilse were checking the bed they had moved, with its wooden marker standing at the uphill end. Ren stopped beside them while Ilse looked beneath the tray. The receiving blocks had held their positions, and Eira showed the returning grower the cut connection Nel had dressed. They left the covering loose around the drooping growth and moved their tools off the carrying path so the frame could pass.

Beyond the cleared strip, Sol and a garden hand were positioning a spare shade screen beside Nel’s bed. Both had their cloaks fastened and hand covers on. Nel pointed out where the feet belonged; Sol settled his end there and checked it before returning to the frame.

Maren met Ren on the path.

"Lenna’s accepted the supports. Joss says he can manage the air while they prepare the repair. Your part of the work is complete."

She entered the acceptance beside the contract reference and showed it to him. The fee remained as agreed.

"Would you want to study the cultivated stone?" she asked as he handed back the record.

"I’d like to study it. And the workings, if the keepers can teach me."

"I’ll arrange for you to ask Tobin and Lenna once they’ve finished here. They decide what they can offer. Joss can speak for his own lessons."

"What happens to the damaged sections?"

"They’ll keep anything needed to examine the failure. Some pieces may still be useful to us. If they release the rest, I’ll have your request considered before it’s disposed of."

Ren agreed. He had no material to collect yet, but Maren noted his interest against the repair record.

He glanced toward the sound canopy beyond the closed section.

"Who manages the light reaching the beds?"

"Our shade keeper. She works with Light as well as the growers who train the branches. Would you like an introduction?"

"Yes."

"Give me your return arrangements. We’ll see what fits."

Ren asked Vesper to send them. He still had the Carrow appointment to make; the remaining travel margin would have to cover any study here.

Before leaving the terrace, he went down to speak to Joss. The keeper remained beside the passages, checking the flow while Tobin examined the lining.

"I’d like to learn what you showed me."

"When Tobin clears the branch for it, we can use a sound section. Two connected passages, with the feed changing." Joss held a strip beside the nearest mouth. "He’ll control the heat. You’ll keep the exchange steady while it changes."

Ren watched the cloth lift in the current, then nodded.

"Let me know when you can start."