Chapter 370: Beyond Their Reach

A strip of light came through the transport’s shutter and moved across the opposite wall as the road turned.

Mei followed it through four bends. At the next, she leaned enough to look through the gap. She could see a piece of sky and branches passing above the road.

Eira sat beside her, the pack between her feet.

"We’re going back toward the river," she said. "There’s an Alliance post at the second crossing. They’re expecting us. A healer will be there."

"How far?"

"We’re close. I’ll tell you before we stop."

Eira offered the cup again. Mei took it with one hand, keeping the other at the blanket’s edge. When a wheel caught a rut, she lowered the cup against her knees until the shaking eased.

"The man in the passage," she said. "The one who went down."

"The officers arranged a separate cart for him. He’s going to the custody side of the post."

"And the one who held him?"

"Ren. He was still holding him when we left."

Mei watched the water settle in the cup.

"Will he come into my room?"

"Only if you want him to."

"All right."

Mei drank, then held the cup out. Eira took it and put it back in the pack. With both hands free, Mei loosened the blanket at her throat. She could hear the escort outside, one voice calling ahead when the road narrowed. The transport slowed, passed through, and continued without anyone opening the door.

The light narrowed as they passed beneath more branches. Mei looked through the shutter again and kept watching until Eira told her they had reached the post.

— • —

The prisoner cart entered through a gate beside the river road. An officer directed it across the yard to a custody entrance, away from the stairs leading into the other wing.

Ren still held the prisoner’s wrist behind his back. The man sat at the edge of the bench, his bound hands clear of the backrest, as he had throughout the journey. He had stopped testing the grip after the first bend.

Five officers waited at the entrance. Their receiving officer approached the open cart with a woman beside him.

"We have Corvale’s warning," he told Ren. "She leads the custody team. Keep your hold while she takes over."

"He used cutting pressure along the floor," Ren said. "And on his arm when I closed with him."

"Anything during the journey?"

"He tested my grip. No working."

The woman checked the position of the bound hands before entering. She had one of the accompanying officers move to the doorway, leaving her room beside Ren.

She stepped inside and placed one hand around the prisoner’s upper arm, beside Ren’s guarded hand. With the other she took the wrist Ren held.

"Ease your grip. Keep your hand there."

Ren loosened it by degrees. The prisoner turned his wrist and pulled against her. She held it in place and brought his shoulder back into position without asking Ren for help.

"I have the wrist. Now the arm."

Ren lifted his guarded hand away. She maintained both holds while two officers helped bring the man to his feet. Ren stayed within reach until they had him down the cart’s step.

The receiving officer watched them enter the custody wing. The woman went with the prisoner, keeping control of his arm; the other officers closed around them inside.

"Custody accepted," the receiving officer said. He entered it on the arrival sheet and sent an officer to relay the confirmation to Corvale.

Ren stepped down from the cart. He opened and closed his hands before taking off his coat and unfastening the harness.

In daylight, the groove in the forearm guard was clearly visible. He could see no crack beyond it, but that would be for the craftsperson to check. He put his coat back on, wrapped the guards in cloth supplied at the desk and kept the bundle under his arm.

His smallest finger moved with the others. The feeling had returned all the way to its tip.

— • —

An officer showed him the separate entrance to the care wing. Eira waited outside the second room upstairs, her pack beside her feet. The healer stood with her, reading the notes Eira had brought from the journey.

"How is she?" Ren asked.

"She’s had something to eat," Eira said. "She wants to rest here."

The healer returned the notebook. "I’ll be downstairs if she needs me."

A post officer came up the stairs with an acknowledgment from Dole’s office. Eira read it and handed it to Ren.

Word received. Investigator Dole informed of Mei Lanhua’s recovery.

He gave it back. Below them, someone called for the driver of the first transport, and the sound of wheels moved away across the yard.

Eira knocked on the room’s door.

"Yes?"

"Ren’s here. Would you like to see him?"

After a pause, Mei answered.

"He can come in."

— • —

The room held a bed, a chair and a table beneath an ordinary window. Mei sat on the bed with the blanket around her shoulders. A cup stood beside a plate on the table, with a little food left on it.

Ren stopped just inside the doorway.

"I’m Ren. Ren Valis. I was with the officers."

"Mei Lanhua."

He nodded. She looked at him for a moment, then turned to Eira.

"I’d like you to stay. If you can."

"I can."

The healer remained at the door. "Shall I come back after you’ve rested to finish the examination?"

"Yes."

"If your hands or feet hurt more before then, call for me. I’ll be downstairs."

Mei opened one hand on her knee, then closed it slowly. Eira reached for the cup on the table but paused when Mei shook her head.

"Later."

Eira left it within reach. The healer waited until Mei looked up again, then pointed out the bell beside the bed so she could call without going downstairs.

Mei nodded, and the healer left them.

Eira set her pack beside the chair. Mei watched her put the notebook away before looking toward the doorway again.

"Does it lock?"

"There’s a latch," Eira said. She showed Mei the handle on the inside. "You turn this to open it. There’s no bolt outside."

Mei stood and came to look. Ren moved into the corridor so she could reach the door without passing him. She held the handle, worked it once with the door open, then pulled the door shut.

The latch clicked.

Ren waited in the hall with the wrapped harness beneath his arm. From inside came the sound of the handle turning. The door opened again, and Mei held it there.

"Open," she said. "For now."

Eira moved the chair clear of its swing.

Mei looked across the room at the window.

"May I go to it?"

"Yes."

She crossed to the table and moved her cup aside. The blanket slipped down one shoulder as she leaned toward the glass; she drew it back up without looking away.

From the doorway, Ren could see part of the yard beyond her. An officer carried papers toward the gate. Another stepped aside for a cart entering from the road.

Mei stayed at the window. Eira sat near her, leaving room between the chair and the table. After a while Ren stepped back into the corridor and let them be.

— • —

Vesper arrived carrying her notebook and Corvale’s report. Dust lay along the hems of her clothes.

"He released me once the route was handed over," she told Ren. "The search team had finished before I left."

He went with her to the stair landing, away from Mei’s open door.

"Did you see the carriage opened?"

"Yes. I was beside it when the officers checked inside. There’s a bench along one side, and the door fastens from outside. They impounded it."

"Anything naming the passenger?"

"Nothing they showed me."

She opened the report against her notebook.

"Corvale sent this for you. Dole has a copy."

Beyond the heavy door, the search team had found a freight store with crates on shelving. Some labels carried the four shapes Ren had copied from the handling field, in the same order. The receiving records had been seized, and the officers had stopped dispatches from the premises.

The report listed the main building and the side building among the places searched. No other captive had been found. Officers remained at the site while the records and freight were examined.

Ren read the custody entries. The wagon leader and the guard taken from Mei’s door remained detained. The attacker’s transfer had been recorded as pending confirmation when Corvale wrote the report.

"They’ve sent confirmation from here," Ren said.

Vesper nodded. "He asked for it before he went back inside."

The clerk had been questioned separately. The report did not assign him the same role as the guard. His account would be checked against the records taken from his desk.

Ren finished the page and returned it. The receiving point would send no more loads while the officers held it. The papers were going to Dole, and the man who had tried to recover the junction sheet was in custody with the attacker who had accompanied him.

"She’ll need our accounts too," Vesper said.

"I’ll give mine."

She closed the notebook around the report. Ren shifted the wrapped guards beneath his arm, then walked back with her toward Mei’s room.

— • —

Mei had left the window. She stood just inside the open door, one hand on the frame. Eira was beside the table.

Ren stopped in the corridor. Vesper came to a halt with him.

"This is Vesper," Eira told Mei. "She helped keep the route out clear."

Mei looked at her and nodded, then turned back to Eira.

"Does my family know?"

"I don’t know whether they’ve been reached yet," Eira said. "Dole’s office has word that you’re here. I can ask them."

Mei’s hand stayed on the frame.

"Find out."