Chapter 290: Road Beneath the Trees

The road disappeared while Tessa was looking at it.

She leaned toward the forward window of The Sixth Knot. Below the airship, the Fey Woods spread across the country in green ridges broken by streams and occasional stands of pale trees. A moment earlier, a strip of yellow gravel had joined two clearings beneath their port side. Now branches covered the entire slope.

"Hold this heading." she said.

Kesh kept one hand on the wheel. "Wind change?"

"Something on the ground."

Their freight had already been delivered. Three empty harness frames and a stack of folded packing cloth occupied the lower deck. They had enough daylight for a comfortable return, and Min had reported a full reserve before departure. Tessa checked the map before asking for a turn.

The road had appeared between a split gray outcrop and a pond shaped like a bent finger. Both landmarks remained visible.

"Take us around the pond. Same height."

Kesh brought the vessel into a broad curve. Orin looked up from the landing assembly he had been inspecting, saw Tessa studying the ground, and secured his tools before joining her.

The yellow road returned as they crossed the western side of the pond.

It was wider than Tessa had first thought. Two carts could have passed on it. A low wall followed one edge, interrupted by square places where lamps might once have stood.

"There." she said.

Orin followed her finger. "I see it."

They continued turning. A branch passed across the view, then a second. When the outcrop came beneath the bow, the road vanished again.

Orin moved to the other window. The change made no difference.

"Canopy concealment?" he asked.

"Perhaps. Mark the bearing."

They had flown over enough of Corathen to know that an empty space on a purchased map could contain a village, a quarry, or a creature that considered airships edible. Finding something did not tell them whether it was safe to approach. Tessa asked Belda to check the deck while Min confirmed that nothing had disturbed the lift assemblies.

No alarm sounded. The vessel held its height without correction.

On their second circuit, Belda spotted a clearing farther north. She called through the speaking tube, and Tessa crossed to the side hatch with Orin.

Stone showed between the trees.

The clearing contained a broad terrace built against a wooded rise. Three short pillars stood along its outer edge. Each carried an iron ring large enough to take a mooring line. Leaves covered the steps, but the flat center had been swept.

Beyond it, a narrow path entered the forest.

"Someone uses that." Belda said.

Tessa watched the terrace while the ship moved past. It remained visible from every angle. Whatever concealed the road did not hide the landing place.

Kesh brought them around again without descending. This time Tessa studied the approach. Trees stood clear of the terrace, and the slope fell away beneath it, leaving room for a vessel to withdraw. The pillars were too small for a heavy freighter but suitable for The Sixth Knot.

"It might have been built for us." Orin said.

He meant ships of their size. Tessa still disliked how easily the words fit the discovery.

She called the crew together on the flight deck. Min left the engine controls only after locking their present settings. Belda brought the landing line she had been checking and continued working it through her hands while Tessa described the road.

"We can record it and leave." Tessa said. "Or we can inspect the terrace from a low pass. If there is any interference with the ship, we climb immediately."

"No passengers. No cargo." Kesh said. "This is the cheapest time to look."

Min glanced through the window. "Looking is affordable. Landing depends on what the low pass shows."

They agreed on that. Orin returned to his station, Belda took the bow line, and Tessa stood beside Kesh as the ship descended.

The terrace grew beneath them. Its stone had been fitted without mortar. Water grooves ran toward the open edge, and the three pillars bore old rope scars. Nothing reached from the trees. No concealed line crossed their approach.

Near the inner steps, a wooden sign hung from a curved post.

Belda read it aloud when they were close enough.

"Visitors secure their vessel before entering the wood. Eastern path. Keep the white stones to your left."

There was a second line in smaller letters.

"The northern path returns."

"Returns where?" Kesh asked.

"We can ask whoever swept the landing." Tessa replied.

She checked the sky and their reserve once more. Then she authorized the landing.

The Sixth Knot settled against the terrace with barely a scrape. Belda passed the first line through an iron ring using a hooked pole. Orin lowered a landing foot onto the outer stone and watched it take weight. Only when both reported secure did Tessa step onto the terrace.

The stone felt ordinary beneath her boots. A cool current of air moved out of the forest, carrying the smell of wet leaves and bread.

She crouched beside the nearest pillar. Its base showed neither fresh digging nor cracks. Someone had rubbed oil into the ring recently enough that it stained her fingers.

"Serviceable." she called.

Orin joined her with a measuring cord. They checked the remaining pillars while Belda watched from the deck. A platform that held one person might fail under a loaded vessel. Tessa had no intention of learning that after all five of them went inland.

They found a repaired joint near the southern edge. The replacement stone was a different color. Small chisel marks remained along its corners, and a wedge of folded bark had been left beneath one support.

Orin tested the fit.

"Whoever did this understood the load." he said.

The discovery reassured her more than a perfect terrace would have. This place had weathered, broken, and been repaired by somebody who expected another vessel to arrive.

They left Min and Kesh aboard. Tessa would follow the eastern path with Orin and Belda, turning back after half an hour if they found no one. Kesh fixed the time on the cabin clock and repeated their signal arrangement.

Tessa took food, water, a lantern, and her ordinary traveling gear. The short blade at her belt would serve against a rope or a small predator. She knew exactly how little it would accomplish against some of the creatures living below those trees.

The white stones began beside the steps.

Each was about the size of a fist. Moss covered their lower halves, but the exposed faces had been cleaned. Tessa kept them on her left as the sign instructed.

For the first hundred paces, the path climbed gently. Fallen leaves filled the spaces between old paving stones. A trickle of water ran beside them, crossed beneath a root, and emerged on the other side.

Belda stopped at a bend.

"Look behind us."

The terrace was gone.

They should have seen its upper pillar through the trees. Instead, the path descended toward a stand of young birches none of them remembered passing.

Orin drew his measuring cord from its pouch.

Tessa caught his wrist before he tied it around a tree.

"The sign said keep the stones to our left. It did not say the view would remain the same."

"And on the way back?"

She looked toward the white stones. Their reverse faces carried a shallow blue groove.

"Blue marks to the right, perhaps. We ask before walking farther."

They remained together while Tessa examined the bend. The path continued beneath a low arch of branches. A strip of cloth hung from it, moving despite the still air. Beyond the arch stood a building.

Its roof had been shingled with dark wood. Broad windows faced a yard containing two empty carts, a chopping block, and a stack of cut poles. A trough stood beside the doorway. Steam rose from a kettle on an outdoor stove.

An elderly satyr sat on a bench, repairing the strap of a leather bag.

He raised his head before they called.

"Airship?" he asked.

Tessa stopped at the edge of the yard. "At the terrace."

"Good. The northern road has been shedding gravel. I would have heard a wagon."

He put down the bag. His horns curved close to his head, and one had been bound with a narrow strip of copper. A gray beard covered his chin. His coat had patched elbows and a row of wooden buttons shaped like acorns.

Tessa had met satyrs before. She had not previously seen one worrying a needle through a stubborn piece of harness leather.

"Is this your landing?" she asked.

"My responsibility. Did the southern repair hold?"

"We checked it before securing the ship." Orin said. "It held."

The satyr looked pleased. "Then I can stop carrying the spare wedge."

He introduced himself as Hadrin, keeper of the White Stone waystation. Tessa gave their names and the name of the vessel. Belda remained where she could see both the building and their approach, while Orin studied the carts without touching them.

"We saw a road from the air." Tessa said. "It disappeared when we changed direction."

"Several do that."

"Intentionally?"

Hadrin set the repaired bag on the bench. "The woods have more ways through them than most travelers need. Some roads are easier to find when you have business along them."

Tessa waited for something more useful.

He noticed.

"The landing road stays open." he added. "White stones on your left coming here. Blue cuts on your left returning. Follow them all the way to the steps."

She was glad she had not trusted her first guess.

Hadrin invited them to sit. Tessa explained that two crew members remained aboard and they would need to return soon. He fetched three plain cups, poured water from a covered jug, and left them within reach.

Through the nearest window, she saw shelves of folded blankets, a long table, and hooks carrying empty traveling packs. The building could have lodged twenty people. Its yard had room for more carts than the two waiting beneath the eaves.

"Quiet season?" Belda asked.

Hadrin followed her glance.

"Quiet road."

He rubbed his thumb over the copper binding on his horn. Beyond the stove hung a wooden bracket. A pale crescent showed where something round had sheltered the wood from years of weather.

Tessa looked at the empty hook beneath it.

"Something missing?"

"My waybell."

Hadrin studied the three of them more closely. His eyes paused on their working gloves, then on the knives at their belts. He looked toward the trees as though considering the distance to something beyond them.

"You found a road most visitors pass over." he said. "Perhaps you can manage another."

"What would we be looking for?" Tessa asked.

"The bell. With it, I could take you somewhere worth finding."

Orin glanced at her. Belda set down her cup.

Tessa remained seated, giving the offer the attention she would give a freight request from a stranger. They had discovered a maintained landing, a hidden road, and a waystation waiting for travelers. There might be money in all three.

Before deciding what kind, she needed to know why the hook was empty.