Chapter 292: Buying the Lead

Rod brought the entire party to the meeting.

Tessa had asked for a table large enough to spread a flight chart. The innkeeper provided a room behind the common hall, and the Five Knots arrived carrying papers, a short coil of cord, and a wooden model of their landing foot. Rod took the seat opposite Tessa. Lana sat beside him with Midnight resting against her bag. Dirk remained standing until he had inspected the terrace drawing.

Nessa read Hadrin’s written offer first.

"This pays for returning the bell. It does not pay for killing the beast at the crossing."

"Correct." Tessa said. "We asked about the route. He mentioned the beast while explaining why the direct road was closed."

Dain placed a finger beside the keeper’s mark. "And the person holding the bell won it."

"That is what Hadrin told us."

"Then we might buy the location, reach the station, and discover that its keeper wants something we will not do."

"You might."

Tessa gave the answer without trying to improve it. Rod appreciated that. They had all heard commissions presented as certain profit until someone asked who owned the object being recovered.

He unfolded the flight chart.

The Five Knots had marked their height, direction, and the points where the hidden road appeared. Orin’s landing sketch showed the terrace’s useful width and the edge they had repaired. A second sheet recorded the white stones and blue cuts.

Dirk bent over it.

"You walked back by a different route."

"It appeared different." Belda said. "Four bends. We kept the blue marks to our left and reached the terrace. I would not promise an ordinary compass route through that stretch."

"Any animals?"

"Birds. Something small moved in the brush. Nothing approached."

Lana turned to the description of Lethren.

"The keeper says they sell wood selected for particular uses."

"And prepared fibers." Orin added. "Those interested us."

Dirk looked up. "They interested me too."

Rod let the questions continue. They had been considering their next journey for several days. Another familiar contract would earn money, but it would also carry them along roads where every useful discovery had already been priced by someone else. The Fey Woods offered something less certain and potentially more valuable.

It also offered a dispute between people they had never met.

"What did you think of Hadrin?" he asked.

Tessa considered before answering.

"He maintains his landing. He corrected his offer when we asked whether he could promise permanent entry to the settlement. He was less helpful when we asked why the contest happened."

"Did he threaten you?"

"No. He offered water and explained the return path."

Nessa laid down the offer.

"The station alone could be useful. Even if we refuse the bell commission, we can learn whether there are other ways to reach Lethren."

"We should assume the keeper will want payment for lodging after that." Dain said.

"We will pay him." Rod replied.

The Five Knots named their price. It included the information, one outward flight, and collection at the terrace on an agreed day. They wanted a separate fee if Rod’s group required them to wait nearby or return repeatedly.

Rod worked through the numbers with the party. The amount was large enough to matter without consuming the reward Hadrin had offered. They could afford to lose it, although none of them wanted to spend that much on a view of an empty station.

Dirk asked for one condition.

"Do not sell the same lead while we are working it."

Tessa agreed to hold the location for eighteen days. After that, the Five Knots could approach another buyer unless Rod purchased an extension. They would still record the landing for their own flight work.

"We are buying time to investigate." Rod said. "We are not buying your right to remember a terrace."

Tessa wrote the date beneath the terms.

They paid a deposit after all five members agreed. The balance would be due on departure. Orin showed them how much baggage the passenger cabin could take without obstructing the emergency lines. Nessa asked about room for an injured traveler on the return flight, and Belda pointed out which bench could be removed.

By the end of the meeting, they had a departure time and two days to prepare.

Rod spent the first afternoon buying ordinary supplies. Rope, dry food, spare bowstrings, cloth for protecting hands from thorns, and narrow saws disappeared into their packs. Dain had the repaired shield fitted to his arm while wearing the padded sleeve he would use on the journey.

Lana purchased sealed jars for samples. She wanted to bring back resin if they found a seller. Dirk bought spare arrowheads rather than complete arrows, saving space for whatever the fey bowyers might offer.

Before they left the shops, Dirk asked Lana to help him check the kinds of arrows he intended to carry. Broad cutting heads would catch in dense branches. Narrow heads penetrated more cleanly, but retrieving them from living wood could waste precious time. He divided the supply between both and marked the bindings so he could distinguish them by touch.

Dain watched him work while an apprentice fitted a replacement buckle to his shield strap.

"You expect trouble before we reach the station?" he asked.

"I expect branches." Dirk replied. "They can interfere without meaning to."

Rod asked the merchant for an extra cloth sleeve to cover his axe on the maintained paths. Carrying it ready in an unfamiliar household might create a disagreement before anyone explained the bell. He wanted to be able to remove the covering quickly, but he could manage that without walking through someone’s yard with the edge exposed.

They also divided the party’s money. Some went into the common traveling purse, some remained with each member, and the larger reserve stayed behind. The reward would be useless if they had to spend it replacing everything left in a single lost pack.

Nessa purchased food for two days beyond their expected return. Dain questioned the weight until she showed him that the extra ration bags replaced several items he had packed twice. They shifted the load across all five packs and found room for the sample jars without leaving the rope behind.

Nessa inspected every member’s traveling boots.

"The forest may be magical." she said. "Blisters remain straightforward."

Rod replaced a worn heel strap before she could point it out.

Their last task took them through the public map displays. The Fey Woods occupied a broad area, but the purchased charts concentrated on roads used by merchants and villages already receiving regular traffic. Hadrin’s terrace lay beyond the details they possessed. No marked graveyard stood near it.

Rod confirmed the graveyard where the party had registered and checked the cost of its protection before leaving the display. Each member paid the required coins before departure. He still planned their supplies around returning together on foot. A pack lost in the woods would remain lost whether its owner revived or not.

That evening, Anna found Max examining a map with three different versions of the same forest edge.

"A new border?" she asked.

"A new sale."

He showed her a short report from the flight landing records. The Five Knots had registered a private charter and paid for extra storage while they prepared. A note attached to the booking described an information sale to Rod’s party. It contained no location beyond the region.

Anna pulled a chair beside him.

"Do you need the details?"

"No. I was checking whether the landing records were treating the information as freight."

The clerk had asked how to record it. Existing forms listed passengers, cargo, and charter work. The crew had sold knowledge obtained during a flight. Their payment covered more than carrying people.

Max opened the clerk’s question.

"A separate description field is enough." Anna said. "They do not need to disclose what they found to prove they sold something."

He added the instruction and sent it back through the ordinary response channel.

The map remained open. Max recognized the broad woodland region and the kinds of settlements it contained. Corathen held more lives and journeys than he followed individually. Watching every traveler would have left him doing little else, and most of their choices required no ruling from him.

"They are going back to the fey." he said.

Anna glanced at him. "You sound pleased."

"I remember how carefully everyone watched the trees in Fey Nights."

"They had reason."

"They still will. There is more to find this time."

He closed the regional map and brought up the receiving hall they had been reviewing before the report arrived. The Orchard expedition had exposed how awkwardly equipment carts passed the inspection point. Workers had proposed widening one turn. Max and Anna spent the next hour comparing that change with moving the storage benches instead.

By the time they settled on a plan, Rod’s expedition had become one departure among the many taking shape across Sanctuary.

Rod slept badly before the flight.

There was nothing unusual in that. He woke early, checked the same straps he had checked the night before, and found Dirk downstairs doing much the same with his arrows. They ate while the inn’s kitchen warmed, then carried their packs to the arranged loading point.

The Sixth Knot waited with its passenger cabin open.

Min inspected their baggage weight. Orin secured the heavier packs low against the cabin wall. Belda showed Nessa the emergency lines, then made each of them fit one properly rather than merely nod at the explanation.

Tessa collected the balance of the fee before departure.

"If the terrace is occupied, we assess from the air." she told them. "If we cannot land safely, you stay aboard. The information remains yours, and we discuss another approach after returning."

Rod agreed.

Lana settled near a window. Midnight climbed onto the folded blanket beside her and watched the crew move through their checks. Dain rested his shield where it would not slide when the vessel turned.

Once the cabin was secured, Kesh lifted them above the landing.

Sanctuary fell away beneath the hull. Rod watched the buildings, the moving carts, and the people already beginning their morning work. He had departed on enough journeys to know that a promising contract could become something very different by evening.

This time, at least, the sellers had admitted where their knowledge ended.

Tessa joined him as they reached cruising height.

"One more thing." she said.

Rod waited.

"If you reach the rope workers, ask whether they sell samples suitable for changing loads. We would pay for a proper test length."

"Put the measurements in writing."

She handed him a sheet Orin had already prepared.

Rod folded it into the same case as the keeper’s offer. The Five Knots had found a possible future customer as well as an adventuring lead. He hoped the road would be worth the price for all of them.

Below, the first broad stretch of woodland appeared beyond the fields.