Chapter 122: Medicine on Open Water

Stone broke beneath the six far voices and struck black water hard enough to shake Dane's seated brace.

Something broad rolled under the surface. Its wake reached his low plane, lifted the damaged right quarter, and dropped it against rod one. Across the gap, the far ledge answered with a second crack.

Marda stood at the near lip and gave Dane the sight he needed. "A wedge came out under them. One drowned slab rolled up and went under again. The ledge sagged."

She cupped her hands toward the six. "Wall side. Three low, three standing. Clear the broken rail and find iron in the wall."

A distant adult shouted back, "We found an eye behind loose stone. The rail reaches it."

Another voice cut across theirs. "Crack is moving under our feet."

The broken rail scraped over far stone. Loose rock ticked down the wall and reached the water several heartbeats later.

"Three of us are low at the lip," the first voice called. "Two have the rail. One is clearing the eye. We can catch a line if the shelf gives us time."

Marda drove the near crowd three steps back from the wet edge. She left Flat Hands, Kril, Lye Scar, Vera, and the calf survivor room to work without putting another body over the gap.

Dane struck four slow taps along his rim.

Flat Hands and Kril took the external guide on the fourth. Lye Scar put the dry half of Orsa's pole beneath Dane's diagonal edge, and their combined pull lifted him onto near stone while he folded the plane clear of the missing tread.

The short drain remained open behind him. Its wedged tine carried the south pull; Voss's hook and the coffer's two awake feet held their chosen points while four habits kept running away from the stair. Water continued sliding off the third tread.

Ada tore dry cloth from her pack, dusted bitter bandage powder into its center, and put two narrow wrist reeds along the fold. "Powder stays inside. Reeds stay straight. If the shelf cuts someone, this buys pressure and support until I reach them."

The calf-wounded survivor drew all three centipede plates close with the good heel. Their hands threaded dry lash through the paired filter holes and nested one curve inside the next around Ada's parcel.

Kril tightened the first crossing.

"Other rib hole too," the survivor said. "One plate opened under me. I don't need the medicine learning the same trick."

Kril crossed the second hole. The survivor tested every knot with both hands before releasing the stack.

Dane widened his front crosspiece at the flooded lip. Two broad Door-derived planes lowered until their faces touched black water. Wagon underframe spread between them; shallow Coffin warmth lay open to the air. Four fine Stall ribs rose around the empty center, each too low to hide the medicine and too light to hold a person.

Water lifted the broad planes unevenly. The dead front-left corner sagged while the old right split resisted the opposite rise. Flat Hands kept the tether short until Dane shifted his bounded ballast toward sound grain, tested the open angle, and returned the weight. The spread rolled without advancing. Once stone released him, no part of it could give him a stroke.

Six living bodies waited forty feet away. Their heat reached the Coffin grain. Dane's tongue lifted with the urge to raise sides around warm flesh that had never touched him.

He flattened the tongue beneath his ballast and kept every plane below cargo height.

Ada placed the lashed plates across the unfinished surface. The medicine remained visible between the curves. No body climbed aboard.

Vera brought the continuous rope to Dane's intact rear rail. Her wrapped right hand kept the coil off his damaged quarter while the stiff left arm stayed close to her ribs. Dane presented one low sound rib; she passed the line through it and pulled the knot away from his split.

"I'll wait for your scrape," she said.

Orsa tested the water with her broken pole from her right leg. "First drowned slab turns north. A buried reed rail throws south behind it. The clean run lasts until the pale corner rolls."

The slab's next turn struck Dane as a rising wall under both planes.

He waited through the north pull. A submerged rail scraped left to right beneath him and vanished toward the short drain. On its return, Dane let current lift his unfinished breadth away from stone.

Behind him, the near rope tightened against his rear rail. It checked the turn without stealing an inch from the current.

Black water pressed beneath the Door faces. A drowned rail struck his broad left plane, rolled, and hit stone below with a knock that traveled through his teeth. The impact kicked his dead front-left rail upward.

Orsa's pole struck near stone twice. "Rail passed you. Pale slab is rising under the right."

The slab caught Dane from below and rolled his unfinished breadth toward the taut rope. Vera opened one wrapped hand around the running section instead of clenching it; Flat Hands took the sudden force at the mineral foot. The tether stopped Dane from turning broadside, then released enough angle for current to keep carrying him.

The next current found the old RIGHT-quarter axle split.

Cold drove into the crack beside rod one. That quarter dropped. Dane moved ballast less than a handspan toward the dead rail, but the damaged side kept sinking and his open surface yawed across the flow.

One shell plate slid sideways. Its hooked end climbed a Stall rib and drove the medicine parcel toward open water.

Dane lifted the rib one finger, but the plate kept moving and bowed the thin wood outward. Black water crossed the lowered right plane and touched the edge of Ada's cloth.

Old Coffin grain urged every shallow side upward. Closure would trap shell, medicine, and the smell of six humans inside a shape his body understood too well.

Dane held the center open.

His shifted ballast slowed the roll and reached its safe limit. The cargo rib bent farther. The far ledge sent another crack through the water before the correction was complete.

Dane dragged a second fine rib along the taut return rope.

The sustained scrape ran to the near stone.

Vera pulled first. Flat Hands took the force below her, Kril and Lye Scar added their backs, and three uninjured civilians caught the dry tail. Brant kept both arms against his body and called the current by chin.

"North face rising. Hold the pull until it passes."

Rope lifted Dane's intact rear rail while cross-current kept driving through the old split. Rod one held its previous depth. The moving shell struck the bent rib, rolled on its curved belly, and fell back over the medicine.

Dane returned the ballast before the plates could lodge against his dead side. Current swung his front toward the far ledge.

The six voices changed around the waiting iron eye.

"Three of us low," the first called. "If I miss his line, you pull me back by the legs."

"Your legs are held," another answered. "Reach when Marda drops her hand."

Marda's boot struck near stone once.

Far fingers missed Dane's front rib and caught the rope. The new tension pulled one far body toward the lip. A second adult locked arms around their thighs; a third clamped the second adult's ankles. The strain arrived in Dane's rear knot as three separate jerks becoming one sustained pull.

"Line is cutting my forearm," the reaching adult called.

"Keep the hand closed and give me your elbow," the second answered. "If the stone moves, we fall together or we come back together."

The reaching elbow bent around the rope. Their hand stayed free to shift when Dane's next yaw changed the angle.

Behind them, the other three fed the broken reed rail through the body chain. Iron rang when its far end entered the wall eye.

"Rail is through," the sixth adult shouted. "All six pull on the next wave."

The next wave shoved Dane broadside into the far lip.

Stone skinned a strip from his lowered plane. The impact drove the reaching forearm against rock, but the hand stayed on the rope. Six bodies leaned away from the water, and the linked force brought Dane's open front around until his cargo faced the shelf.

"Parcel first," the reaching adult said. Breath broke between the words. "Plates by the holes. Nobody crosses his center."

One adult stayed prone and passed Ada's parcel backward. The medicine cloth remained dry. Other hands lifted all three curved plates by their filter holes and stacked them in the cleared wall notch.

The last plate scraped away. Dane's unfinished planes remained open and empty at the lip.

Far hands drew a bight of the continuous rope past his sound rib. The bight struck the iron eye, slipped once, then rose as the broken rail levered it over standing wall. The near end tightened around the black mineral foot under Flat Hands's body weight.

Rope lifted clear of the forty feet of water. Dane remained attached at the far lip.

Ada's medicine lay behind three separate shell curves. All six far adults had hands, forearms, or the broken rail on the secured line. Cargo and return path were complete.

The first failure reached Dane through the iron eye.

Stone grated around the embedded metal. The line dropped against his rear knot and dragged his sound rib down one finger.

"The crack is under the eye," a far adult shouted. "The whole ledge is going—"

The iron eye tore downward with six sets of feet.