Chapter 36: Dinner For Six

Nia found the river before the rest of them found their breath.

"East path!" she shouted. "There’s a back-eddy below the old mill wall."

Maelis did not ask how she knew.

"Follow Nia. Kellan, rope coils. Ren, inventory while moving."

Ren looked down at what Bram had thrown into his arms.

"Two long lines. One short. Four blankets. One extremely angry kettle."

"The kettle stays."

Bram had apparently heard that.

Willowhook islet appeared between the trees three minutes later.

The stepping stones were gone beneath brown water.

Three children clung to the roots of a willow in the middle of the river. The youngest was crying too hard to make sound.

A flat-bottomed fishing punt slammed against its mooring downstream.

The water was already around the children’s boots.

Maelis stopped at the bank.

"Command remains mine."

Ren nodded. "Your field."

"Nia. Route."

Nia crouched, studying current and stone.

"Direct row gets shoved downstream. Take the back-eddy along the mill wall, cross above the islet, return the same way."

"Brinna. Anchors."

Brinna limped to the old iron ring set into the wall, tugged once, and shook her head.

"Decorative rust. Wrap the masonry instead."

"Kellan, do exactly what Brinna says. You do not enter the water."

"Yes, Commander."

"Elara, names, guardians, crowd line. Sylvaine, receiving point."

Both women were already moving.

Maelis pointed at Ren.

"Downstream safety. Short line around your waist. Stay inside knee depth unless I move you. If anyone enters the water, intercept. You do not chase."

Ren tied the rope around his hips with his left hand. His injured right wrist stayed close to his chest.

"No heroics," Maelis said.

"I hold the assigned position. I do not create a second rescue."

"Good."

The punt crossed on two ropes.

Nia rode with the ferryman while Brinna controlled the upstream line and Kellan fed the other coil under her supervision.

The current caught the bow halfway across.

"Upstream line!" Maelis called.

Brinna hauled.

The punt turned just enough.

Nia jumped onto the islet and caught the youngest child as she lunged for her.

"Easy," Nia said. "You can panic after we get somewhere boring."

One child crossed.

Then two.

The oldest boy stepped toward the punt.

The willow root beneath him tore loose.

He vanished into brown water.

Someone screamed.

Ren heard Maelis before instinct could choose for him.

"DOWNSTREAM INTERCEPT!"

He moved across his assigned line.

One step into the current.

Then another.

The boy surfaced sideways.

Ren planted his left foot.

Foot.

Hip.

Line.

Breath.

The same body sequence Nia had drilled into him yesterday—except now the resistance line was a river trying to take a child.

Ren caught the back of the boy’s coat with his left hand.

The current hit them both.

His boots slid half a step.

The rope around his hips snapped tight.

The Waywarden’s Cuff remained cold.

Ren dropped his weight through his legs instead of reaching with his injured arm.

"Got you."

The boy coughed river water into Ren’s face.

"Excellent," Ren sputtered. "Keep doing that."

Brinna and Kellan hauled the safety line.

Ren walked backward with the current instead of fighting it straight on.

Sylvaine took the boy the instant they reached the bank.

"Mine."

Ren released him immediately.

By the time he untied the rope, the child was wrapped in a blanket and answering Sylvaine’s questions.

Nia jumped from the returning punt and looked Ren over.

"You listened."

"I am trainable."

Maelis stopped beside her.

"Do not become arrogant after one successful demonstration."

"Compliments expire very quickly around here."

"Correct."

Mara Voss made one final mark on her slate.

"Test one. Completed this morning."

The bank went quiet.

"Test two. Completed on Tanner’s Lane."

Another mark.

"Test three. Willowhook rescue. Completed."

She closed the slate.

"All three live service tests were completed on Day Seventeen. The field evaluation is passed."

Ren forgot the cold water in his boots.

Mara continued.

"I will file a positive recommendation for provisional public reopening under the restrictions already recorded. Final council issuance is paperwork, not another live test."

Kellan made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a battle cry.

Elara covered her face with both wrapped hands.

Nia grinned.

Ren looked at Maelis.

"Commander. Thank you."

She gave him the smallest nod of the day.

"Command released."

Bram allowed them less than an hour before declaring the guild leadership incompetent at eating.

Six bowls landed in front of Ren, Elara, Nia, Maelis, Brinna, and Sylvaine.

For nearly twenty seconds, nobody spoke.

Hunger accomplished what law, romance, and field command could not.

Then Elara put down her spoon.

"We need a records clerk."

Ren sighed. "Twenty seconds."

"I waited."

She tapped the ledger beside her.

"One silver five copper physically in the lockbox. One silver payable to Maelis for today’s assessment. We are not hiring anyone tonight."

"Good," Maelis said.

Ren looked at her. "The poverty?"

"The admission that Elara cannot remain the solution to every missing role."

Nia tore bread in half.

"We need permanent flood-route markers. The east path worked because I knew it. That is not a system."

"Dry rescue rack," Brinna said. "Those ropes lived in three rooms."

"My clinic needs a receiving screen closer to the door," Sylvaine added. "Six observation patients remain. Popularity does not cancel privacy."

Maelis nodded once.

"Prepacked field kits. Rope, chalk, wedges, blankets, command card."

Ren looked around the table.

The guild had passed its field evaluation.

Its reward was a larger list of ways it was inadequate.

He smiled.

Brinna noticed.

"What?"

"This is the first meeting we’ve had where every problem sounds like something a real guild has."

Elara’s expression softened.

Nia leaned sideways until her shoulder rested against Ren’s.

After a moment, Elara looked at her.

Nia met her eyes.

"I’m courting him," Nia said.

Maelis’s spoon paused.

Brinna looked delighted.

Sylvaine looked unsurprised, which was somehow worse.

Elara calmly reached beneath the table and took Ren’s left hand.

"I am still making my own decision," she said.

Nia nodded. "I know."

Elara squeezed Ren’s fingers once.

"And that is all anyone at this table is authorized to know tonight."

"Terrible meeting," Brinna said. "No useful details."

A knock hit the front door.

A registry runner handed Elara a sealed folio bearing Mara’s evaluation mark, accepted her receipt, and left.

Elara broke the seal.

"The filed copy," she said.

Then she went still.

Ren knew that expression.

"What?"

Elara pulled their duplicate intake sheet from the day’s folder and placed it beside the registry copy.

Their version read:

Wheel repair. Written owner authorization attached. Medical intake separate.

The filed version read:

Full cart repair accepted from apprentice. Owner authorization not provided.

Silence swallowed the table.

One changed line.

Enough to turn careful procedure into reckless overreach.

Ren looked at Maelis.

She was no longer eating.

Elara checked the registry mark twice.

"This copy was filed after our first test."

Ren stared at the altered words.

The guild had passed its evaluation.

Someone had started changing the record before the ink was dry.