Against The World

Chapter 150: When the Water Went Out

The next tide suitable for the crossing came four days later.

I disliked all four.

Evelyn noticed before the first afternoon was finished.

“You have moved that map three times.”

“The light changed.”

“The window hasn’t.”

I looked down at Tern Reach.

Then rolled the chart and put it away.

My wife held out Garrick.

“Here. Something that actually needs moving.”

Our son gripped my collar and attempted to stand on my stomach.

He was considerably less interested in the tide than I was.

For a while, that helped.

Aurelia did not come the next day.

Or the day after.

She had told us she needed to rest.

I remembered that whenever I caught myself listening for her.

On the third evening, she joined us at the hearth.

She looked tired.

She also looked annoyed.

“Did something happen?” I asked.

“I slept.”

“That sounds useful.”

“For longer than I intended.”

Evelyn moved a cup away from Carol’s reaching hand.

“I believe you have given us a lecture about that.”

“Several,” I added.

Aurelia settled into her chair.

“I regret how well you remember them.”

But when Evelyn asked whether she was ready, she took time before answering.

“Yes,” she said at last. “I am.”

Valea came with us.

She boarded Cora’s boat carrying a small bag and wearing boots that had plainly spent most of their lives beneath a cupboard.

Cora examined them.

“Can you walk in those?”

“I walked here.”

“Good beginning.”

Mary followed with her book secured inside a waxed cover.

She looked at the sea.

Then at the boat.

Then at the sea again.

Melody offered her a hand.

“I’ll sit beside you.”

“That is reassuring.”

“I’ve been told I float.”

Mary closed her eyes briefly.

Then stepped aboard.

We reached the fishing village before sunset.

Enna had left a parcel at the inn.

Inside were bread, hard cheese, and a note telling us to eat before doing anything foolish.

Eleanor read it over my shoulder.

“A sensible woman.”

“She appears to have formed an opinion of us.”

“She’s met you twice.”

I passed her the cheese.

There seemed little point in arguing with someone holding a knife.

We landed at Tern Reach as the sea began to withdraw from the lower steps.

Nothing had changed.

That was the first thing I noticed.

The broken wall.

The birds.

The timber beneath the stair, darkened by saltwater but still where Eleanor had placed it.

For something that had occupied so much of my thinking, the ruin had made very little effort to acknowledge us.

Eleanor inspected the supports.

Tilda laid out her tools.

Eliza checked the route back to the landing while Linnet marked the water and Cora kept the boats ready.

Mary found a dry place above the chamber entrance.

Valea stood beside her.

Evelyn touched my hand.

“Ready?”

I looked down the steps.

“Yes.”

We made room before calling Aurelia.

Eleanor placed a second board across the cracked step. Tilda removed the cover beneath the basin and examined the bronze return against Mary’s copy of Nereth’s instructions.

It was where he had said.

That did not make me trust him.

It did mean we could begin.

I held the water away from the narrow space where we would stand, allowing it to continue through the floor channel.

Evelyn knelt beside the basin.

The eleven pale stones surrounded the dark one.

None had moved.

“Still working,” she said.

“I know.”

I could feel the little tightening with every wash of water.

Soon, I told myself.

Then stopped.

We had work to do before soon meant anything.

Aurelia appeared between us.

Her feet touched the board.

She looked around the chamber.

At the basin.

The inscription.

The pale stones.

She had seen our drawings.

They had not prepared her for standing there.

I felt her hand grow cold in mine.

Evelyn moved closer on her other side.

For a moment, Aurelia leaned against us both.

Then she straightened.

“Show me the return.”

Tilda raised the lamp.

The bronze line ended beneath a fitted stone lip.

A narrow opening lay beyond it, leading toward the sea.

Tilda had found the small catch that held it shut.

Salt had almost hidden the joint.

“It moves,” she said. “A little.”

Aurelia studied it.

“Open it when I tell you. Uriah, leave the water a clear way out.”

“Yes.”

“Evelyn, watch the dark stone. If the working reaches toward either of you, withdraw your touch from it.”

My wife nodded.

“And your invitation?” I asked.

“Keep that.”

Above us, Mary turned a page.

Valea began speaking Nereth’s name.

The dark stone answered before she finished.

“Name those restored.”

Aurelia looked directly at it.

“No.”

The water in the basin trembled.

“Nereth,” she said. “I am here. The return is ready.”

For several breaths, nothing happened.

Then the surface darkened.

The same pale face formed within it.

His gaze passed over the supports, the tools, the people standing in his ruined chamber.

It stopped on Aurelia.

“You have come.”

“Yes.”

“There must be acknowledgment that the witness was heard.”

Aurelia’s hand tightened.

“You heard him.”

“The record—”

“Contains his accusation. It also contains the condition you knew I could not meet.”

Nereth’s face remained still.

“You agreed to withdraw what you placed here,” she said. “Without another undertaking.”

From above us, Mary read the words back.

Exactly.

The sound of her voice in that cramped chamber steadied something in me.

Nereth looked toward the stair.

Then back at Aurelia.

“Open the return.”

Tilda worked the catch.

It resisted.

She shifted her tool and tried again.

The stone lip moved with a scrape that seemed much too loud.

Water began passing beneath it.

At first, only a trickle.

Then a steady stream.

I guided the ordinary water around our feet, keeping my power away from the basin itself.

The bronze line brightened.

Evelyn drew a sharp breath.

“Something is opening.”

“I feel it,” Aurelia said.

Nereth’s face broke apart.

His voice remained.

“I relinquish the claim received at Tern Reach.”

The eleven stones lifted.

Not far.

Barely the width of a finger.

Beneath each, a pale thread stretched toward the center.

For an instant, I thought of names being pulled tight.

Then the threads loosened.

Water poured from the basin.

It shone as it entered the channel.

A thin light ran beneath the floor, following the way toward the sea.

The pressure around us increased.

My shield bowed inward.

I adjusted it slowly, making less space rather than fighting for all of it.

Evelyn shifted with me.

Aurelia did not take her eyes from the basin.

The dark stone turned.

There was writing beneath it.

I saw only fragments before water covered them.

Then Aurelia made a sound I had never heard from her.

Small.

Involuntary.

I looked at her.

Gold had appeared across the front of her gown, tracing a narrow band below her ribs.

It tightened.

I almost reached for it.

“Don’t,” she said.

I stopped.

Her fingers gripped mine hard enough to hurt.

“It is coming loose.”

It did not look like anything coming loose.

But she knew her own pain better than I did.

I held still.

The water stopped draining.

Tilda swore.

Eleanor leaned down from the stair.

“What?”

“Something in the outlet.”

The light beneath the floor thickened.

Evelyn looked toward me.

“Uriah.”

“I see it.”

Beyond the broken outer wall, a wave pressed into the return passage. Loose grit stirred at its mouth.

The basin shuddered.

“Can you clear it?” Eleanor asked.

I reached carefully through the water.

Stone.

Sand.

A piece of shell caught against something harder.

“I need my other hand.”

Evelyn took more of Aurelia’s weight.

“I have her.”

I let go.

The obstruction was no hidden curse.

It was a broken piece of slate jammed sideways beneath the outlet.

The sea had put it there.

The sea appeared satisfied with the arrangement.

I eased the surrounding water outward.

The slate shifted.

Caught again.

Behind me, Aurelia’s breathing shortened.

I wanted to tear the passage open.

Instead, I turned the slate.

Just enough.

It slid free.

Light rushed past my reaching awareness and out into the open water.

I withdrew before it could catch on me.

The basin emptied another inch.

Tilda let out a breath.

“Good.”

I took Aurelia’s hand again.

Nereth spoke from the dark stone.

“The receiving bond is withdrawn.”

Aurelia lifted her head.

The gold beneath her ribs had become a loose, trembling line.

She reached toward it with her free hand.

Her fingers closed around something I could barely see.

Then she drew it away from herself.

It resisted once.

Her mouth tightened.

Evelyn stood firm beside her.

Aurelia pulled again.

The line parted.

There was no thunder.

No wave rising above the tower.

The pale stones dropped into the basin with a series of small clicks.

The dark one settled on its side.

Something cold passed through the chamber.

Then it was gone.

Aurelia sagged between us.

I caught her beneath the arm.

Evelyn held her other side.

For a moment, her head rested against my shoulder.

Nobody spoke.

Water continued moving beneath the floor.

Ordinary water.

I had never been so pleased to feel it.

Aurelia drew one long breath.

Then another.

She lifted her head.

“It’s gone.”

I looked at her.

“That one?”

“Yes.”

Two remained.

I knew it.

So did she.

For those few moments, neither of us spoke of them.

Evelyn pressed her forehead against Aurelia’s temple.

Our teacher closed her eyes.

Tilda waited until Aurelia could stand before asking about the basin.

“Do we leave it?”

Aurelia looked down.

The eleven stones lay scattered around the dark one.

“Is there anything left?” she asked Evelyn.

My wife examined the working without feeding it.

Then looked at me.

I reached too.

No tightening.

No answering thread.

Only the faint traces of something that had been there for a very long time.

“Nothing that answers,” I said.

Tilda turned to Aurelia.

“Then I’d like to take the bronze join out.”

Aurelia nodded.

This time, it came apart beneath an ordinary tool.

Valea descended far enough to see the basin.

Her face was pale.

“Will he speak again?”

Aurelia looked at the dark stone.

“That is his choice.”

“Do you want him to?”

“No.”

Valea nodded.

Then stepped aside so we could help Aurelia up the stairs.

Mary was waiting above.

She looked at Aurelia first.

Only then at the chamber.

“Finished?”

Aurelia rested a hand against the sun-warmed wall.

“Yes.”

Mary closed her book.

We left the stones in the basin.

The bronze join went into Tilda’s tool case.

Eleanor checked the supports one final time and removed the loose equipment we had brought.

Linnet called from the landing.

There was still time.

For once, we had some to spare.

Aurelia turned toward the ruined hearth.

She crossed the few steps slowly.

Then stood before it.

Evelyn and I remained nearby.

“This was the room,” she said.

“The basin for your feet?” my wife asked.

Aurelia nodded.

She looked toward the place where the door had stood.

“I remember her coming through there with the water.”

Her hand brushed the old wall.

Then fell to her side.

“I’m ready.”

Cora had made space for her beneath the folded sail.

Aurelia sat between Evelyn and me as the boat moved away.

She watched the tower grow smaller.

At the edge of the shoal, the birds returned to the wall.

Their council resumed.

After a while, Aurelia leaned her head against Evelyn’s shoulder.

My wife put an arm around her.

“Will you be able to stay?” I asked.

“For a little while.”

She closed her eyes.

The boat lifted gently beneath us.

I held her hand and let her sleep.

We reached Greykeep the following evening.

Aurelia had left us during the voyage home to rest where she was strongest.

She came again after supper.

Helena was in the nursery with Evelyn.

Garrick was asleep.

Carol was making determined progress toward a wooden ring that kept escaping beneath her hand.

Aurelia stopped in the doorway.

My daughter looked up.

Then held out both arms.

It was an invitation none of us had taught her.

Aurelia crossed the room.

She lowered herself onto the blanket and gathered Carol into her lap.

For a while, she simply held her.

Then Carol discovered the clasp on her gown.

Aurelia laughed.

I sat beside Evelyn.

Neither of us said anything about the sound.

We stayed to hear it again.

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