Harran had the water ready before Rowan woke. He had set it beside the hearth, where Phia could reach it without stepping over Nall. His coat hung from a peg above the table. Without it, he looked older and less certain where to put his hands.
“Nothing from above?” he asked.
“Not yet.”
The woman by the window passed Rowan a bowl of grain. When he began saying he would leave it for the people coming down, she put a spoon beside it.
“You were awake half the night. Take it.”
He ate while Phia loosened the support round Nall’s ankle. The young man could move his toes, but watched her face while he did it.
“I thought I’d be standing by now,” he said.
“We’ll bring you up without asking that foot to do it.”
“I was hired to set out the rooms. They said I’d hardly have to walk once we reached the island.”
Harran paused at the hearth. Rowan saw him hear the words, then turn back to the water. He brought the cup to Nall himself.
By late morning, Venn was calling from the upper turn. Ansa came with him, followed by two people carrying a frame and food. Their names were Mell and Tessa. Derren had found them in the settlement where he worked; they knew these paths well enough to greet Oswen by name when he came to meet them.
“Enna’s at the roof,” Venn told Rowan. “She helped put the food together. Derren and Nerin are staying with the three men. Ansa left someone from her household with Arven.”
“Cadd?”
“Your first sheet reached him. The head wound still needs watching. Help’s coming to the road, and the carts are guarded.”
Rowan took Ansa’s bag while she went to Nall. Phia showed her how the ankle had been held overnight. Between them they changed the support, listening while he described where it hurt. Ansa looked at the frame, then at Phia.
“Keep him like that as far as the broader ground. They can take him from there.”
Oswen sat for his own examination. The mark had not spread, but he had less feeling across its center than on the clear skin beside it. Ansa asked about the rock and the day. She wrote beneath Phia’s account, then covered the arm loosely.
“Tell me if the feeling changes,” she said.
Oswen looked at the case by the table. “At least the papers are dry.”
“They’re staying that way,” Tessa said, lifting one end. Mell took the other before Oswen could stand.
They packed the grain and the cooking pot. Harran carried the smaller bundle, the woman from the window her own things. The leather-mending traveler fastened a strap on Mell’s pack that had begun pulling loose. Nobody was sent ahead to wait alone at the old landing.
Phia brought water from the house’s spring. It curved above the bedding in several clear bands, held apart from Nall’s body by the folded cloth. Rowan helped him sit forward while she eased the support beneath him. When he lay back, his injured foot remained in the same position.
He looked down at the water.
“Will I fall through?”
“No,” she said. “Tell me if the cloth rubs.”
She lifted one hand. The whole cradle rose, steady enough that the cup beside his hip scarcely moved. Rowan took it away before he tried to keep it with him. Phia walked near his head as they went out, the water holding him clear of the roots beneath the path. At the first turn Nall looked back toward the house, then up at the trees above him.
Mell carried the folded frame. Tessa had the case. They kept their hands free enough to help the fit travelers over the steeper ground. Rowan went ahead with Venn, reading his shield as the break came into view.
It held. Phia’s current lay beneath it, broad between the two banks. Along its lower side the pressure had gathered close. Rowan could see little darkness with ordinary eyes, only wet rock beneath the light, but he remembered the insect drawing in its legs. He checked the far seating before calling them forward.
Nall reached the gap in Phia’s cradle. His hands closed on the cloth. She walked beside him, bringing the water smoothly onto the held passage. Halfway across, he opened his eyes and looked down. Rowan saw the moment he understood what had carried him. He stared at Phia, then began laughing very quietly, with tears running toward his ears.
She stopped on the farther bank and waited until he could speak.
“I thought we’d have to leave him,” Oswen said behind Rowan.
Nall turned his head. “You didn’t.”
Oswen came across without touching the lower rock. Rowan received the last bag while Venn stayed beside the near tree. Harran crossed with the grain held close against his chest. At the far end he looked back toward the empty house, then followed the others uphill.
When everyone was clear, Phia set Nall gently beside the frame on broader ground. Mell and Tessa took the first carrying reach. She walked beside them, water supporting the foot where the slope would otherwise have tilted it. After the first climb she shared bread, passing it to the bearers before taking her own.
The old approach was behind them. Rowan stopped at the standing stone to record the temporary shield and water-supported crossing. Derren would need to know what had changed there. Beyond it, the lower course still failed to answer as the road’s working did. A safe passage had been made for the people they found; the pressure remained for someone to examine.
They reached the inland roof late in the afternoon. Derren came out when he heard them. Enna followed, counted the people behind the frame and went straight to Nall.
“All six,” Rowan said.
She rested her hand against the frame’s pole. “I know. I’m looking at them.”
Tessa put down the case. Enna touched its scraped brass corner and laughed once, then went to Harran. Their exchange was quiet. Rowan heard the travelers’ names, repeated as though she needed to say them here before beginning anything else.
Inside, Ansa’s helper made room beside Arven. Nerin kept Rusk at the other end while Nall was settled. Pell carried clean water from the spring, stopping at the doorway to let Phia pass. The shield she had seated round the roof shimmered where the jar brushed it.
Rusk watched Nall being brought in. He looked at Rowan, then away, saying nothing about the goods on the carts.
Derren brought the accounts to the outer wall. The keeper’s brother had returned from the road roof with Cadd’s reply. The remaining cut could travel when Belda agreed; the head wound was staying under observation. With help coming to repair the cart, Cadd could begin arranging the sound loads south.
“Harran wants to go on,” Enna said.
“By the maintained road,” Rowan told him. “Speak to the present landing contact before you give the island another arrival day.”
The officer nodded. He looked toward the room where Nall lay. “I’ll leave someone with him.”
“Ask him who he wants.”
Harran went inside. Enna took out a clean sheet and began the movement notice. This time she left the arrival date open.
Nerin had secured the two blades; he and Derren would hold Rusk, Pell and Arven until care and statements could be arranged at the settlement. Venn would give his account of the raid there. Rowan kept his own observations beside it, including the attack at the roof. The two men who had escaped were still described only by what Rowan and Venn had seen. Nobody here had found their boat or a larger force waiting to follow them.
The next person going toward the Glenn was leaving from the road roof in the morning. Derren put Rowan’s report with the messages for that journey. Phia signed beside the account of Oswen’s arm; Ansa added what her examination had found. Rowan named Thane on the covering sheet.
The old approach and the people they had brought from it were accounted for. The raid remained on its separate sheet.
Ansa came out and asked Oswen to tell her when the cold had first changed. Rowan left them room, then went to Nall. He had fallen asleep while the bedding was arranged. Arven lay beyond him, awake and watching Pell fold a clean cloth. They would not make the same departure merely because their beds shared a roof.
Outside, Mell sat with his boots loosened. Tessa moved the last bundle clear of the door and joined him. Harran brought another jar from the spring. Enna was counting the empty bowls; the leather-mending traveler had found another strap worth his needle.
Phia came out with two bowls and gave one to Rowan.
“Sit somewhere that isn’t a doorway.”
He looked toward Venn. Nerin was taking the watch; Derren had the track. Rowan stepped clear of the entrance and sat on the low wall. Across the yard, Pell waited for Ansa’s helper to tell him where to put the washed cloth. Above the spring, the water-light held almost clear against the evening.
Rowan ate before the meal cooled.