Chương 96: The Bridge Repaired by Hand

The two sacks were still leaning against the same wall in the morning. One held the beans Marten had left. The other held the mandragora Grad had sent. Kichan added dried meat to the water in which he had soaked the beans and dissolved only a little mandragora powder at the end. Argaon peered into the pot.

"Which side's food is this?"

"Both."

"Then is there twice as much?"

"Go count the people first." Argaon did not move away from the pot. A shout came from beyond the stone wall. A mountain goat ran across the front of the shelter. Two short arrows protruded from its flank. One was fletched in the style of the human army. The other had red fur tied behind a bone point. A human hunting party and a demihuman hunting party appeared behind it at nearly the same time.

"Our arrow struck first!"

"We followed the blood trail here!" Kichan put the lid on the pot.

"Why are they doing this first thing in the morning?" The goat circled the stone wall, then stopped before Batu. When Batu raised his head, its legs gave way and it sank to the ground. The hunters on both sides reached for their weapons. Kichan crouched beside the goat. The arrowheads had entered only shallowly, and it was still breathing. Its belly was rounded low beneath it.

"You can't eat this one." A human hunter glared.

"Our unit has not eaten meat in three days." The demihuman hunter refused to back down.

"We hunt pregnant animals in winter too."

"Then what are you going to hunt in spring?" Kichan removed both arrows and pressed medicine over the wounds. The goat scraped the earth with one hoof.

"There's meat somewhere else." Both hunting parties looked at him. Kichan remembered the road into the highlands while chasing the wyverns. On a south-facing slope with less snow, long hoof tracks had cut between the rocks. The mothers had gone first, followed by large-horned males.

"There's a herd beyond the mountain. Leave the pregnant ones alone and take only the big-horned animals."

"Why should we believe you?"

"Then don't. Stay here, fight each other, and leave this one." Kichan pointed at the wounded goat's belly. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Argaon interrupted from beside the pot.

"Send half the meat you catch here."

"Why do you get to decide that?"

"My share will get smaller, so I'm calculating in advance." Kichan smacked the back of Argaon's hand with the ladle. In the end, both hunting parties climbed the same mountain trail. They kept their distance from each other. When they found hoofprints buried in the snow, they split toward different tracks. Kichan placed standing stones beside the trails left by pregnant animals. The hunters returned before the sun reached its height. The humans dragged back a male with one broken horn.

The demihumans carried two old goats. They frowned while counting each other's kills, but neither had touched the goat from that morning. While cleaning the shelter's share of the meat, Kichan gathered the tendons separately.

"These are useful."

"Can you eat them?" When Argaon asked, Kichan put the bundle of tendons in his bag.

"Not for eating."

"Then they are less useful." The cart carrying the meat stopped before the waterway. The middle of the bridge had sagged. There was not enough width left for even one wagon wheel. The human masons blamed the foundation shifting under a demihuman-built bank. The demihuman masons blamed human military wagons for breaking the stones. Kichan climbed beneath the broken railing. Water flowed between the rocks.

One side of the bridge remained attached, but it looked ready to collapse with the rest the moment a heavy load came over it.

"There are stones. Can't you stack them again?"

"If we stack them their way, the spring current will bring it down again." A human mason named Bram spoke. A demihuman mason named Kur snorted.

"People who cannot set a level line have no place speaking about water." Riphiel nudged the broken railing with one foot.

"After hearing both of you, I understand why the bridge collapsed on its own."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It grew tired of waiting for someone to put a hand to it." Bram and Kur raised their eyebrows at the same time. Kichan planted the wake-up rod beneath the bridge.

"Stop fighting and hurry. It's heavy." The sunken stone deck lifted slightly on the tip of the rod. Kichan drove it upward with his shoulder. Batu shoved fallen rocks aside with his forepaws, while Valkyrie flattened itself over the gaps where water leaked through. Dust saw a gleaming mineral chip between two wedge stones and immediately clung to it. Bram pulled his chalk line all the way to that spot, and Kur pushed the next stone into place along the line. The masons moved even while cursing.

Bram leveled the stones. Kur drove wedge stones into the lower side that took the force of the current. Each looked dissatisfied with whatever the other had touched, yet neither removed a stone the other had placed. Argaon sat on the railing and watched. Kichan spoke through clenched teeth.

"All it takes is one word from you."

"What word?"

"Say this bridge didn't collapse." Argaon's gaze lowered to the stone deck.

"I can use magic to move the stones."

"Then at least do that."

"But telling the world that something already broken never broke is different." Kichan adjusted his grip on the wake-up rod.

"How?"

"Lifting stone is using strength. Making what already broke into something that did not break puts a debt on the world."

"What kind of debt can one bridge owe?"

"The bridge owes nothing. The speaker does." Argaon looked at the stones wet with river water.

"One sentence can leave a debt that lasts a hundred years." Kichan was quiet for a moment.

"You're very stingy with such a convenient power." Argaon did not answer. Instead, he moved one finger. A large stone trapped below rose above the water. Before the masons had time to react, Kichan pointed with his chin toward the empty space.

"Put it there." The final wedge stone was driven before sunset. Kichan withdrew the wake-up rod. The bridge settled slightly, then stopped on the stones people had laid. The first cart carried mountain goat meat and salt. A cart from the opposite side carried molly leaves, mandragora roots, and winter cloth together. A child holding an empty fish basket followed behind the salt cart.

The child stopped in the middle of the bridge, stepped once on the new wedge stone, then ran all the way to the market on the other side when nothing happened. Bram and Kur bent to check the gaps each time a wagon wheel crossed the stones they had laid. The bridge joined again without anyone declaring that it had never broken. People began crossing it once more.