Chương 29: Chapter 28: Higher Ground

Charlotte had the red beacon case half open before the observation post finished going dark. Samuel caught her wrist before she broke the wax seal.

"Wait." She pulled her hand free.

"The post just died. We had an announcement about a containment breach, the ground has been moving for the last ten minutes, and half the animals below us are running through territories they should be fighting over. What else are you waiting for?" Samuel glanced down the ridge. Silver-backed grazers crowded one ravine while smaller creatures threaded between their legs. Farther west, a young tree went over with a crack that carried through the forest.

He shifted his shield, then winced and let the arm settle again.

"The announcement told us when to use it. Direct threat or medical emergency. We can still move, and instructors were already responding before the post failed. If I call now and somebody leaves a team that can't move because of us—""And if the network is already failing?" Charlotte asked.

"We keep the beacon until it becomes useless?" Samuel opened his mouth, then shut it. The answer did not come quickly enough to sound certain. Elizabeth turned to Daniel.

"Can you get us north without putting us in front of the main movement?" Daniel was already kneeling. The knees of his field trousers had gone black with mud over the course of the day. He tried the soil first, waited through the overlapping returns, then moved his palm to a strip of exposed stone. After a while he took out the copied reserve map and held it flat against his thigh.

"The valleys are worst. Most of the heavy movement is going east and downhill, but some of it is breaking north. This line here should keep us above the widest ravines." He traced a route with one finger.

"The ground narrows farther up. Anything large would have less room to build speed." Charlotte still had one hand on the beacon.

"How sure are you?" Daniel gave the map another glance.

"About the slope? Fairly. About what's using it now? Not very." Samuel nodded towards the route.

"That's enough. We move." Charlotte clipped the beacon back to her belt.

"If somebody takes a serious injury or can't keep moving, I'm using it. I'm not arguing about the threshold again." Samuel gave a tired nod.

"Fine." They headed north-east. For the next hour the reserve kept producing evidence that its usual rules no longer mattered. A horned grazer allowed a cluster of scavengers to pass almost beneath its belly. Three ash-coloured tree lizards dropped from the canopy and ran across open ground in daylight. Near a stream, a burrowing animal surfaced in the water itself and continued uphill instead of diving back into cover. Daniel checked the map as often as he touched the ground.

At one fork he stopped long enough for Samuel to turn back.

"The printed route drops into this hollow," Daniel said, pointing to a drainage line.

"But the hollow isn't draining south anymore. Water has cut east through here. If we follow the old path, we lose height."

"Anything useful from Echo Tracker?"

"Too much to separate." Daniel rubbed mud from his palm.

"The slope is clearer than the returns." Samuel studied the ground Daniel had indicated, then gestured uphill.

"Take us that way." Daniel hesitated, only briefly, before moving ahead. At the next split, the shortest path climbed between two heavy oaks. Daniel crouched near the entrance and pressed his palm to the stone. His expression changed before he lifted his hand. Charlotte had learned not to rush him, but this time she lasted only a few seconds.

"What?"

"Something large stopped ahead. The smaller traces are bending around it." Samuel's good hand settled on his practice sword.

"How large?" Daniel tried the soil at the path's edge.

"More than a horse. Maybe twice that. I can't get anything cleaner with all this movement." The alternative route dropped towards a ravine where branches were already breaking. Daniel checked the map and shook his head before Charlotte could suggest it.

"Right side falls away after about fifty metres. There are smaller things moving along the edge as well." Samuel drew his sword.

"Then we pass slowly. Nobody attacks unless it blocks us." The fleeing animals had been bending around the patch of woodland ahead rather than moving through it. Elizabeth was still considering that when a scraping sound came from behind one of the oaks. An iron-jawed ravager stepped into the path. It stood higher at the shoulder than Samuel's chest. Four heavy limbs supported an armoured body, with a smaller grasping pair folded beneath the ribs. Dark plates overlapped along its back and flanks.

One eye had swollen shut. A rear leg dragged. A broken spear protruded between the plates near its neck, with dried black blood crusted around the wound. Charlotte whispered, "That should be south of the second observation line." Her voice dropped further.

"It crossed an entire sector."

"Or something pushed it across," Daniel said. The ravager was breathing too fast and favouring the injured leg. Elizabeth watched the set of its head.

"It's already hurt. Give it room." Samuel began backing away.

"Nobody runs." They managed three steps before Charlotte's heel came down on a dead branch. The ravager charged. Samuel glanced back once. Charlotte and Daniel were directly behind him, too close for him to move aside without leaving the charge open. He planted the shield. The impact drove him backwards through wet leaves. Pale mana flared over the barrier. Charlotte threw seeds before his boots stopped sliding, and vines burst from the soil around the ravager's front legs. The first growth snapped.

The second lasted long enough to wrench the injured rear leg sideways when the animal struck again. Samuel hit the oak at an angle. His shield split along the rim. His right shoulder struck the trunk hard enough that Elizabeth heard the joint fail. His sword dropped. Charlotte shouted his name and stepped towards him. Daniel caught the back of her cloak.

"Don't. It's turning." The ravager ripped through the remaining vines. For an instant Elizabeth saw a possible Lightning Needle line. Daniel crossed it before she gathered mana, and the broken metal spear in the ravager's neck complicated the return path anyway. She abandoned the thought and went for the injured side with her own spear. When the animal shifted, softer tissue opened behind the damaged rear joint. Elizabeth drove the point in, felt it enter only shallowly and released the shaft as the ravager kicked.

She threw herself downhill. A claw tore her sleeve from shoulder to elbow. She hit the ground and rolled behind a rock. Her arm moved normally when she pushed herself upright. A quick touch found fabric hanging loose and skin beneath it intact. She turned back. Charlotte had stopped in the clearing. Samuel was trying to get up with his left hand. His right arm hung at the wrong angle. Between them, the ravager dragged another vine free of the earth.

"Rear leg," Elizabeth called. Charlotte did not react.

"Charlotte." Still nothing. Elizabeth raised her voice.

"If you want him alive, move the ravager!" Charlotte flinched and shoved a fistful of seeds into the soil. Mana hit them hard enough that roots cracked through the surface. Fresh vines wound around the injured rear leg and dragged it sideways. Daniel reached Samuel first.

"Don't use the right arm. Give me the left. I'm going to pull when you push."

"My shoulder's out." Samuel's words came through his teeth.

"I can see it." Daniel braced himself.

"Ready?" Samuel swore, caught Daniel's forearm and forced himself upright. He went grey before he reached his feet. Elizabeth retrieved her spear while the ravager fought Charlotte's growth. The broken weapon in its neck had shifted during the charge and remained lodged through the armour. She pointed to it.

"We don't need to pierce the plates. Drive that farther in." Samuel followed the shaft with his eyes. He needed two breaths before he managed, "How?"

"Make it hit the tree." Daniel was already lowering his uncut hand to the exposed stone.

"If it commits across the rock, I should feel the weight go before it reaches us." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Samuel gave him a brief nod.

"Warn me as soon as it starts. Don't wait until you're sure." The ravager tore loose again. Samuel bent for the least damaged half of his shield, nearly lost it when his shoulder shifted and got it into his left hand on the second try. The creature charged. Daniel's palm flattened against the stone.

"It's committing—now." Samuel moved too late for a clean escape. Charlotte hauled on the injured rear leg; the ravager lurched sideways and clipped Samuel with its flank before crashing shoulder-first into the oak. The broken spear struck bark and drove deeper. Black blood ran between the plates. Charlotte bent over with one hand on her knee.

"I can't pull that hard again."

"Then don't," Elizabeth said.

"Only spoil the injured leg when it plants." The next exchange came apart before they could settle the timing. The ravager feinted towards Samuel and turned on Charlotte. Daniel's warning came late. Elizabeth struck armour instead of the wound. Samuel caught the animal on the broken shield badly enough that the impact spun him half around. One of the smaller grasping limbs raked past Daniel when he moved. He got a hand up and took the tip across his knuckles and cheek before jerking clear. They scattered.

Daniel stared at the blood across his fingers, then wiped the hand hard against his trousers and crouched again. Samuel swallowed, one side of his face pinched with pain.

"Earlier if you can."

"I know." Daniel pressed his uncut palm back to the stone.

"I'm trying." The ravager wheeled towards Samuel again. Daniel called before Elizabeth saw the commitment.

"It's taking you. Wait—wait—now." Samuel showed it enough of an opening to keep the charge straight. Charlotte's vines caught the bad leg later than before and dragged it only partway. The ravager stumbled rather than falling, forcing Samuel to throw himself clear. Elizabeth came in from the wounded side. The broken shaft had shifted lower against the oak. She changed her angle at the last instant and drove the butt of her spear against it. Wood punched deeper through flesh. The ravager tried to turn.

Its forelimbs folded instead. Elizabeth backed out of reach while it shuddered against the roots, then went still. Samuel sagged against the oak. Charlotte had gone pale, one hand pressed flat against her stomach while she stared at his shoulder. Daniel kept rubbing blood from his knuckles even after there was little left to remove. Elizabeth's own fingers trembled when she tightened them around the spear. Daniel crouched and listened through the stone again.

After several seconds he said, "Movement below us has changed. Two heavier returns turned away from the ravine. More are crossing east."

"Coming here?" Samuel asked.

"I can't tell. I don't want to stay long enough to find out." Charlotte turned on Samuel.

"Sit down. Please. I need you to stop pretending that because you can stand, we're still fine." She fumbled at the clasp of her pouch, missed it and swore.

"Your arm is hanging wrong. You can't use the sword. You nearly went down twice. I wanted the beacon before, and maybe that would have been too early, but this isn't." Samuel started to answer. Pain stopped him halfway through the first word. He rested the back of his head against the oak until it passed. Elizabeth opened the medical kit. The shoulder was visibly displaced, but swelling had already spread around the joint and she could not rule out a fracture.

Trying to reduce it without knowing what had broken risked doing more damage.

"I'm immobilising it."

"Don't put it back," Samuel said quickly.

"I wasn't going to." She padded the arm and folded the forearm across his torso, then bound it there. Samuel turned his face towards the tree while she tightened the cloth. Charlotte sat beside him with the beacon case across her knees.

"Can you still produce the barrier?" Charlotte asked when Elizabeth finished. Samuel flexed his left hand.

"Some."

"How much is some?" He did not answer. Elizabeth closed the medical kit.

"Use the beacon." This time Samuel only nodded. Charlotte broke the wax seal and pressed the central crystal. Red light filled the case. A tone sounded once, then again. The third pulse began and cut off halfway through. Charlotte stared at the crystal.

"Did it send?" Daniel shook his head.

"I don't know." Samuel held out his left hand. Charlotte passed him the case. He pressed the control himself. One tone. Two. Half of the third again. For several seconds nobody spoke. Charlotte said, "What if it would have worked before?" Samuel kept his attention on the red glow.

"I don't know." She looked away. He gave the beacon back to her. Elizabeth surveyed the clearing: the dead ravager, churned earth, blood and broken vegetation.

"We shouldn't wait here. Anything following the disturbance below reaches this route easily, and anything tracking blood reaches us." Daniel opened the map beside the body.

"There's a stone-backed rise north-east of here. I marked it when we passed the drainage split. Medium trees, exposed rock, steep ground on the west side. Most of the movement I can still separate is staying below it."

"How long?" Samuel asked.

"Less than an hour if we slow down for you." Daniel said it without looking up from the map.

"If we try to keep the pace from this morning, longer." Samuel did not argue.

"Take us there." They reached the rise with daylight thinning through the trees. Samuel had stopped trying to hide every bad step; when the shoulder jarred, he simply stopped until he could move again. Dried blood pulled at Daniel's cheek whenever he spoke. Charlotte said little after the beacon failed, but each time Samuel slowed she slowed too, usually pretending to check the ground or the trees around them.

The rise was exposed stone broken by roots, with no broad run-up from the west and only two narrow approaches through the trees. Charlotte tested several trunks before choosing two close enough to support one another if they had to move between them.

"These will hold," she said.

"Or they should, unless something much larger than the ravager tries to climb." She scattered the last useful handful of seeds around the roots and fed mana into them. Thickened growth formed rough handholds and reinforced several branches. She also sent two flexible vines across the gap between the neighbouring trunks so they could cross without descending. By the time she stopped, her hands were shaking and the colour had drained from her face. Samuel noticed her swallowing.

"Sit down before you fall."

"I was going to." Charlotte lowered herself onto the stone and kept her eyes closed until the nausea passed enough for her to breathe normally. Getting Samuel into the tree took all three of them. He climbed one-handed until his boot slipped when the injured shoulder brushed the trunk. Daniel moved under him. Elizabeth looped a rope over a higher branch and took part of his weight while he hauled himself up with his left arm. Halfway, Samuel stopped with his forehead against the bark.

Nobody spoke until he started climbing again. From the higher branches the mountains were visible through the evening haze. Charlotte stared north while Daniel unfolded the reserve map across his knee.

"How far tomorrow?" she asked.

"Normally, perhaps half a day from here." Daniel traced the safer route.

"With Samuel's shoulder, avoiding the valleys and assuming nothing forces us west again, I'd plan for a full day." Samuel lowered himself carefully against the trunk.

"Then we plan for a day." Charlotte started arranging the strongest branches as one sleeping platform until Samuel stopped her.

"Two trees. If something reaches one trunk, I don't want all four of us trapped above it. You stay here with me. Elizabeth takes the other." He nodded towards Daniel on the ground.

"Daniel takes first watch below." Daniel glanced up.

"I was going to volunteer."

"You've been using Echo Tracker since morning."

"And you can barely get down again. I'm awake anyway." Daniel tightened the last safety knot instead of continuing the argument.

"If something comes over the stone, I'll feel it before any of you hear it." Charlotte, still pale from the mana expenditure, said, "He should take first." Samuel rested his head against the trunk for a moment. When he answered, the fight had gone out of the objection.

"Fine. Elizabeth stays awake above you. Charlotte and I sleep. Wake me for the next ground shift. If I can't get down safely, Elizabeth takes it and Charlotte stays up here." Daniel nodded. They left one rope hanging low enough for him to climb quickly if he needed to. Samuel passed down the least damaged section of his broken shield, and Daniel propped it beside the roots before settling one hand against the exposed stone.

Charlotte clipped the still-glowing beacon beside him where its light could be seen from either tree. Above, Samuel and Charlotte secured themselves in one trunk. Elizabeth tied herself into the neighbouring tree, close enough to reach the vine bridge if they needed to cross between them. Far below, the stampede had broken into separate streams. The trunks still trembled whenever something large moved through the lower forest. They waited until the light was gone. No instructor came.