The right to return

Nara received them before the end of the air cycle. Ilda had already presented his report. The dean placed the two tablets on the table: the one where Nym's measurements appeared and the one where Ilda had copied Saira's name.

"You could have opened the door," said the counselor who wanted to send them back.

"Yes," Zaelyra replied.

"It may have contained a road."

"Yes."

"And you left it closed."

"That was the condition."

"If the conditions of a foreigner matter more than the need of his group, then he cannot protect anything."

"We could choose not to ask for passage. We couldn't promise to obey and then do the opposite."

The counselor turned against his seat. "You talk as if the rules are enough."

"They are not enough. But their absence would not have helped us."

Nara took the tablet marked with the name. "Kethra, do you recognize the hand?"

"No. I recognize the three strokes, but not the engraving. The Saira I'm looking for used a similar brand. It's possible that it's her."

"Do you intend to stay?"

"If we are allowed to pass, I will follow the group. I will not ask your inhabitants to accompany me."

"What if we refuse?"

Kethra looked at the tablet. "I would go back with them."

"You wouldn't try to open the door alone?"

"No."

The answer had cost something. Zaelyra saw him in the way Kethra kept her hands on her knees, away from the tablet.

The council moved away to deliberate. From the threshold, Zaelyra heard the voices, but not the words. She did not try to listen to them. Brakka had gathered the families in the courtyard and made them aware of the possible outcome: stay in the Salines under observation, leave for the stop, or follow the eastern route if it was granted.

No option was suitable for everyone.

A woman wanted to leave as soon as possible. His brother, injured in the leg, preferred to wait. A young merchant thought that the svirfneblins were wasting their time. The mother of the girl with the notched chin wanted her to stay close to her; the girl replied that she had not yet chosen her next move.

"You have the right not to know," Zaelyra told him.

"That's what everyone here says."

"Because it's true."

"What if I never choose?"

"Then the others will have to decide what they do without pretending that you have chosen for them."

The girl sat near the door. Her mother put a blanket next to her, without touching her.

The Council returned with an interim decision. The group could stay three days in the outer courtyard, without access to the living rooms. A svirfneblin team would inspect the door to the north, accompanied by Nym as an observer. Two travelers from Zaelyra could participate in the repairs of the low conduit, under the direction of Ilda. At the end of these three days, the inhabitants would decide whether to allow the passage to the west.

"It's not an open road," says Nara. "It's a trial period."

"We accept," replied Zaelyra.

"Your group hasn't responded yet."

Zaelyra turned to the court and repeated the conditions. No one answered right away. The man at the two dores asked if the food would be provided. The answer was no. The injured woman asked if she could leave if her condition worsened. Ilda replied that they would help her reach the stop, but that she could not promise the safety of the journey.

At the end, everyone raised their hand to say if they agreed to stay three days. Many refused. They would leave the next day by the way back, with a corrected map of the bridge. The group did not try to hold them back.

Kethra volunteered to work on driving. Nym preferred that Pell accompany him, but the boy was too young to carry the tools. It was the guard, the one who had opened the march, who left with them.

"Do you know how to listen to orders?" asked Ilda.

"I know how to listen to the instructions."

"It's not the same thing."

"I'll find out."

Ilda handed him a pair of gloves. "Start by not touching anything."

The inspection lasted the rest of the day. Nym drew the pipe network from what Ilda showed him. Kethra sorted the tools, noting those that were missing. The guard held the lamp and asked questions before moving. In the second hour, Ilda entrusted him with a key.

"Turn until the first stop. No more."

He obeys. The wheel resisted, then gave way by a quarter turn. The water changed its sound in the copper.

"There you go," said Ilda. "You followed an instruction without turning it into a test of courage."

"Can I get a pride out of it?"

"No. You can remember the difference."

The guard smiled in spite of himself.

Meanwhile, Zaelyra helped Nara compare the travelers' map with the old Salines surveys. The layouts overlapped badly. Some corridors had been closed after landslides; others existed only on second-hand copies.

"You kept the maps of the people who betrayed you? Zaelyra asked.

"We kept the facts they had left behind. Intentions, we cannot archive them."

"And the name of their son?"

"Nara put his hand on the edge of the statement. "His name was Ulven. He is twenty-seven years old today, if he is alive."

"Do you think he followed the travelers?"

"I think he chose to go out. I don't know if he understood who they were."

"Are you waiting for him?"

"No. Nara folded the plan. "I'm waiting for someone to come back with information. It's not the same thing."

In the evening, Zaelyra drew two maps. The first showed the passage they had followed, with the team's records. The second indicated the places where they had been welcomed and the limits imposed by the inhabitants. She did not join the two leaves.

Ithryl, who had spent the day inventorying the stories, sat in front of her.

"You changed the way you draw."

"What do you mean?"

"Before, you wanted a map to lead somewhere. Now, you also mark where to stop."

"I've always marked obstacles."

"The obstacles, yes. Not the refusals."

She observed the two leaves. "A refusal is also a limit of the field."

"Not for everyone. Some will try to pass anyway."

"Then the map must tell them that it is not only dangerous. It is forbidden by those who live there."

Ithryl nodded. He wrote the date and name of Nara next to the limit, without noting that of his son. The council had not allowed this information to travel.

At the dawn of the second day, a signal sounded from the north gallery. Two lights appeared on the shutter of Ilda's lamp.

The travelers gathered in the courtyard. Zaelyra took the map, Rhylor the rope and Nym his pencil case. Kethra stood still near the door, her hand on the repaired buckle.

The first light meant they were waiting for an answer.

The second said they had to come back.

But Ilda had not yet returned from the tunnel.