Two lights

The signal did not repeat itself.

Nym put his ear against the door of the salt pan. "Was it two splinters?"

"Yes," says Zaelyra.

"Then we come back," replied the guard.

Kethra looked at the north gallery. "Ilda didn't come back."

"The signal was not a call to follow her," says Rhylor. "It was the order to turn around."

"What if she's hurt?"

"We don't know."

Zaelyra asked Nara. They waited near the door, without touching the lamps. The dean arrived with two guards, still dressed in her work tunic.

"Who was with Ilda? She asked.

"No one," replied the guard. "She wanted to inspect the north gate herself."

Nara turned to the messenger. "Where is the second guardian?"

The young svirfneblin looked down. "He had to join her. He didn't come back either."

Zaelyra did not offer to leave immediately. She explained what they knew: Ilda had gone to inspect the door, two lights had been given, no answer had come back. The signal meant they had to come back, but it didn't say if the door was dangerous.

"We have to go get them," says Kethra.

"This is our gallery," Nara replied. "We're going to decide who's in."

"I know. I'm not asking you to open the passage for us."

"You ask for it anyway."

Kethra looked away. Zaelyra understood that she would not give up the search for Saira, but this time she did not confuse her concern with a right.

Nara had the plan of the conducts brought. The light signal came from a shutter lamp installed near the north door, visible from the Salines hautes. If Ilda had activated it twice, she asked the team to come back. But the absence of the goalkeeper complicated the interpretation: they could be in difficulty, or have simply chosen another exit.

"I'm going to send two people," Nara said. "You will stay here."

Kethra took a step, then stopped.

The dean noticed it. "Do you have anything to add?"

"No."

The two guards left with a rope and an emergency lamp. Nara gave them a delay of one hour. After forty minutes, only one light appeared, then disappeared immediately.

"They saw us," said Rhylor.

"Or someone turned the lamp," Nym replied.

Nara didn't move. "We are waiting for the report."

Patience lasted less than an hour. A guard came back alone, pale with dust. Ilda was stuck in the control chamber. The second guard had slipped into an evacuation duct and fractured his ankle. The main door could no longer open without moving a valve that risked breaking.

"They are alive?" asked Nara.

"Yes. The water rises in the room, but slowly. They closed the inner shutter."

Nym asked for the plan. He followed the network to the bypass valve. "If the low pipe is still under pressure, the water fills the room from the east. It is necessary to isolate the return before pushing the door."

"Can you do it?" asked Nara.

"I can tell you how to check. The goalkeepers will have to turn the wheel."

The council met without leaving the court. Nara asked Zaelyra to choose four people to accompany the guards. She did not grant a general passage; she authorized a rescue team, for a specific duration, with Ilda to find and then bring back.

"If you touch another door, the agreement is canceled," she says.

"Understood," replied Zaelyra.

This time, Kethra was chosen. She did not protest. Rhylor took the ropes, Nym the tools, keeps his lamp. Zaelyra followed them with a copy of the plan.

The control chamber was noisier than before. The water was hitting somewhere behind the walls. They found the first mark on the ground: Ilda's lamp, placed on the side, its flap stuck halfway through the race.

Two splinters could have been a signal. The third had been suffocated by the mechanism.

Nym indicated the return valve. The guards turned her around an eighth circle. The noise changed, but the water did not go down. They waited for the pipes to empty, without forcing.

"We have to close the secondary return," says Nym. "But only after this pressure has dropped."

Kethra observed the marks on the wheel. "She hasn't moved since the last inspection."

"How do you know? Zaelyra asked.

"The dust is intact around the third notch."

Nym checked. She was right. They waited again. The injured guard called from the other side of the wall. His voice was weak but clear.

"We're here," Zaelyra shouted. "Don't move."

"I didn't plan to dance," he replied.

The stroke of humor reassured Nara more than the measures. She put her hand on the wall, then signaled to continue.

After several minutes, Nym gave the signal. The guards turned the wheel. The pipe vibrated, then the pressure relaxed. The water stopped rising.

The door opened through a side passage, just wide enough to let in one rescuer at a time. Ilda was sitting in the water up to her knees. She held the guard's leg still with a strap. She had a cut in her temple, but remained conscious.

"I told you to come back," she said when she saw Zaelyra.

"We're back."

"After."

"Yes."

Ilda closed her eyes, exhausted. "This is the answer I was waiting for."

The guard was out first, tied to a board. Ilda refused to be wear it. She walked leaning on Kethra, without complaining. Once in the corridor, she asked if anyone had opened the north door.

"No," Zaelyra replied.

"The room?"

"Just to help you."

"And the register?"

"It stayed where you left it."

Ilda observed the small wound on his hand. "You could have taken the opportunity to continue."

"Yes."

"Why didn't you do it?"

"Because we came to pick you up."

Nara signaled them to follow her. She didn't thank them in front of everyone. She first asked the guard what he had seen, then Nym to confirm the order of the valves. Everyone gave their version separately. The facts agreed, with one difference: Kethra said that the dust of the third notch had moved; the second guard had not been able to verify it.

"This detail must remain an observation of Kethra," says Nara. "Not a certainty."

"Okay," she replied.

Upon their return to the Salines, the council lifted the ban on staying in the outer courtyard. He still did not grant free access to the galleries, but accepted that a small caravan crossed the eastern route under Ilda's guidance.

"You will go to the watch post," says Nara. "There, you will stop and wait for a guide from the next refuge. You will not continue without his agreement."

"We accept," says Zaelyra.

"You haven't asked those who follow you yet."

She turned to the group. Those who had chosen to leave had already left. The others discussed, then accepted the road, except for the woman whose brother was injured. She preferred to wait for her recovery at the Salines.

His brother hesitated. "I can walk."

"You can walk to the first slope," she says. "After that, you don't know."

He looked at Zaelyra. "Can't you carry me?"

"Yes. But it will take strength from those who will carry you. You have to choose with them, not for them."

He told the two volunteer porters about it. After a while, they decided to leave together, with more frequent stops. The sister stayed in the Salines. She did not kiss her brother; she only gave him a bottle of water and asked him not to lose it.

In the morning, Ilda escorted the group to the eastern gate. She did not go beyond that.

"If you come back, knock three times, wait, then once," she says. "Don't take our old sign for an invitation."

Zaelyra repeated the code. She had the guides repeat it. Then she wrote down the rules in the road book, with Ilda's name and the date.

"Do you always write the names?" asked the caretaker.

"Those of the people who gave us information. Not the ones we are looking for."

"Why?"

"To know who to ask if the map becomes fake."

Ilda thought, then approved. "Then write my name."

The door closed behind them. This time, no one tried to keep it open.