Pei Jing followed the goat track down the eastern cliff. Shale clicked under his boots. Where the path turned sharply, he put one hand against the granite and felt for the next ledge. By the time he reached the gorge floor, the sun stood two fingers above the cliffs.
The air smelled of river moss and woodsmoke. It had been a long time since he could smell a cook fire clearly through the smoke from the rift.
Over the next three days, the wagons in the rearguard went through the eastern gate. The last of them needed new wheels. Foot parties used the high paths to leave room for the teams below. Shi Kang kept the gate tally while Duan carried water back to the people waiting along the road.
After the last wagon passed and Shi released the salvage crews, Pei Jing went back through the empty northern basin. One of Vor’s supply sleds had overturned in the retreat. Its iron runners were buried in frozen salt, but the ward on its cargo still held. Inside, he found two Top-Grade Spirit Stones and stones worth two thousand one hundred and seventy-eight High-Grade Spirit Stones. He put them in storage beside the seven hundred and eighty-six high-grade stones left after he put fifty into the gorge’s common defense stores.
