The first scout returned without his map.
Tavin found him at the outer transfer platform, sitting against a crate with one boot off. His name was Harun, and he had spent the past eleven years carrying route reports between Mercy and the ground stations. The missing map was not his worst loss. His partner, Sen, had not returned at all.
“She was behind me at the split,” he said. “We heard something in the stone. I went left toward the marker, and she went right to check the shelter. Then the ground started coming apart.”
“How far?” Tavin asked.
“Half a day’s walk from the descent. The old tooth ridge. The shelter is cut into the east side.”
Iven knelt beside the boot. Harun’s foot was swollen, but the skin was intact. Sera’s clinic would decide whether anything was broken. Harun kept trying to pull the boot back on.
“You’re not going out again like that,” Tavin said.
“Sen knows the route better than I do. She’ll stay at the shelter if she can reach it.”
