The Marchers brought their own witness.
Iven saw her first as a change in the far bank. A low rise beyond the reeds lifted, shedding muddy water in long threads. Then the dark curve turned and became a crown, smaller than Reed-of-Glass’s and marked by a white fracture that had healed crookedly above one eye.
Pera put her mallet down.
“She wasn’t at the earlier exchange.”
“Who is she?” Eshra asked.
“People call her Many-Shallows. She uses a longer name with a moving part I can’t reproduce on this frame.”
The visitor stood a little apart from Reed-of-Glass. Her forward limbs rested on two submerged shelves, leaving the narrow inlet clear between them. Behind her, farther across the floodplain, two younger bodies moved through the high reeds.
The nursery remained out of sight.
