They walked the last ridge stage home beside a wagon carrying the pump.
Neri kept a little ahead where the path widened. Iven stayed on the drop side, not because his body could stop a loaded wagon from overturning, but because he could see the wheel’s line and tell the driver before it came too close to the edge.
The driver, Korl, had stopped thanking him for every warning and begun swearing at the road instead.
Iven considered that an improvement.
Behind them, the temporary bridge remained under Bey’s watch. The heaviest loads had crossed that morning in split beds. Tavin was still with the rear group, making the last two land stages. He would reach Sedge Ladder when those stages were finished, likely the following day.
Nobody needed to bring him into sight early to make the reunion feel nearer.
At the final turn, the floodplain opened below them.
The brown water had fallen enough to show the top of the sacrificial panel’s frame. Neri stopped and studied the new current through the overflow bed. It ran well clear of the main houses, carrying fine silt toward an empty lower basin rather than piling it against the repaired bank.
