The message reached Iven at First Vent in the middle of the afternoon.
The watch skiff had carried it twelve kilometers to the Gate. A runner had brought it up the six-kilometer road. The paper named thirteen survivors, one confirmed dead and one engineer left below the burning deck.
Tavin was alive.
Iven read that first, then made himself read everything else.
He could not reach the bank by wanting the distance to become smaller. He could leave properly, with the means to help when he arrived. Leth had the station’s reduced condition. Kesh accepted the recovery guard turn. The receiving watch found a pilot who knew the long shallow back channel, where a small skiff could pass behind stone and reeds that would never have admitted the loaded Cinderwake.
They went down the road and onto the water.
By the time they reached the watch landing, it was dark.
Tavin stood when he saw Iven, then stopped as if he had forgotten what standing was meant to accomplish. Soot remained in the seams of his coat. One hand was dressed. His eyes looked fixed on something that was no longer in front of him.
