On day 1145, the test warning reached Three Wells at noon, and half the people in the hall heard a different message from the one Heda had sent.
There was no danger. That was the purpose of the test. Heda had sent the agreed pattern for a closed road, followed by the return-confirmation sequence. The new temporary resonator at Three Wells had received all of it. Yet the sound of the final pair of notes was so close to the local pattern for a water warning that three listeners wrote down rising water instead of a blocked road.
Iven stood beside the resonator with a chalk board. He had been certain he heard the road pattern. Neri, across the room, had written water. The keeper from the northern station had written both and drawn a question mark between them.
Heda’s written test log left Three Steps by the ordinary messenger route that day. Three Wells lay eighty kilometers away by that route; the prepared journey required five days. Until the log arrived on day 1150, the listeners could compare their answers but not know which was correct. Pera collected the slips without reading them aloud. Elian noted where each listener had stood and whether they had heard the earlier signals at First Vent.
