On day 1185, the engineer who had used Venn’s archive arrived carrying a model of a bridge in a basket of onions.
Her name was Avra Pellin. She came from the western station with two freight workers and a letter from Ren, who had met her on day 1183 at a road shelter two days west of Pale Reach. Her separately booked engineering visit was already under way; she had not been summoned to cross several freight days in an afternoon. The letter said that Avra had agreed to answer questions about the archive’s work, provided the council understood she did not speak for Mael Venn.
She set the basket on the workshop floor and lifted out the onions one by one. Beneath them lay a delicate structure of wooden strips joined by tiny brass pins. Its curved upper beam had been broken in two and repaired with a darker piece of wood.
“Why onions?” Iven asked.
“They keep the pieces from moving. Also, the station cook wanted onions.”
Veit crouched beside the model. “That’s a traveling bridge.”
“It’s a model of one. The real bridge carries a narrow platform across a gorge. A team can move the platform along the upper beam without putting weight on the riverbanks.”
