The old cooling frame made rain in a town that had not seen a cloud for six days.
It was not working yet. Verit had sent one bucket through the cleaned upper trough to show the crew where it ought to fall. Water ran over the first wooden comb, divided into bright threads and vanished through the empty spaces where two lower combs were missing. The bucket struck the bottom basin in one heavy splash.
“That’s what we have,” she said. “What we need is time in the air.”
On day 1227, Ember Wash could keep its essential heat loop running through the new return line at the agreed reduced volume. The cooling yard received that volume safely. Full furnace duty required the tall frame to spread the warm return over its wetted surfaces, let cooler air pass through and collect the water again. Ordinary machinery would carry that work, using water, moving air and enough time. Iven could help lift a comb. He could not stand at the top pretending to be a season’s wind.
The frame occupied the outer quarry shelf, clear of the houses. Its timber legs rose from stone shoes. A chain lift carried maintenance platforms up each side; the water went higher through a separate pipe driven by the yard pump. Verit knew the lower circuit well. Her predecessor had stopped the upper system after a distribution comb split and a pump seal began leaking. The quiet yard had survived because she kept its drains…
