The first freight report reached Bracken Weir before the freight.
Brin’s oldest page was thirty-five days old. Iven checked the date, then read the route changes before the list of parts. The first heavy train had left Riven Gate a week after the light party, taken the lower road around the closed gallery and lost two days waiting for a flooded cutting to drain. Its captain still expected a journey within the longer freight range.
Not a failure to keep up with people on foot.
A different journey carrying different weight.
The page held another note in Brin’s neat hand: the long drill stocks and the replacement coolant vessel were on later loads. No one had pretended a marked departure meant a receipt at Rootwell.
Tavin remained at the Gate coordinating the next departures when the page was written. Brin had included a small drawing of the loading yard, with a particularly unreasonable timber stack marked for the attention of anyone who thought volume could be negotiated.
Iven laughed over it.
Neri looked up from her footing section.
