The final task of Day ninety had nothing to do with stone, chisels, or exact grids. It was the delicate, patient craft of the desert caravan.
A four-pace Step square in Kilnstep could be cleared of living creatures in ten seconds by looking under a workbench for a sleeping barn cat. But Coldwork Bench and the South Mountain Shoulder were two huge Quarter parcels, each measuring two hundred and fifty-six paces on a side. Across sixty-five thousand square yards of rugged mountain terrain, dozens of wild creatures—alpine marmots, mountain hares, rock badgers, and nesting ptarmigans—lived in the frost-crevices and shale screes.
Under the unchanging law of the bonded notebook, any untagged living animal larger than a human hand that remained inside the boundary plane during an exchange would trigger an immediate class abort, freezing the activation and potentially injuring the mapper.
To clear two massive parcels without using poison or fire, Kezra used the brilliant, humane method that caravan master Joric Thane had taught her in the bitter salt wastes of Saltglass on Day thirty-seven.
The technique of using flutter-lines to clear wild animals from a large parcel was one of the oldest trade secrets of the great desert caravans.
