Forty-Three Kilos

The cage came up at noon on the third day after they lowered it.

Nineteen hours down, nineteen hours up. The rest was the time the cage had sat at the bottom. Which also meant the time someone had spent down there doing something.

All three days, Willa slept at the foot of the tower.

Four oxen turned the winch. The sound of chain winding in had gone on since morning.

At the last ten meters, one of the miners called out.

“Here it comes.”

The cage rose out of the hole.

Harlan read the scale.

“Forty-three kilos.”

Willa ran. Nobody could have stopped her.

＊

Inside the cage was a single glass cylinder of water.

And wrapped around the tube, a sheet of paper.

Willa untied the cord and opened the paper out.

Then she said nothing for a while. Not because she was slow at reading.

“…This writing is awful. What is this. What is this writing.”

“Can you read it?” Roslyn said.

“I can read it. I can read it, but it's awful. It's really, really awful.”

Her hands were shaking while she said it.

Willa read it out loud. She stumbled three times.

Alive. There was one man down here. Alive nine years.

Fourteen are not dead. Thirteen are dead. They are laid out in a row.

Can't come up by cage. Climbing another way. Takes thirty days.

If thirty days pass and I'm not there, wait a little longer.

No answer yet. I'll say it up top.

When she finished, Willa pressed the paper against her chest.

Then she crouched down and covered her face with both hands.

“It says he's alive.”

Nobody answered.

“He wrote it himself, that he's alive. Idiot. What an idiot.”

After that nothing came out as sound. Her shoulders went up and down for maybe thirty seconds, then she stood and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

“Roslyn. Copy this. Two copies. No — three.”

“I have made three copies. While you were reading it aloud.”

“Wait, huh? Already? Isn't that fast?”

“It is my profession.”

Roslyn pushed her glasses up. Her chest was out, just slightly.

＊

Silas put his hand out right after that.

“That paper came out of an Imperial shaft. It will be sent to Central as a record. Kindly hand it to me.”

“No.”

“It is regulation.”

“I said no.”

Silas took one step forward, and Drag moved in between. He only moved in. He did nothing else.

That was enough. Silas's head came up to Drag's chest and no higher.

“Meredith. I have a question.”

“Please.”

“Your stamp is on the last six cage weight records.”

“I stamped them.”

“All six say forty-three kilos. The cage alone is forty kilos. That's three kilos over.”

“That is correct.”

“Did you notice.”

Silas set his glasses straight.

“Notice is hardly the word. I weighed it myself.”

“On the papers you wrote ‘empty.’”

“A cage with no person in it is called empty. The three kilos of cargo are entered in the cargo column. A different column.”

Harlan lifted his head.

“The cargo column papers never come to us here.”

“No. They are sent straight to Central.”

“Nine years, I thought it was empty.”

“It is empty. No person rides in it.”

Harlan said nothing more. The side of his face with the burn never shows anything to begin with. He stood with that side turned to them.

＊

That night, Drag gathered the guards and the drivers.

“The wagons go out day after tomorrow. Take the empty load at the outpost and head west.”

“And the Captain?”

“Stays.”

“Regulations say—”

“I know the regulations. Roslyn Vake will write the papers. It's my decision. Mine to answer for.”

Nobody argued. They were not a unit that made an oak of a captain say a thing three times.

Willa spoke before anyone spoke to her.

“I'm staying too.”

“The hauling contract is round trip.”

“I'll break it.”

“There's a penalty.”

“I'll pay. My copper coins are still untouched.”

Drag drew a line at the edge of the roster.

“The penalty is held. I decide in thirty days.”

＊

The next morning, Silas Meredith was gone.

The hut was tidy. No baggage, no papers, no stamp. The bedding was folded and set on the pillow.

One horse and twenty liters of water were missing.

Harlan looked at the prints where the horse had stood.

“East.”

“What's east?” Drag asked.

“Nothing. Six days on horseback.”

“And past six days?”

Before he answered, Harlan looked once toward the tower.

“The Lonely Land. I've never heard a story out of anyone who went.”

Roslyn wrote on her board. She spoke quietly while she wrote.

“It is the second day.”

“Second day of what.”

“The second day since Marlow Kane began climbing. He arrives on the thirtieth day. If Meredith takes six days by horse, he arrives there twenty-two days ahead of him.”

End of Chapter 16