Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

information like this, he often would write it down so that others had something to refer to. Grae was a very considerate man. Rune tried to be more like his master, but often he didn’t have the sense of what the right thing would be to do. He ended up emulating Grae more often than not.
    Grae’s head cocked slightly as he came under the gate’s shadow. “How’s Wolf?”
    “Not depressed, now.” Rune felt a sense of self-satisfaction saying that.
    Eyebrows climbing, Grae asked in surprise, “Truly? After fighting with Siobhan, Wolf’s usually depressed the rest of the day. At least. What did you say?”
    Come to think of it, Rune didn’t know what the magic phrase had been to pull Wolf out of his funk. “We talked about a lot of things. I told him to ask Markl for advice.”
    For some reason, Grae gave him an odd look. “Markl.”
    “Markl knows how to protect without making the women angry with him.”
    “Well, I grant you that. Ever since he and Sylvie started courting, I think I only saw her get angry at him once. After that, he seemed to have figured out how to handle her.” And that was saying something. Every man in the guild had a new respect for Markl due to his skills in pacifying Sylvie. She could be temperamental at times. “Well, I’m glad Wolf’s been sorted out. Let’s get to work, then.”
    Rune fell into step with his master. It was only when they passed through the gate entirely that he saw Ryu Jin Ho. The man had an eyeglass up and was peering in the direction of Goldschmidt. When they stopped next to him, he lowered it, but kept facing toward the other city as he commented, “It truly is flat the entire distance. I could actually see the city from here.”
    That must be a powerful spyglass to manage that. It was nearly sixty spans from here to Goldschmidt.
    Ryu Jin Ho frowned as he said, “Land this flat is going to make our jobs harder. It will be difficult to approach Goldschmidt without being seen.”
    “Which is why Wolf thought of using paths, no doubt.” Grae had that expression on his face that suggested he was doing calculations on some level. “How many men should we assume we must transport?”
    Ryu Jin Ho shook his head as he corrected, “You tell me that. How many men can you transport at once?”
    “I’m not entirely sure right now.” That was Grae-speak for: he had an idea, but couldn’t give precise figures.
    Rune took that as his cue and sank down onto his haunches. With one hand, he rummaged into his belt pouch, drawing by feel alone the tool he needed.
    The first two months of learning pathmaking had been all about the patterns, how to calculate for weight and distance, and what areas were considered un-crossable because of the various landmarks. But after that, Rune had been taught that in order to do pathmaking, there were quite a few tools involved. Glass vials for testing water composition and soil, small spades to help firmly plant stones into the ground, measuring tape, and pruning shears, to start. He’d had Beirly help him create a pouch that would hold all of it and prevent things from being jumbled or damaged. They’d had to refine the design as he kept adding tools, but it let him draw things out without having to open the pouch and dump it onto the ground to find something.
    For now, he drew his spade, a glass vial, and another vial of treated paper strips. With efficient movements, he dug up a little of the ground, dumped it into the glass vial, then put a strip of paper inside before putting the stop on and shaking it hard next to his ear. With it properly mixed, he lowered it again and took out the strip. Middling blue in color. Hmm.
    “Looks like you’re right, Grae. There’s power here, but not enough for a coral pattern.”
    Grae sighed but didn’t look surprised. “The ground hasn’t changed since I built a path here nine years ago, then. Sometimes it does, when it’s this close to the sea. We really are limited to the evergreen