The Sixth Knot left Ironcloud with medicine, replacement pump assemblies, preserved food, and three crates of mining tools secured beneath its deck.
The outpost lay northeast of the stronghold, built into a narrow cut where two mountain ridges met. Its dock could accept only one small airship at a time. Larger vessels dropped cargo by crane or landed twenty miles away.
For Five Knots, the route was exactly the kind of work they had hoped to find.
Tessa kept the ship above the rough currents that rolled over the first ridge. Kesh marked their position from beacon towers and old cuts in the mountain. Min monitored the lift chamber while Belda and Orin checked the cargo lines whenever the ship entered turbulence.
The Sixth Knot was still new enough that every unfamiliar vibration drew someone's attention.
They reached the outpost before sunset on the second day.
