Yes, that would explain much. "If the other springs in the area are cloaked, then we know that the oni are using them. Look for what is missing instead of what is there."
"Huh? Oh, yes, that would work. Now, my gate was here." She drew in a black circle above the line, and then added a second black circle at the bottom of the board. "And that's the gate in orbit. I set up a resonance between then." The resonance was represented by a wavy line connecting the two black circles that ran through the heart of the purple spring oval. "I think what Impatience is telling me is that along this line, a discontinuity emerged, which immediately affected the land under my gate."
She turned and typed on a keyboard. The television which had been cycling pictures of Turtle Creek stopped on a blur of blue. "This is thermal readings of the discontinuity. It's hard to see, but this area here." She tapped a circle at the heart of the screen. "That's the same size and shape as my gate, lying on its side."
Tinker turned back to the white board, and drew a series of black circles stacked inside the pool of purple. "See, as it sinks, the area affected by the gate would expand." She stepped back from the board, gazing at it. "I'm not a hundred percent sure this is an accurate model, but it explains why the effect is growing."
"Even though the gate in orbit was destroyed?"
"Each gate was designed to operate independently."
"So if we remove the gate, the discontinuity will heal?"
Tinker sighed. "I don't know. If I'm right, and we can get the gate out, it will at least stop the Ghostlands from growing."
Wolf considered what Jewel Tears claimed about the current forces working in the valley. "That would be good enough for now. We need to do something quickly."
"Well, I'm not getting anything done here." She picked up various items and slipped them into her pocket. "I can get to work on the retrieval now."
Chapter 20: Follow The Yellow Brick Road
Stone Clan chose to wait until the next morning to protest Wind Clan's actions. Wolf wasn't sure why they had delayed, so he stood and listened to Earth Son rant on about protocol and etiquette.
"Wind Clan is insulting us at every step. Look," Earth Son pointed up the tall iron wood scaffolding to where Tinker stood, overseeing the installation of her scrap yard crane. Little Horse was up in the scaffolding with her, but the rest of her Hand were keeping to the ground. "Wind Clan's domi hasn't come down to hear our complaints."
Wolf made a show of glancing around. "We did not know this was to be a formal aumani. I see the rock, but where is the incense and the flame?"
Wolf surprised True Flame into a smile, but the prince caught himself and gave him a hard look.
"Do we need to call an aumani?" True Flame's look warned him not to make light of it.
Wolf spread his hands to show that he didn't know. "Jewel Tears came to me and stated that the Stone Clan could not solve this problem before-"
"It was not her place to make that decision!" Earth Son snapped. "I will say when the Stone Clan can or can not do something."
Wolf glanced at Jewel Tears but she had her court mask on, letting none of her emotions show. There was no way to judge if this was an honest miscommunication within the Stone Clan, or a contrived situation. If it was the later, then politically it had been a mistake to act.
Wolf would have to salvage the situation by forcing True Flame to disregard political protocol for the sake of military imperative. "If the information she gave us was accurate, then what is important is that the oni are prevented from using the Ghostlands -"
"Are you saying that I'm lying?" Earth Son seemed eager for Wolf to slander him.
Wolf considered Earth Son for a minute. Was he that blind to the dangers that they were facing? "I'm saying that there are tens of thousands of oni and an oni dragon on the other side of the Ghostlands, and it would be good to keep them there."
Earth Son waved that concern aside. "Your untrained domi and her Hand survived the first dragon."
"Do not mistake that creature for a true oni dragon." True Flame had studied Impatience at Tinker's workshop. The prince pointed out that not only was the 'dragon' much smaller than the creatures he fought; it also had one more digit per foot.
Tinker theorized that since the spell painted onto Impatience's scales had been washed or rubbed away, the dragon might be free from the oni's control. Regardless, they still didn't know how to cage or effectively fight the beast. All options weighed, it was decided to leave the creature in Oilcan's care as an ally instead of treating it as a foe. According to the tengu, however, and confirmed by some mysterious means by the NSA agents, there was a second, larger dragon by the name of Malice still on Onihida. Plans to update the Stone Clan on the dragons, however, had been waylaid by Earth Son's attack on Tinker's operation.
Wolf pushed the conversation back to the military implications. "Jewel Tears stated that if the Ghostlands expand to the river, there will be a shift in forces that will allow the oni to push their army through."