Cistern Newts

Overview

Cistern newts live in the cisterns and spring heads of the Leeward Folds, and every fold's cistern hall keeps some. They are a living gauge of the water: as long as the newts are in the cistern, the water is good, and when they climb out or die, it has gone wrong. No fold draws for its terraces or its households from a cistern its newts have left until the water has been looked at.

Appearance

A cistern newt is a little longer than a finger, slim and soft-skinned, with a flat head, small dark eyes, four short legs, and a long flattened tail for swimming. It is glossy black, splashed and spotted with bright yellow-gold across the back and head, and its belly is orange. In spring the males grow a low wavy crest along the back and tail. In the water it swims with slow sweeps of the tail and hangs still among stones; on land it walks slowly and stiffly. It is silent. Handled, its skin gives off a bitter, milky film.

Habitat and Range

They live in cool, clean still water: the rock-cut and clay-walled cisterns at the fold heads, spring pools, and the stone channels that carry runoff into them. They hide by day under stones and in the cracks of a cistern's lining and come out to feed at dusk. They are found throughout the inner folds and are fewest in the Dry Folds, whose cisterns stand cracked and empty.

Behaviour and Temperament

Newts feed on water insects, worms, snails, and the eggs and larvae of gnats and flies. They are slow, unhurried, and harmless, and they do not flee from people. When the water fouls, grows too warm, or goes short of air, they climb out onto the stones of the lining or the court and try to walk away, and if they cannot leave, they die.

Life Cycle

In spring the newts court in the water and the females lay their eggs one by one, folding each into a leaf or a strand of weed. The larvae have feathery gills and live in the water all summer before losing them and climbing out. Newts live a long time, fifteen years or more, and a fold may know some of its cistern's newts for most of a Halfling's life.

Uses and Dangers

They eat the larvae of the gnats and flies that would breed in the cistern, and they tell the fold its water is good. A cistern circle that finds newts on the court stones in the morning stops the release to the terraces, empties the cistern if it must, and looks for the dead thing, the fouled channel, or the crack. Their skin is mildly poisonous and bitter: it will sicken a dog that eats one and burn a child's mouth, which is why no beast eats them and they can live in the open water of a court.

Lore and Belief

Each cistern hall keeps a count of its newts as it keeps the count of its water, and the count is read out at the autumn reckoning with the rest. A fold that loses its newts is said to have lost its watchers. When a new cistern is cut, newts are carried to it from the oldest cistern in the fold, and Halflings say the water does not belong to the fold until they breed there. The Dryfold Halflings, the old tale goes, stopped counting their newts first.

Where It Appears

• Overview: Animals