Chapter 393: The Weight Above the Water

Thor's report arrived with river mud along its lower edge.

The messenger apologized for that before Mary had finished opening it.

“Can it still be read?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Then the river has done less damage than several courtiers.”

He seemed unsure whether to laugh.

Mary passed me the first page.

The crossing was farther along than the scouts had realized.

Most of the work remained hidden behind the timber screens, where captive laborers assembled sections on flat-bottomed boats. The lifting frame moved each section into place. Chains held the boats against the current while the deck was secured above them.

On the north bank, an enemy column had begun gathering.

Thor had counted supply wagons, mounted scouts, and enough infantry to turn an unguarded road into a retreat before word reached the next settlement.

The workers slept beneath the frame.

I read that sentence twice.

Then moved to the next page.

Eleanor understood the arrangement before I finished describing it.

She laid a ruler across Thor's drawing and asked for the earlier sketches.

“The counterweight is here?”

“According to Thor.”

“And the workers' enclosure beneath this platform?”

I nodded.

She set down the ruler very carefully.

Lexander watched her.

“What?”

“If we burn the support, the weight falls through their sleeping area. If we break the chain while the frame is loaded, the unfinished section swings into them.”

“Deliberate?” I asked.

“I can't tell you what the designer intended. I can tell you where the timber will go.”

She marked the drawing in red.

The lines covered most of the enclosure.

I thought of Sella being asked how quickly the catch could be released.

“We take the catch first,” I said.

“And support the weight,” Eleanor replied. “Before anyone tries to move it.”

The order mattered.

We spent the next hour making certain everyone understood why.

Thor returned near midday with a fuller account and a need for food she initially denied.

Melody put a bowl in front of her while she was still talking.

Thor accepted it without looking down.

There were guards at both ends of the crossing. More on the north bank. The southern approach had a small barricade, two watch platforms, and a shed containing the mechanism that controlled the workers' bands.

“One mechanism?” Caldris asked.

“One that I could see. Don't build the plan on there being no others.”

He nodded.

The first complete span already reached across the narrow side channel. Beyond it, boats waited to carry the deck over the deeper water.

“They could begin moving lighter troops before the whole crossing is finished,” Thor said. “We should act before they decide to risk it.”

“How many workers?” Mirelle asked.

“Fifty or more. Humans, dwarves, at least two elves. Some beastfolk. I couldn't see everyone clearly.”

Melody's hand stopped on the back of Thor's chair.

Then she drew another chair to the table and sat.

“I'll help prepare the receiving teams.”

Thor touched her hand once before returning to the map.

The plan required less destruction than I expected.

That made it harder.

We needed the southern machinery held still while the workers were brought out. We needed the north-bank soldiers prevented from crossing. We needed the boats beneath the completed section moved without dragging the whole structure down over everyone on it.

Eleanor wanted two construction golems, chain, wedges, and people who would follow her instructions without deciding a faster solution looked heroic.

Nobody asked whom she meant.

Vaerun would hold the current around the boats once their restraints were released. Thor would keep the north bank occupied. Avarn and Eshara would take the workers' enclosure with Caldris close behind.

Lexander would command the southern road and the evacuation.

Elyan would carry signals.

I would reach the catch before its operator could release it.

“Not break it,” Eleanor said.

“Hold it.”

“And the shaft behind it.”

“Both.”

She turned the drawing toward me again.

I studied it until I could have traced the parts with my eyes closed.

Sella asked to see the final drawing.

Evelyn brought it to her rather than bringing her to another meeting.

I went along and watched Sella follow the chain with one finger held just above the paper.

“They changed this brace.”

“Eleanor noticed it too.”

Sella nodded slowly.

“It's stronger now.”

“Will it hold?”

“I hope so.”

She looked at me, then pointed to the catch.

“If you're standing here when it takes the load, don't trust the floor beneath your right foot. That platform was meant for one operator. The strain comes through this side.”

I looked more closely.

The landing place I had chosen sat directly above the weaker support.

I moved my mark.

Sella sat back, tired but satisfied.

Anet looked up from the picture she was drawing beside the bed.

“Are you going on the horse again?”

“For part of the way.”

“You should take bread.”

“For me?”

She gave me a patient look.

“For the horse.”

Jory smiled down at his hands.

It was a small thing to carry into the preparations.

I carried it anyway.

We left the following morning.

There had been time to tell the children this time, which did not make leaving easier.

Garrick asked whether I would come back before supper.

“I don't know.”

“Tomorrow's supper?”

“I'll send word when I can.”

He frowned at the answer but accepted Evelyn's hand when she offered it.

Carol pressed a small painted stone into my palm.

“Bring that back.”

“I will try very hard.”

“It goes with the others.”

I put it inside my coat where it would not fall out.

Adriana kissed me and adjusted the fastening afterward, though it had not needed adjusting.

Evelyn checked my shoulder once, briefly. The quarry burn had healed cleanly enough for the task, and she had already told me what would make her object.

There was nothing new to argue about.

That felt like progress.

I left with the memory of her hand resting over the little stone through my coat.

By the time we reached the river, the enemy had begun testing the crossing.

An empty wagon stood on the first completed section. Men watched the water beneath it while a foreman shouted from the southern platform.

Beyond the channel, the unfinished deck rested on a row of low boats that tugged against their moorings.

The current looked stronger from the bank than it had on paper.

Eleanor saw it too.

“We take the southern section intact,” she said. “The rest goes downstream only after Vaerun has it.”

The construction golems waited beneath the trees, wrapped in dark cloth to keep their pale stone from showing through the brush.

Elyan had inspected the route twice.

Caldris stood with Avarn and Eshara, quietly reviewing what they would do if the controlling mechanism could not be separated from the bands immediately.

Nobody's part looked easy.

I found that reassuring in a way I could not quite explain.

We were all relying on one another.

My arrival point was visible through the upper opening of the timber screen.

A narrow maintenance ledge stood behind the operator's platform, just above the main shaft. I could see its brackets, the gap between two boards, and the iron rim of the wheel beyond it.

Sella's warning had saved me from choosing the wrong side.

Elyan crouched beside me.

“Once you hold it, stay until Eleanor releases you.”

“Even if I see trouble.”

“Especially then.”

Below, a guard pushed a worker away from a bucket.

The worker stumbled and caught himself against a post.

I watched his hand slide down the wood before he managed to stand straight.

Then I looked back at the ledge.

This time, I understood why standing still could be the most important part of the fight.

Thor's lightning struck the north-bank watchtower.

The storm that followed spread over the waiting troops in a crackling veil, forcing men away from the water and horses back from the narrow approach.

At the same moment, Elyan flashed through the trees toward the southern road.

Our signal.

I became a thunderbolt.

The ledge struck beneath my boots, exactly where I had chosen it.

My left hand closed around the catch.

Winter drove through the mechanism.

Frost filled the gap between the teeth. Ice locked the shaft into its housing and spread across the braces supporting it.

The operator turned.

His hand went toward the release lever.

It did not move.

For an instant, he pulled at it with both hands, unable to understand why the machine had stopped obeying him.

Then he saw me.

“Away from it,” I said.

He drew a knife.

I struck his wrist with the heel of my free hand, caught his coat, and drove him down onto the platform.

The knife fell between the boards.

Below us, the great suspended weight shuddered.

I kept my other hand on the frozen catch.

The first arrows reached me before Eleanor reached the frame.

I let my body become wind and rain around the winter I was holding in the machinery.

An arrow passed through my ribs.

Another struck the timber behind my head.

I remained where I was.

Keeping the two workings together demanded more attention than either had alone. The storm wanted motion. The ice needed stillness. Between them, the weight strained against the shaft like something alive.

I held.

Below, Avarn cut a guard's spear aside and cleared the enclosure entrance. Eshara followed with her soldiers. Caldris vanished into the control shed.

The golems reached the base of the frame.

Eleanor pointed.

One stone figure crouched beneath a crossbeam. The other lifted a support into place while two engineers drove wedges around it.

An enemy soldier broke past the southern barricade and ran toward her.

I saw him.

My instinct pulled hard enough that the ice creaked.

Then Lexander met the man before he reached the engineers.

Steel flashed.

The attacker fell.

Lexander looked up at me only long enough to raise one hand.

Stay.

I stayed.

On the river, Vaerun rose from the current.

His storm spread around the boats, drawing spray upward in pale curtains. Wind pressed against their sides while the water beneath them smoothed into a slow-turning basin.

The boats stopped striking one another.

They did not stop pulling at their chains.

North-bank soldiers tried to reach the unfinished deck.

Thor drove them back with a line of lightning that split the ground before their feet.

Someone answered with fire.

It burst over the water in a long red arc, bright enough to stain the spray.

Vaerun caught most of it in rain.

The rest struck one of the empty deck sections and began to burn.

Smoke drifted toward the workers' enclosure.

I could hear coughing beneath me.

“Eleanor!”

“Not yet!” she called back.

The supports shifted into place.

She checked the last wedge herself.

Then looked up.

“Slowly. Let the weight settle.”

I eased the winter back by degrees.

The ice cracked.

The shaft moved less than the width of my thumb.

Below, the temporary supports took the load with a deep wooden groan.

One golem adjusted its stance, stone feet sinking into the bank.

Eleanor watched everything.

“Hold there.”

I held.

An arrow passed through my shoulder and buried itself in the housing.

The operator beneath my foot began praying loudly.

“Less,” Eleanor called.

I released another measure of cold.

The suspended section settled onto the supports.

The chains slackened.

Eleanor raised both arms.

“It's safe!”

Only then did I leave the platform.

Caldris had stopped the command that held the workers in place.

He had not yet removed their bands.

That would take longer.

For now, they could walk without the metal dragging them back toward the control shed, and Eshara's team was bringing them out in small groups along the southern bank.

A dwarf with a bloodied forehead refused to leave until someone fetched a man lying behind a stack of timber.

Avarn went with him.

I took their place at the enclosure door.

The smoke had thickened.

I pulled it upward with a sharp rising wind, leaving the air near the ground clear enough to breathe.

People emerged blinking and coughing.

One elf carried a human child who looked too old to need carrying until I saw the cloth wrapped around his leg.

“Along the bank,” I told them. “Keep following the soldiers.”

The elf nodded and went.

Behind them, three guards threw down their weapons.

I sent them to their knees beside the fence and called for someone to secure them.

Then Avarn returned with the injured man between him and the dwarf.

“Last one in that row,” he said.

We checked the next together.

The enemy tried the crossing once more.

Not a full charge.

A small group ran onto the unfinished deck behind shields while the fire-working on the north bank flared again.

They were close enough to reach the boats before Thor could strike without threatening Vaerun beneath them.

I saw an empty section between two support posts.

Chose it.

Lightning carried me there.

My hammer struck the leading shield hard enough to send its bearer stumbling into the men behind him.

The deck rolled beneath us.

For one dangerous instant, I forgot it was floating.

My heel slid.

I dropped lower, recovered my balance, and let the next spear pass through a chest made of rain.

Then I drove the men back with the hammer's head held low, breaking their footing rather than sending splintered planks into the water.

“Back!” I shouted.

They went.

Some ran.

One crawled, dragging his shield.

I did not follow them onto the north bank.

Behind me, Elyan appeared on the stable southern section.

“The workers are clear!”

I looked toward Vaerun.

His face formed in the spray.

“Now,” he said.

We released the boats in the order Eleanor had marked.

Not all at once.

The outer chain first. Then the line holding the unfinished center section. Last, the tether closest to the completed span.

Vaerun turned the current.

The loose sections swung downstream, away from the workers and the southern bank. Timber groaned. A joint broke with a sharp report.

I jumped to the stable span before the gap widened.

Then laid winter across the remaining north-bank ramp.

Ice filled its joints and lifted the near edge out of alignment. The next wagon would not cross it. Neither would a company of soldiers at speed.

Thor struck the abandoned release gear on the far side.

Metal burst.

The north-bank frame sagged and stopped.

The river opened between the two forces.

For the first time since we arrived, I could hear the current without machinery grinding over it.

We withdrew with fifty-eight workers.

The child among them had been carrying water because the guards considered him too small for timber.

Three people required stretchers. One of our engineers had a crushed hand, caught when a brace shifted before the golem could take its weight. Two soldiers had arrow wounds. Another had fallen on the bank and could not put weight on his ankle.

We had everyone accounted for.

That did not make the injuries small.

Eleanor walked beside the stretcher carrying her engineer until the healer told her she was crowding his work.

She moved back half a pace.

It was the most she could manage.

Behind us, smoke rose from the north bank.

The enemy still had soldiers, wagons, and roads.

They no longer had the crossing they had expected to use.

Thor watched the river until the last stretcher reached the sheltered track.

Then she came to walk beside me.

“You stayed at the catch.”

“Lexander had Eleanor.”

“He did.”

I looked down at my hands.

They trembled now that they had nothing to hold.

Thor took the hammer from me before I could pretend otherwise.

“Walk. I'll carry this part.”

Elyan brought the first news home.

By the time we followed, the receiving hall had food ready and healers waiting for injuries they already knew to expect.

Melody met the beastfolk workers with someone who spoke the language one frightened woman kept returning to. Aurelia stood near the stretchers, lending strength where the healers asked for it.

Evelyn went straight to the engineer's crushed hand.

I watched her and Ilyen work until Adriana found me.

“You can sit without waiting to fall down.”

“I know.”

She looked at me.

I sat.

She settled beside me and took my hand, turning it palm upward as though she could read the day in the lines.

“Hurt?”

“Tired.”

“Anywhere?”

“Bruises. Nothing like the quarry.”

She let out a breath she had been holding since I entered.

Then leaned against me.

Across the hall, Sella had come as far as the doorway with Jory beside her.

Eleanor saw her and crossed the room.

“The catch held,” she said.

Sella covered her mouth.

Eleanor took her free hand and held it while the first of the rescued workers passed them.

Evelyn found us later.

The engineer would keep his hand, although healing would take time and careful work. The other wounded had been settled. Caldris and the specialists were examining the bands before removing them individually.

She sat on my other side.

For a few minutes, we watched the room together.

Cassia and Lysandra were helping Mary with names again. This time, Renwick had come with the language group under one of their teachers, and Lysandra worked beside him while the teacher handled the conversations beyond their knowledge.

Davren had brought clean timber scraps from a workshop for splints and supports, then stayed to carry water where he was told.

Julian saw him and went to help.

No one discussed the wheel.

There would be time for it later.

At home, Carol demanded her stone before asking about anything else.

I took it from my coat.

She examined it carefully.

“It's warm.”

“It's been in my pocket.”

She placed it beside the others on the windowsill, adjusted its position twice, and nodded.

Garrick climbed onto the bench beside me.

“Did you make the bridge?”

“No. We stopped the people using it to hurt others.”

He thought about that.

“Did everyone get across?”

I looked at Evelyn and Adriana.

At the room we had returned to.

“The people we went for came with us.”

He leaned against my arm.

That answer was enough for tonight.

Later, when the children slept, I stood beside the window and looked at Carol's stones.

The one she had given me bore an uneven blue line across its face.

A river, perhaps.

Or simply the place her brush had gone.

I left it where she had put it and went to bed.