Chapter 36: The Hollow Hammer

The Church of the Iron Father stood in the middle of the Forge District, where the air tasted like smoke and every street rang with the sound of hammers, and Kai decided the only sensible thing to do was walk right up to its front door.

"This is a terrible idea," Garrick said for the third time since they had left Hale’s house.

"You said that already," Kai said.

"I’m going to keep saying it until it stops being true," Garrick said.

Kai had only brought three people with him, because he didn’t want to look like he was there to start a fight. Elowen came because if anyone lied to them, she would know, and Garrick came because he was a blacksmith and the Iron Father was the god of blacksmiths, which made him the closest thing they had to a translator. Princess Seris came because nobody had been able to stop her, and she walked beside Kai in her borrowed riding clothes with her notebook tucked under one arm.

Mira had stayed behind with Sunny to finish going through her father’s ledgers, and she had made Kai promise not to get stabbed before lunch.

[She made you promise twice]

"I know," Kai whispered.

[The second time, she was holding your sleeve]

"I know," Kai whispered.

The temple didn’t look anything like the Cathedral. There was no gold and no white marble anywhere, only thick black stone and iron doors that stood wide open to the street, and the inside was one enormous forge, hot enough to make Kai’s eyes water. Dozens of men and women in leather aprons were working at anvils along the walls, and at the far end of the hall stood a giant iron statue of a bearded man holding a hammer over his head, so tall that its head nearly touched the ceiling.

Garrick stopped in the doorway and stared up at the statue with his mouth hanging open.

"That’s the Iron Father," Garrick said quietly. "My old master used to say a prayer to him every morning before he lit the forge."

"Do you pray to him?" Kai asked.

"I used to," Garrick said, and he glanced at Kai and then quickly looked away. "Now I’ve got other things going on."

[Faith gained. Garrick Holt: +2%. Status: Loyal.]

Kai didn’t have time to say anything about that, because a man stepped out from behind the closest anvil and walked towards them, wiping his hands on a cloth. He was the biggest person Kai had ever seen, bigger than Garrick and bigger than the scarred man who had brought the challenge plate, with a thick brown beard braided down to his chest and arms like tree trunks. His skin had a strange dull shine to it in the firelight, like the surface of a cooling blade.

"You are the God of Failure," the giant said, and his voice was surprisingly soft for someone his size.

"Some people call me that," Kai said. "You must be Brannoch."

"I am," Brannoch said, and he looked down at Kai with an expression that wasn’t angry at all, only tired. "You should not be here. Tomorrow I am supposed to fight you."

"I know," Kai said. "That’s why I came. I wanted to ask you why."

Brannoch looked over at Elowen, and at the sword resting on her hip, and he nodded slowly as if he understood exactly why she was there.

"Ask your questions, Sister Inquisitor," Brannoch said.

"Did you challenge him?" Elowen asked.

"No," Brannoch said. "Elder Voss brought me the plate and told me the Iron Father had spoken. I did not hear the Iron Father speak, but I am his champion, and I do what the elders tell me."

Elowen’s sword stayed dark, and she tilted her head as if she had expected that answer.

"Do you want to fight him?" Elowen asked.

Brannoch looked at Kai for a long time, from his messy hair down to his fishing vest and the boots that still didn’t quite fit him.

"No," Brannoch said. "He is very small, and he has done nothing to my church."

Elowen’s sword stayed dark again, and Princess Seris wrote something in her notebook and underlined it twice.

"Then why fight at all?" Kai asked.

"Because I swore an oath on that hammer," Brannoch said, pointing up at the statue. "If the champion refuses a sacred challenge, the Iron Father’s church loses its place in this city. Two hundred smiths would lose their forges. I will not let that happen because I feel sorry for you."

That was the truth too, and Kai could tell by the look on Brannoch’s face that he hated every word of it.

"Brannoch!" a deep voice shouted from across the hall.

The scarred man from the Vallen estate came storming down the aisle between the anvils, still wearing his iron armor with the black hammer painted on the chest, and every smith he passed stopped working to watch him.

"Elder Voss," Brannoch said quietly.

"You do not speak to the false god," Elder Voss said, stopping in front of them with his fists clenched. "You will speak to him tomorrow, with your hands."

Kai looked down at Voss’s wrists, but they were covered by thick iron gauntlets, so there was no way to see the mark Syraphim had told him about. He needed to see it, and more importantly, he needed Brannoch to see it, so he did the only thing he could think of and pointed his finger at the gauntlet.

"Minor Light," Kai whispered.

[Kai, that is not how Minor Light works]

The little orb of light popped out of his fingertip, wobbled in the air for a second, and then shot straight upward like it had been fired out of a sling. It flew over Voss’s head, over Brannoch’s head, and smacked right into the iron hammer the statue was holding high above the hall.

There was a loud crack, like ice breaking on a frozen lake, and the head of the giant hammer split clean down the middle.

Gold came pouring out of it. Thousands of gold coins spilled down from the broken hammer in a glittering waterfall, bouncing off the statue’s iron shoulders and scattering across the forge floor, and buried in the middle of the pile were dozens of small iron bars that clanged against the stone as they landed.

The entire temple went completely silent, except for the sound of coins still rolling across the floor.

Garrick bent down and picked up one of the iron bars, turning it over in his hands, and his face went pale.

"This has the Ironwatch stamp on it," Garrick said. "It’s from Draven’s mines."

Princess Seris picked up one of the gold coins and held it up to the light so everyone could see the little golden sun pressed into it.

"And this is Radiant Church gold," Princess Seris said. "The same sun the assassin at the palace had tattooed on his wrist."

Kai looked at the gold, and then at the iron, and then up at the broken hammer, and he finally understood where the other half of Draven’s stolen iron had been going all along.

[You missed the gauntlet]

"Yes," Kai whispered.

[You hit the hollow hammer they hid the bribes in]

"Yes," Kai whispered.

[I am adding this to the list]

Brannoch stood in the middle of the spilled gold, staring up at the statue of his god with its broken hammer, and he looked like a man who had just been punched in the stomach.

"The hammer was cast hollow when the temple was built," Brannoch said slowly. "Only the elders were allowed to climb the statue and polish it." He turned his head and looked at Voss. "Every month, you climbed it."

Elder Voss backed away from the pile of gold, his scarred face twisting with anger, and he pointed one gauntleted finger at Kai.

"This changes nothing," Voss said. "The plate was driven, and the challenge is sacred. Tomorrow at noon, the false god fights, or he is declared a fraud in front of every church in Veyrath."

Voss turned and stormed out of the temple, and none of the smiths tried to stop him, though a few of them spat on the floor as he passed.

Brannoch didn’t bother watching him go, and instead he bent down, picked up a single gold coin with the sun stamped on it, and closed his huge fist around it until his knuckles turned white.

"He is right about one thing," Brannoch said. "The challenge is sacred, and I swore my oath. Tomorrow, I will still have to fight you."

"I figured," Kai said.

"But I will fight for the Iron Father," Brannoch said, looking down at Kai. "Not for them."

The ding rang out in Kai’s head, softer than usual, like it wasn’t quite sure of itself.

[Faith gained. New follower: Brannoch. Faith: 3%. Status: Confused.]

"Great," Kai whispered. "My newest follower is going to try to kill me tomorrow."

[He will try very politely]

That night, Princess Seris knocked on Kai’s door and handed him her notebook without saying a word. She had drawn a map of Hale’s courtyard, and next to every one of his forty-one misses, she had written exactly where each spell had landed.

"Read the last page," Princess Seris said.

Kai turned to the last page, where she had written a single line in large, neat letters and underlined it three times.

Every spell you have ever missed has hit something someone wanted to hide.

[I told you that you were not missing by accident]

Kai stared at the page for a long time, while far off to the east, the dark shape of the arena waited above the rooftops for noon.