Chapter 158: Granary Fire

Kharvek opened the sample over the grain, and they all waited for the hunger to respond.

It responded with dust. Red grain dust blew out from under the granary doors and seeped through the cracks in a thick haze. The floor lines that marked the old relief tunnels had turned black. From inside came the sound of bowls shattering, and then many voices yelling. It smelled like burnt flour and metal, and the ground they were standing on began to heat up. Something was waking up under the granary.

"We need to open the release line," Ceryn said, getting down on the floor beside the lines.

Vessa moved the transfer book along the lines. The white markings tried to surface under Kharvek’s red seal but couldn’t remember what they were supposed to do. They flickered in and out like a candle about to blow out.

"It is for moving shared grain," she said. "Not for pledges or military reserves."

The door to the inside of the granary rumbled. Nyra held the heart shard to the round seal, and blue-black energy bled through the cracks. "The sample is trying to split itself. It wants to turn every grain sack into a pledge."

Austin Veyron’s wrist started to burn, and he could feel his hands trembling. The hunger was calling to him through the door, and it showed him what it could do. Eat the granary. Eat all the sickness and the grain and the soldiers and the fear. There would be no more sickness and no more worrying about food. Just enough power to feed the people he wanted to feed. It sounded so easy, and he knew that was why it scared him.

Veyra could see him thinking hard about it. "What is your target?"

"I want to consume the source."

"What would you gain from that?"

"All of it."

Sable held the broken shard of the crown up between the two of them. "Then it’s not your target."

Austin Veyron looked through the red dust and tried to see what the sample was doing. It was taking food and turning it into a pledge, the pledge into power, and that power into something that could control everyone who was hungry.

"My target is the clause that enforces the pledge. Not the grain, or the people who need it, or the hold."

"I witnessed it," Veyra said.

"I witnessed it," Sable said.

The door to the inner granary flew open. Civilians ran out covered in red dust. Some held their ration bowls, and others clung to grain sacks as if someone were going to take them away. Their eyes were red from the dust, and some kept looking back at the granary. More people came out behind them, followed by ash guards wearing Kharvek’s uniform and the marks of the sickness around their mouths.

"Get back in there! Kharvek provides for the loyal!" one of the guards yelled.

The civilians stopped at the sound of it.

"The release line to the north is ready. We have counts and water available. Send them to the relief tunnel," Arin said through Vessa’s relay token.

Veyra walked into the middle of the supply room. "If you want to leave, follow the white line. You don’t have to pledge."

An older man looked at the sack of grain he was holding. "I will lose my rations if I leave."

"No," Ceryn said, pointing to the release line. "That grain belongs on the line. You can take it with you if you want."

The man looked down at the white lines under his feet. He took a step toward the tunnel, and others began to follow.

Rin and Orena had returned from helping the first group of civilians out, and they were ready when the ash guards came at them. Rin shot an arrow into one guard’s shoulder. Orena thrust her spear into the ground and made two of them turn and run the other way. Veyra faced the tallest one, deflected his sword, and then took his legs out from under him.

Austin Veyron grabbed another guard’s arm as he reached for Nyra. The mark on the guard’s jaw glowed.

FEED THE LOYAL

DEVOUR came to life, and he knew the word.

"My target is the clause that forces them to pledge. Not the guard."

"I witnessed it," Sable said.

He touched the red words, and DEVOUR opened. The clause felt like having a bowl of food in front of you with a locked door between you and it.

FEED THE LOYAL

He consumed loyal, and the mark faded to gray.

The guard stumbled and dropped his sword. He looked at the civilians running away, and then at Kharvek’s banner hanging in the inner hall.

"I have a brother at the northern camps. I was told they would starve if I didn’t guard this door."

Veyra kicked the sword away from him but didn’t attack him. "The northern camps have grain coming in now. Decide where you want to go."

The guard looked at the white release line and started walking toward it. He moved slowly, as if he wasn’t sure the ground wouldn’t give way under him.

The other ash guards stopped in their tracks. Their marks still glowed, but without the pledge, they didn’t know what to do with the word. Some turned and ran, and others dropped their weapons. One ran at them in a panic, and Rin shot him with her second arrow, pinning him to one of the supply racks until his mark faded.

"The sample is traveling to the core of the grain," Nyra said as she pushed the heart shard against the seal of the granary. "Kharvek is trying to create one mouth."

Ceryn found the release wheel under a rusty metal cover. It was similar to the one they had found at the Bone Cathedral, but it was made for wagons, not water.

"Vessa!"

Vessa ran over to Ceryn, and together they turned the wheel. It didn’t budge at first. Then the old relief charter line lit up white.

GRAIN FOR RELIEF

The ground shook, and more dust fell from the top of the granary. They could hear the gates opening on the other side of the walls. Chutes of grain began to pour toward the northern release line, and the white line carried it away from Kharvek’s ritual site.

The red dust was getting thicker, and Austin Veyron ran into the granary.

It was huge, and the top was lost in smoke and dust. Piles of grain surrounded a pit in the center filled with more grain, each pile glowing from the inside. Kharvek stood on the walkway over the pit, holding the sample he had broken.

"You will destroy every chance these people have of surviving because you are afraid to choose who lives!" Kharvek yelled.

"No. I am afraid of someone else choosing for them," Austin Veyron said, walking toward him through the red grain dust.

Kharvek threw the sample against the railing, and red light flooded the pit.

The grain came to life. It grew into a giant shape of dust, grain sacks, and black teeth. A mouth formed from the granary itself and opened toward the civilians fleeing through the tunnel.

HUNGER MUST SERVE POWER

The mark on Austin Veyron’s wrist began to glow darker. This was the phrase that controlled every grain line in Ember Hold.

Veyra stood next to him, catching her breath. She had dirt smeared on her face, and her sword was still up. Sable had the shard of the crown in her hand, and Nyra held the heart shard at the doorway, its blue-black light fighting against the giant red mark.

"Target?" Veyra asked.

Austin Veyron could feel the entire granary trying to pull him in. "The phrase that forces hunger to serve power."

"I witnessed it," Veyra said.

"I witnessed it," Sable said.

Austin Veyron took the white root chain and stabbed it into the mouth of the granary. DEVOUR came alive, and he was hit with Kharvek’s belief that the city was a bowl and the people were rations he could hand out to whoever he wanted.

HUNGER MUST SERVE POWER

Austin Veyron consumed must.

The mouth of the granary let out a scream. Red dust flew everywhere, then fell as plain grain. The black teeth melted away, and the grain sacks became normal again.

Kharvek fell back on the walkway, holding only the neck of the sample. "You have destroyed the only thing these people will listen to."

The civilians were carrying grain down the release line, and the ash guards followed them. The camps had grain coming in, and anyone could see the numbers.

"No," Austin Veyron said. "You destroyed it when you used hunger as your power."

Kharvek slammed his hand against the railing, and a wall of fire appeared between them. He retreated through a hidden iron door behind the flames. Before the fire blocked his view, Austin Veyron could see what was behind it: old maps and military records hanging on the walls.

The granary creaked as the heat reached the wood above them. Sparks began to fall onto the piles of grain, and one of the timbers snapped overhead.

"We need to get this grain out of here. It’s going to catch fire!" Orena yelled from the doorway.

Ceryn coughed as they picked up a piece of a map that had blown through the hidden door. It had red markings on refugee cities and on safe houses for the caravans that traveled through the Ember Marches.

"He has more targets," Ceryn said.

Veyra looked at the fire wall, then back at the release line the civilians were using to escape with the grain. "Do we chase him, or make sure they get out?"

Austin Veyron looked at the fire and the grain leaving the granary. He didn’t know what to do. There would always be someone who needed help, and he couldn’t save them all. For the first time since coming to Ember Hold, he didn’t have an answer.