Chapter 220: Eastgate Breach

When Austin Veyron’s team reached the top of the hill, the Eastgate Refuge Chain was already on fire, and they could see all of it spread out below them, six shelters chained together by roads that ran through the gates of old forts. Refugees were running between the shelters carrying water, medical supplies, and blankets while fire ate through the outer barricade, and at the front of it all stood Varos, the banner commander of the Black Tithe. Smoke drifted over the shelter walls with a burnt, pitchy smell that filled the air, and somewhere behind the inner gate a bell was ringing without stopping.

He was a giant demon wearing black iron armor, with one horn snapped off on the side of his head, and he held the tribute standard in both hands, a black pole with cloth burned onto it and hooks carved from bone, so that whenever the cloth flapped in the wind, black marks appeared on people’s wrists.

TRIBUTE BELONGS TO THE TITHE.

The council for Eastgate was gathered behind the inner gate, where a woman by the name of Rinna stood beside a public board with all of their supplies listed on it, and the clinic worker they had met on the road had gotten there before them and was telling anyone who asked how much water they had left.

"We’ve lost the outer barricade," Rinna said. "The inner gate is safe for now. We have one day of water and two days of food, and our clinic is at capacity. We can evacuate three shelters through the west road if we keep the gate open."

"We can provide you with a defense line," Veyra said. "What’s your choice?"

"Hold the inner gate and keep the road to the west open for evacuation. If anyone closes the gate, the council needs to know why."

Austin Veyron wanted to take control of the entire refuge chain, to push everyone into the safest shelter and decide who would travel and what was important enough to save, because more than anything he wanted to stop these people from fearing for their lives.

Veyra knew exactly what he was thinking. "Name it."

"I want to take control of the defense."

"What would it create?"

"It would make me the owner of all the danger."

Sable’s shard glowed white. "Then we stand on their defense line."

The Black Tithe vanguard came at the inner gate shortly after, with tribute collectors climbing the broken barricade and raising their hooked spears, strips of black fire wrapped around their wrists, and every strip said the same thing.

THE MARKED BELONG TO THE STANDARD.

Rin clawed at the first collector and ripped the strip of fire from his wrist, but it simply reformed and wrapped around him again, while Tamsin kept two more collectors away from the hole in the gate by spearing them into the ground, and Veyra cut through a collector’s hooked spear just before it reached a woman carrying water.

Kethra stood next to Austin Veyron, watching Varos with her jaw tight. "There’s a hunger core inside the standard. It marks people before the Tithe can chain them, and if you break the cloth without breaking what it claims, it’ll just make more."

Nyra held up the heart shard toward the standard, and blue-black energy surrounded the black pole. "It feeds on the fear of being marked. It wants you to think you’re already marked and will be taken by the Tithe."

Austin Veyron saw the words burned into the collector’s wrist and understood that these people didn’t belong to any standard, because the Tithe was only using the mark to make people look like property.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The claim that the marked belong to the standard. Not the people being marked, or the standard itself."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

Austin Veyron placed the white root chain on the fire strip wrapped around the closest collector.

DEVOUR opened, and he tasted what the claim was made of.

THE MARKED BELONG TO THE STANDARD.

He consumed the word belong.

The black mark disappeared from the collector’s wrist, and across the gate every person who had been marked suddenly stood clean, while the tribute collectors looked around in confusion, some of them running from the inner gate and others standing in place as if they no longer knew what they were supposed to do.

Varos slammed his standard into the ground, and a wave of black fire rushed toward the inner gate, but it didn’t burn through the stone first, it burned through the public board where their supplies were listed. The water count vanished from the board and so did the clinic workers’ assignments, because the standard was trying to make them forget what they had so that they would panic.

Tessa covered the public board with her body while Ceryn wrote down the information that remained on a separate sheet of paper, and the clinic worker called out how much water they had left as Rinna raised her voice over the chaos.

"We have three shelters that can evacuate. Keep the gate open, and make sure everyone knows that no one will be taken without a witness."

The wagons started to move down the west road, and Varos broke through the barricade with an axe big enough to cut the inner gate in half. Austin Veyron collided with him and was thrown back into the mud, while DEVOUR strained toward the commander’s demon power, wanting to consume it and end this quickly.

"You can eat me and take what you need to become the most powerful gate," Varos laughed.

Austin Veyron knew this was a trick the Tithe was trying to pull on him.

"Name it," Veyra said.

"I want his power."

"What would it create?"

"A standard with another face."

Sable’s shard lit up. "Smaller target."

Austin Veyron found the claim burning inside of Varos.

THE STRONGEST GATE OWNS THE WEAK.

Varos believed that because he was the strongest gate, he could control who lived and who died.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The claim that the strongest gate owns the weak. Not Varos, the people defending the gate, or the gate itself."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

Austin Veyron slammed his root chain into Varos’s armor.

DEVOUR opened, and he tasted what the claim was made of.

THE STRONGEST GATE OWNS THE WEAK.

He consumed the word owns.

Varos fell to his knees as his armor lost its black fire and his axe became nothing more than a piece of metal, and the standard cracked down the middle, revealing a small hunger core inside it.

Nyra formed a boundary around the hunger core with the heart shard. "It’s not destroyed."

Varos picked up his broken standard and looked at the wagons traveling down the west road. "This is only one refuge. The Burned Crown will send ten thousand more."

He turned around and left with the rest of his vanguard, and the Black Tithe scouts followed him east with the broken standard in tow, leaving a trail of black smoke behind them that drifted over the hills.

Eastgate didn’t celebrate, because they knew they were still in trouble, with their walls broken and only enough water for one day, but they had kept the road to the west open, and no one had been marked because of panic.

Kethra found a black map shard that had fallen near the breach, and it showed the Black Tithe army following behind Varos, with a symbol at the center of the map that looked like a crown on fire.

THE BURNED CROWN.

Rinna looked at the symbol and knew they would not survive what was coming.

"The Grand Meridian is sending this map to all of our route councils," Marcus said over the public board. "The Black Tithe is coming for our routes as well."

Tessa listed all of their defense information next to the route symbol, one day of water, two days of food, the outer wall broken, the west road open, the clinic at capacity, and the Tithe standard damaged, and Ceryn copied the information three times, one to stay with Rinna, one to travel with the evacuees, and one to send out to the other routes.

"No tribute lists, and no personal records will be taken from this refuge," the clinic worker added to the list.

Rinna signed the bottom of the list to let the other routes know that this was what they had chosen to do.

Austin Veyron looked out over the refuge chain, at the public board and the people working side by side to fix their barricade, and he knew they would need to defend every route the Black Tithe wanted to burn.