Chapter 222: The Tide Daughter

Once they had chosen to follow the living fortress and make the route convergence their next battleground, the expedition pushed hard for West Rift and arrived with six hours left before the Host could reach it. It was a small valley where six roads met, pinched in by tall red cliffs on either side, with a stone bridge spanning a dried-out riverbed, and every wagon path from Eastgate, Seregate, Brinewatch, Cindervale, Fenmarch, and the Grand Meridian crossed that bridge before splitting toward the west. If the Cinder Host took West Rift, it would have a funnel to send fire down every one of those roads.

The West Rift locals held their council beneath the bridge, where a man named Joren was holding the valley’s old land maps while workers checked water barrels, barricades, rope lines, and escape wagons all around him.

"We have the walls of the passes," Joren said. "But we don’t have a fortress, and the Host can destroy anything we put up."

"Then don’t build something for it to destroy," Kethra said. "The Host has living treads, and it has to keep traveling to stay fed, so make it choose between moving fast and staying in control."

Orven pointed down at the dried-out riverbed. "There are old canals under the eastern hill that used to carry the river. If the water workers can open them, we can make the ground soft enough to slow the treads."

Water workers from Seregate arrived first, with Vela relaying instructions about how much pressure to use on the pumps, and then Brinewatch came with metal workers carrying chains for the gates, Cindervale brought lock workers with heat gauges, and Fenmarch came with ferry workers to scout the paths through the riverbed, and none of them needed Austin Veyron to tell them what their skills could do.

Austin Veyron watched the people pouring into the convergence and felt the battle calling to him, because he knew he could control everything if he gave the commands and had everyone do exactly what he wanted.

"What do you want?" Veyra asked.

"I want to be the commander of the battlefield."

"What would that create?"

"It would make me the warlord I said I wouldn’t become."

Sable lifted the white shard of the crown. "Then ask what the battlefield needs from each person."

Joren pulled out the map of the land and spread it across the top of the bridge. "Our council will pick three locations to start with. Water workers on the canals to the east, metal workers on the bridge, and the clinic wagons up on the western hill. We’ll also need fighters to keep the scouts at bay until the canals are open."

"We can do that," Veyra said.

Austin Veyron looked at the board where all the public information had been posted. "Who’ll be in charge of evacuations?"

"The wagon leaders make that call when they feel it’s time," Joren said. "Our council only provides the conditions so they know when."

Tessa posted the conditions on the board for everyone to see.

Furnace heat over the marked threshold: west wagons evacuate.

East canal pressure reaches the mark: open the flood.

Bridge chain complete: metal workers withdraw to the west hill.

No road may be blocked without public knowledge.

Before the ink was dry on the board, Black Tithe scouts came down the eastern pass, dressed in black and hurling flaming hooks at the water workers, and their tribute strips carried a new phrase.

THE CONVERGENCE BELONGS TO THE HOST.

Rin tore the strips from the scouts in front of her while Tamsin was already fighting at the base of the dried riverbed, pushing a flaming hook away from a water barrel, and Veyra cut through a scout’s armor as she, Kethra, and Orven fought alongside the local defenders, because they knew how the Tithe worked and could use that knowledge to their advantage.

Austin Veyron saw what the strips were claiming and knew that West Rift wasn’t theirs just because they stood on top of it, because the Tithe wanted to own the place where the roads met so it could burn down every road that came out of the valley.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The convergence-belongs-to-Host claim. Not the roads, the crews, or the valley."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

He placed the white root chain on top of the burning strip.

DEVOUR opened, and he tasted the claim of the convergence belonging to the Host, like six roads chained to one furnace door.

THE CONVERGENCE BELONGS TO THE HOST.

He consumed belongs.

The tribute strips fell to the ground in ashes, and the scouts’ hooks lost their fire, so that some retreated back up the pass while others were disarmed by the local defenders and pushed out of the canals.

"Eastern canal ready," one of the Seregate workers called.

"Bridge chain complete," a Brinewatch worker announced.

"Clinic wagons are on the hill," Joren said.

The ground started to rumble like thunder far away, and then the eastern cliffs split open with red light as the Cinder Host appeared through the pass. It was a demon that looked like a fortress, rolling on treads of burnt bone and cinderstone, its body covered in black iron with furnace vents jutting from its sides, while Black Tithe soldiers marched across its different levels and the red furnace heart burned at its center. Above the heart, the symbol of the Burned Crown floated inside a black ring of flame, and every route board in West Rift lit up at once.

THE HOST ACCEPTS TRIBUTE OR BURNS PASSAGE.

The Host stopped on the eastern hill, and its furnace heart spoke through the ring of flame. "You’ve defeated many of my claims, seed bearer, brokers, ledgers, banners, and small roads. Now I’ll give you a real battle. Come face to face and devour my heart, or I’ll burn this rift until all of you learn what it costs to be weak together."

Austin Veyron could feel the power in the heart of the Host, filled with fire, iron, command, and hunger, and DEVOUR wanted it so badly that he could barely see past it, because he knew he could take it alone and save everyone else from having to fight.

Veyra didn’t say anything for a moment, and everyone in the valley waited, until she squeezed his wrist just above his mark and he felt her warmth there.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I want to take the Host by myself."

"What would that create?"

"It would create the person they want me to be."

"Then let’s create something different," Sable said, her white shard cutting through the red glow of the Host.

The Cinder Host opened its furnace vents, and fire began pouring down the hill toward them, not in one direction but everywhere it could find a path, and the water workers opened the eastern canals so that water shot out across the path the Host was traveling. Mud and steam filled the air as the ground turned into a lake, but the Host kept coming, digging its treads into the ground and pulling itself through the water.

"Heat is rising on the northern vent!" one of the Cindervale workers called out.

"Get the west wagons ready, but don’t move yet," Joren said. "The chain on the bridge is holding."

The Host fired an iron ball from one of its platforms, striking the bridge just above the board that held all the information, and Tessa and Ceryn grabbed the sheets of paper before the ash could bury them. The board cracked, but all the information had already been copied to the clinic wagons, the metal workers’ table, and the relay lattice.

"You count your numbers while I burn your roads," the Host said through its furnace.

"Keep your head down," Elena’s voice said through the relay, and he could tell she was close to the receiver, because she said it more quietly than the rest of her words, but Austin Veyron heard it.

The lead worker from Seregate pointed to the gauge on the eastern canal. "We need to open another canal, but if we do, our fighters up front won’t be able to get out."

"Who can leave?" Veyra asked.

"My group can make it across the bridge," Tamsin said.

"Not everyone will get out if we open that canal," Kethra said. "The Host will try to make us abandon the hill before it’s ready."

Austin Veyron wanted to tell them when to leave, because it would be so much easier if he were the one commanding, and the tension showed in his clenched hands, so that Veyra knew exactly what he was thinking.

"What do you want?"

"I want to tell them when to move."

"What would that create?"

"Someone who spends other people’s lives because the map happens to be in front of him."

"Tell them the pressure on the gauge, and let them make the decision," Sable said, her light shining across the field of mud.

Tessa read the numbers off the gauge, and everyone up front knew when to leave, so that some chose to withdraw in pairs while others stayed behind to open the canal, and nobody was forced into the fire, but they all knew what the numbers meant.

Rin landed next to Austin Veyron on the bridge, and for once she didn’t make a joke, she just leaned her shoulder against his and waited for the count to run down.

"Ten seconds until the canal opens!" the worker called out.

The fighters crossed the bridge as the flood released onto the eastern side of the valley, and the steam was blinding as the Host tried to burn through the water covering its path, so that West Rift lasted one more minute before the Host punched a hole through the valley wall and began dragging itself through the flood anyway.