Chapter 226: Falling Host

With less than a minute left, the Cinder Host started to fall, its outer shell cracking away from the furnace heart as black iron tore free from its body and crashed into the east basin, and though the living treads had stopped moving, their dead weight was still pushing the fortress toward the West Rift bridge, the clinic wagons, and the six roads converging below it.

"Fifty seconds," Tessa said over the relay. "The north tread chain is still connected, east basin water pressure is dropping, and the west evacuation road is at half capacity."

Joren stood at the public board, which was now propped up against one of the clinic wagons. "All crews, state your situation. Nobody goes onto the bridge without a reason, and nobody leaves a road without telling the board."

Austin Veyron stood near the dying furnace heart, which still pulsed faintly over the core shaft, and DEVOUR wanted it, because there was enough power left in it to take the fall into his own body and stop the Host from crashing down on the valley, saving them all, but by doing so he could also claim West Rift as his.

Veyra walked over to him through the falling ash. "Name it."

"The entire heart."

"And what would it make?"

"The owner of the disaster I stopped."

"Then smaller," Sable said, her crown shard pointing through the walls of the core chamber toward the east basin. "Take the claim that says the fall needs an owner."

Kethra and Orven were studying the falling Host.

"The north tread is still chained near the bridge," Orven said. "If we can make the east side fall first, the fortress will drop into the basin instead of onto the bridge."

"But the basin wall will break," Kethra replied. "The flood channel will have to absorb the impact."

Nyra held the heart shard up to the dying furnace heart. "I can contain the burst of heat if the outside crews open a second channel. It won’t stop all of it, but it’ll keep the clinic road safe."

"The second channel is possible," Joren said over the relay, "but it’ll use our last emergency water barrel, and the clinic wagons will be left without a cooling reserve."

Austin Veyron wanted to make the choice himself, because the numbers were right in front of him, time was running out, and the Host was falling, and he wanted to tell the water crews to open the second channel, the clinic wagons to move, and the chain crews exactly where they needed to stand.

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

"The reserve. Forcing the Host to fall east."

"And what would it make?"

"The one who decides which emergency matters more."

"Then smaller," Sable said, placing her crown shard on the relay slate. "Let them decide with these numbers."

The outside crews heard their options, and the water crews chose to open half of the second channel so that some reserve would stay with the clinic road, while the metal crews chose to move the north chain lower to drag the Host’s weight toward the east basin, and the clinic wagons chose to move the weakest patients west first and leave the rest of the carts behind to block the heat from the road, so that none of their decisions would save everything on its own, but together they gave the valley a chance, until a black phrase flared across the furnace heart.

THE FALL BELONGS TO THE STRONGEST HAND.

The Host was trying to turn its own collapse into a final contest, and Austin Veyron saw the claim.

"Target," he said. "The fall-belongs-to-the-strongest-hand claim. Not the Host, the crews, or the rift."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron placed his white root chain against the black flames of the furnace heart.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a collapsing roof waiting for one person to call it theirs.

THE FALL BELONGS TO THE STRONGEST HAND.

He consumed fall.

The furnace heart lost its last control over the Host, and the fortress began tipping east as the water crews opened the half channel and mud and water rushed into the basin, while the north chain crews pulled until the metal broke in their hands, dragging the Host just far enough from the bridge that it crashed into the east basin instead, its iron burying itself in the mud as heat shot up from the furnace heart, but Nyra’s boundary held the blast inside the core chamber and the half channel carried the steam away from the clinic road, and the bridge cracked but held, so that for a moment everything was fire, mud, and falling rock, until at last it went quiet.

The Cinder Host lay broken in the east basin, and the six roads were still open, though some of them were buried in ash, and the clinic wagons began moving again while the water crews crawled out of the mud, tired and battered, and the metal crews lowered what was left of the bridge chain.

Joren gave them the first count after the fall. "West road is clear for light wagons. South road is blocked but marked. East road is destroyed past the basin. North road can only fit a small wagon through. The clinic has less room, and we have a quarter barrel of water left. No tribute marks are active on the roads."

It wasn’t a victory, but it was a good start on being alive again.

Rin found Austin Veyron at the edge of the broken core chamber, grabbed his face with both hands, and kissed him, then pulled away with a smirk. "That was for not eating the heart," she said. "Try not to get cocky."

Austin Veyron could still feel her lips on his when he looked past her at Veyra, who stood with her good arm braced across her bandaged one, smirking at him.

"Thank Veyra too," he told Rin quietly. "She held Varos off the whole time you were busy impressing me."

"You’re horrible," Rin said, and she crossed to Veyra, who was about to walk away, and kissed the corner of her mouth, and Veyra froze and turned red, then grabbed Rin by the collar with her good hand and kissed her back quickly before turning a glare on Austin Veyron.

"I know you did that on purpose," she said, though she didn’t sound too angry about it.

Austin Veyron smiled and felt proud of himself for having set it up, at least until Elena spoke through the relay. "I heard that," she said with a laugh, and then, softer, so that only the receiver at his collar carried it, "I hope you’ve got some of that attitude left when you get home to me." His hand found the slip over his heart, and he didn’t bother hiding the grin.

Sable had watched the whole thing without a word, and when the others turned back to the wreck, she stepped close and laced her fingers through his, holding on until his grin settled into something quieter.

Inside the core chamber, the furnace heart was nothing but a cold lump of iron, but Maelor’s portable crown flame had left something behind when he used it to escape, a black-red shard stuck in the broken cage of the heart, and Kethra picked it up carefully.

"It’s a route ember," she said. "He used this to escape, and it leads to his camp in the east."

The route ember drew a thin black line along the ground that ran through the rift and out toward the old demon roads in the east.

Nyra held her heart shard near the route ember. "Maelor is building something. He’s using the crown flame to turn the demon roads into an invasion path."

"If he can light enough of those roads, the Black Tithe will be on us faster than we can warn the freeholds," Tessa said.

"We can’t send all our forces after him," Joren said, looking at the line and then at the route board. "We need to focus on West Rift first."

Austin Veyron wanted to go after the ember anyway, because he could take a small party and chase Maelor down while the rift became someone else’s problem.

Veyra saw him staring at the line running east. "Name it."

"Going after it now."

"And what would it make?"

"The one who decided a threat that might happen someday matters more than the people bleeding in front of me right now."

"Then smaller," Sable said, her crown shard catching the black light of the ember. "Ask what the rift needs before we leave it."

The local crews gave their numbers, with the water crews needing two more people to run the pumps, the clinic needing heat cloths and an escort on the west road, the metal crews needing forty minutes to clear the north road for wagons, and the ferry scouts asking for two volunteers to find a new south road around the basin, and Austin Veyron, Veyra, Tamsin, Rin, Kethra, Orven, Sable, Nyra, Tessa, and Calder each decided where they would go, with some staying to help stabilize the convergence and others preparing to follow the route ember in a small group, carrying maps but no claim authority over the road and ready to be called back by the councils if they were needed.

"The Grand Meridian is sending the route ember to every warning board," Marcus said over the relay. "We aren’t going to chase him blindly, but we’ll be tracking every road he can use."

The route ember pulsed once, and Austin Veyron looked at his crews and the roads they still had, knowing they had defeated the Cinder Host, but that the Burned Crown was still out there.