Chapter 229: Tag Claim

He pointed them toward the exits instead, just as the south anchor guards hit the camp lanes before any family could get through and began pressing tribute tags onto every marcher heading for the north ravine, the south trade cut, or the west drybed.

THE TAGGED BELONG TO THE ROAD.

Nothing physically bound the tagged to the road, but the marks made them think they were still under the control of Maelor’s army, so that even when they left, they would only be walking a different road that Maelor owned.

Domas stood on a crate, holding up the true supply count. "The north ravine is clear! We have four days’ worth of food and one of water. The road is not owned by the crown."

A guard threw his chain staff at him, and Tamsin deflected it with her spear, while Rin slipped between two tents and ripped the tag off a marcher’s wrist with one claw, and Veyra guarded the lane from the supply tents to the north ravine, keeping the guards from reaching the children and the water carriers.

Kethra moved through the marchers without pointing them toward any one exit. "These tags are false. You can leave, you can stay, you can fight. Decide after you know your options on the road."

Some began to move, but others stood frozen, staring at the black marks on their skin, and Austin Veyron saw that the claim lived in the tags, because the road didn’t own the people who walked on it, but the crown had turned the act of traveling into a way to claim them.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The tagged-belong-to-the-road claim. Not the people, the exits, or the road itself."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron laid his white root chain across the wrist of the nearest marcher who had reached out for help.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a gate key locked around someone’s throat.

THE TAGGED BELONG TO THE ROAD.

He consumed tagged.

The tag went out, and the marcher looked toward the north ravine, which was still a dangerous path to travel but no longer felt like a corridor inside Maelor’s command. "I choose the north line."

Word spread through the camp, and tags began to flicker on the wrists of others, some falling away completely while others stayed hot, leading back to a deeper source under the central platform, and Nyra followed the black lines with her heart shard.

"They go into a ledger pit," she said. "Something below the platform is renewing these tags, and it’s the second anchor."

Tessa sent word of the change to West Rift.

TAG CLAIM BROKEN. SECOND SOURCE IN A DEEPER PIT. PEOPLE ARE LEAVING.

The message came back immediately.

KEEP THE EXITS OPEN. DO NOT ATTACK THE CROWN FLAME UNLESS YOU CAN CONTAIN ITS SOURCE.

Austin Veyron looked over at Maelor, who stood on the central platform with the crown flame above him, not directly blocking the exits, but watching the remaining tags and using their fear to power the second anchor, and Austin Veyron knew he could devour the crown flame right now and simply see what happened to the tags still connected to it.

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

"The flame."

"And what would it make?"

"The person who thinks it’s fine for others to stay trapped."

"Then smaller," Sable said, pointing to a hatch that led under the central platform. "We break the ledger pit first."

They went through the hatch while Tamsin, Rin, Kethra, and the former crown scout guarded the exits, and before Rin went back to the lanes, she grabbed Veyra by the strap of her armor and whispered something to her that left Veyra with a blank face that slowly turned into a smile, and then Rin disappeared into the smoke, and Veyra followed the others down the ladder one-handed, favoring her bandaged shoulder, with a pink tint on her ears.

Sable went down last, and at the bottom of the ladder she caught Austin Veyron’s sleeve and held it a moment, as if to make sure he was really standing there, before letting go to light the way.

Under Ash Spine, they found the ledger pit, a circular room filled with thousands of chains that ran from niches in the walls into a basin of black ink, each chain carrying a tag that might be a name, a supply count, or a fear of the road, which Maelor had been using to create more tags.

A demon woman in gray clothes sat at a desk in the middle of the room, copying names onto black slips. "I’m Lessa," she told them as they entered. "I maintain the tag ledger. I was told the tags would keep the camp safe from the cursed roads."

Tessa placed Domas’s true supply count on the desk. "The roads aren’t cursed. Maelor hid the true counts from the people so they would think the tags were needed."

Lessa looked at the supply count and began to shake. "So all those names I..."

"Were used to control others," Calder said. "Do you want to stop writing?"

Lessa looked at the chains. "I want to show you where they renew the tags."

She pulled up a panel on the ledger, and all the remaining tags were connected to one black phrase in the ink basin.

THE CROWN RECORDS WHAT THE ROAD OWES.

The second anchor didn’t only burn the claim, but allowed the crown to write down people’s travels as debts owed to the road, and Austin Veyron saw that he could go smaller with this one.

"Target," he said. "The crown-records-road-debt claim. Not the records, the people, or the anchor."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron put his root chain into the black ink.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a travel path that would never end.

THE CROWN RECORDS WHAT THE ROAD OWES.

He consumed records.

The ink basin cracked, and the tags on the chains began to loosen, while above them the remaining tags on the marchers began to fade and the second anchor fire dwindled to a small red light, so that people began to run from the supply camp toward the exits.

Maelor slammed his crown flame into the central platform, and the source under Ash Spine came alive.

"You destroy my road one piece at a time," Maelor called out. "Now you can learn why I wanted the seed bearer alive."

The source spoke to Austin Veyron through his mind. "Your DEVOUR seed is what will light the third anchor. Maelor doesn’t need you dead anymore."

The lights in the room turned black-red, and above them Black Tithe soldiers were moving to surround the exit lines, not to stop people from leaving, but to capture Austin Veyron.

Lessa looked at the ledger. "The third anchor is missing something in the middle of it. I thought the space was for the crown."

"It is for the crown," Nyra said. "But it needs a seed of hunger to control the command and the source as well. Maelor can’t light it with the crown flame alone."

Austin Veyron felt the source under Ash Spine push against his DEVOUR mark, asking him to let Maelor have him, because if he let them capture him, he could devour the crown flame and end the road ritual from the inside out, and it seemed like the right thing to do, until he realized that if he failed, everyone still tagged to an unbroken road would die with him.

Veyra noticed the thought and grabbed his wrist. "Name it."

"Letting them capture me."

"And what would it make?"

"A gamble paid for with other people’s lives."

"Then smaller," Sable said, her crown shard lighting up in the black-red light above them. "Tell the people what’s changed about their enemy. If they capture you, it won’t just affect you."

Veyra didn’t let go of his wrist. "If you do this," she said quietly, "I will pull you out of that socket, and then Rin will kill you, and then Elena will learn about it and finish the job."

"That’s three people killing me."

"Then don’t do it." She rubbed her thumb across the inside of his wrist and let go, and when his free hand went to the slip over his heart, she saw it and the corner of her mouth softened.

Tessa sent the source’s plan through the relay, and Calder marked all the maps with the new information.

SOURCE NEEDS AUSTIN VEYRON TO COMPLETE THIRD ANCHOR. EXPECT CAPTURE ATTEMPT. KEEP EXITS OPEN. TAGS ARE BEING DISRUPTED.

West Rift replied with a message that gave them room to do what they needed to do to keep him.

DO NOT GIVE THE SEED TO THE ENEMY. MAKE SURE ALL CIVILIANS HAVE A WAY OUT. USE RETRIEVAL PLAN FOR AUSTIN VEYRON IF NECESSARY.

The message wasn’t telling him to sacrifice himself, but reminding him there were more people defending than just him.

Above them the Black Tithe circle was closing in, and the former crown scout signaled down the hatch that more people were getting out through the north ravine, but that Maelor’s men were cutting them off at the west drybed.

Austin Veyron gripped his white root chain tight, knowing he wasn’t going to give himself to the crown, but that he also wasn’t going to leave the exits unprotected.