Chapter 230: Crown Capture

He knew they wouldn’t let the exits go unguarded, and the Black Tithe knew it too, because they closed in on the Ash Spine camp without trying to take down any of the fleeing marchers, leaving the north ravine and the south trade cut open just enough to look as if they weren’t being closed off while they pushed their shields forward, forming a barrier that kept shrinking the lanes toward the central platform.

Maelor stood at the center of their ring with the portable crown flame held over his head. "Give me the seed bearer, and the marchers can leave. The workers can leave. Only one man needs to stay so the roads can burn free."

Word got around the camp faster than the supply list could post its numbers, and Austin Veyron knew all those scared eyes were on him, because if he gave himself up, the team could get people out, and he might even reach the third anchor from inside Maelor’s trap and prove himself useful in the one way the trap wanted.

Veyra stood in front of him, forcing him to look at her and only her. "Name it."

"Giving myself up."

"And what would it make?"

"A cost they want all of you to pay without ever knowing the full extent of it."

"Then smaller," Sable said, the crown shard glowing white under her cloak. "Show them the cost."

Tessa sent a warning through the relay lattice.

MAELOR OFFERING THE SEED BEARER IN EXCHANGE FOR EVACUATION. THIRD ANCHOR LIKELY ACTIVATES IF HE IS TAKEN. EXITS BEING SHUT OFF. DO NOT ASSUME IT IS SAFE TO LEAVE.

Calder added what they knew about the source and how many tags were left, and the message came back from West Rift.

NO SEED OFFER. KEEP CIVILIAN EXITS OPEN. COUNTER-CAPTURE RESPONSE AUTHORIZED.

Kethra walked along the north ravine and spoke to the people who were already leaving. "The crown is using its ring to funnel you toward a trap. Don’t head for the center platform. Follow the rope marks to the drybed."

Domas and Lessa showed the supply list and the broken tag ledger to each group that passed, making sure everyone knew how much water they had and where they could leave from, and though some didn’t listen, most did.

A Black Tithe guard stood by the south trade cut with his weapon lowered, a demon with a tribute burn across his face. "My name is Rovan. We were told to let people come closer to the ring and then close off the back of our line. Once the seed bearer makes it into the crown chamber, the third anchor will learn his DEVOUR."

"Do you choose to show them what the crown is planning?" Tessa asked.

Rovan looked at the people he was supposed to be trapping. "Yes. Under the north ravine, there’s a chain trench closing the ring from below. If we break the trench, the shields can’t keep moving."

The captains of the Black Tithe heard him and lifted their chain staffs.

THE CAPTURE BELONGS TO THE CROWN.

The ring closed in, and chains shot out of the ground near the north ravine, trying to circle Austin Veyron but cutting through the families, workers, and injured marchers trying to reach the drybed, while Tamsin stabbed her spear through the first chain anchor and Rin jumped on top of the shield wall and knocked the chain staffs out of the captains’ hands, and Veyra broke through the shields so that Kethra could guide people through the gap.

Austin Veyron saw the phrase burning on the underground chains and understood that he didn’t have to be taken by the crown to be owned by it, because all the crown had to do was make everyone believe that taking him was already decided, and that the only way for the camp to get out was to give him up.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The capture-belongs-to-the-crown claim. Not the people leaving, the exits, or the chain trench."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron pressed the white root chain to the black chain.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a bargain signed with someone else’s fear.

THE CAPTURE BELONGS TO THE CROWN.

He consumed capture.

The chain trench stopped moving, and the shields broke apart into separate lines of Black Tithe soldiers who had to decide whether to keep fighting without the crown’s command, while people left through the north ravine, families, workers, and even some guards following the rope marks to the drybed, and it wasn’t clean, but they had an exit that didn’t require Austin Veyron to give himself up.

"You refuse a useful sacrifice," Maelor said, the crown flame glowing a darker red. "You let them risk themselves when you could prove your worth."

"I won’t call their decision a reason to make them mine," Austin Veyron replied.

Maelor slammed the crown flame into the central platform, and the ground split open beneath it, revealing a passage down to an underground door covered in black stone and red flame, with an image of the mark on Austin Veyron’s wrist appearing on its surface.

THE THIRD ANCHOR WELCOMES THE SEED.

Nyra held the heart shard up to the door. "It’s already copying him from the boundary. If the chamber seals before dawn, it may learn to light itself without him."

Lessa looked at the broken tag ledger. "There are still chains left from the tags we tore down. It’s learning from the fear they left behind."

Tessa checked the time. "We have three hours until dawn."

The camp could still leave, but Maelor wasn’t trying to take Austin Veyron at the exits anymore, because he was carrying the crown flame down to the third anchor to teach it how to light itself.

There were still shields up, but they no longer worked together, because they no longer had a command to follow, and each soldier was deciding on his own whether to stay and fight.

Rovan spoke to the guards near the north ravine. "The crown lied to you about the exits. You have as much water as everyone else, and the same way out as everyone else. Leave or stay, but don’t follow its chain."

Two of the guards put their shields down, while one held on to his chain staff and headed toward the underground door, and the rest followed Maelor, not because they were forced to, but because they still believed the crown would keep them safe.

Kethra didn’t try to stop them. "Just note who leaves," she told the workers helping people out. "We’ll need to know who’s still in the tunnels."

Domas and Lessa started counting, the families who left through the north ravine, the workers through the south trade cut, and the injured heading for the west drybed, along with the guards who stayed with Maelor, the water that was left, and how many anchor tags were still hot, and though it took a while, it was better than the crown’s ledger that no one could question.

Calder studied the door, glowing black and red. "The mark on the door is a copy of Austin Veyron’s seed, not the seed itself. It’s learning from every time DEVOUR was used near the anchors."

Nyra looked at the white root chain. "Then every careless consumption below will make the copy stronger. The anchor wants him to think he’s the only key."

Austin Veyron knew he was being set up, because if he went down and used DEVOUR carelessly, he would be finishing the crown’s work, and if he didn’t go down, the anchor might learn to light itself and burn the roads anyway, so that no matter what he did, it would feel like giving something up.

Veyra stepped up next to him. "Name it."

"Going down there alone before it learns all of my boundaries."

"And what would it make?"

"The seed the anchor wants."

"Then smaller," Sable said, holding her shard up to the door. "We go down with witnesses and a way back out."

Tessa sent the information about the door to West Rift.

THIRD ANCHOR COPYING THE SEED BEARER’S BOUNDARY. THREE HOURS UNTIL DAWN. UNDERGROUND ENTRY LIKELY. REQUEST ROUTE WATCH AND RECALL CONDITIONS.

The message came back after the rift councils had compared what they knew.

ENTRY ALLOWED ONLY WITH AN OPEN EXIT AND A LIVE RELAY. DO NOT OFFER THE FULL SEED. RIFT CREWS READY. REPORT EVERY THIRTY MINUTES.

It didn’t take away the danger, but it didn’t let it become something Austin Veyron had to face alone, and a moment later Elena’s voice came through the relay at his collar, quiet and certain. "Live relay means me. I’m on it the whole way down, so don’t you dare go quiet on me." He touched the slip over his heart and told her he wouldn’t.

Tamsin looked over the fighters left to help them, Rin had a rope coiled over her shoulder, and Kethra and Rovan marked the paths they knew, while Lessa carried the broken ledger and Domas helped the people leaving count the supplies they had.

Rin was supposed to stay at the exits, but before she left, she walked up to Veyra and kissed her, right in front of everyone, and then turned to Austin Veyron and jabbed a claw into his chest. "You’d better bring her back, and yourself, and then I’m collecting my debt."

"What debt?" he asked.

"Both of you," Rin said, and left with her tails up in the air, while Veyra stood there with her good hand over her mouth.

"Well," Austin Veyron said.

"Don’t say anything," Veyra said, but she was smiling when she said it, and she came to stand beside him and rested her good shoulder against his, while on his other side Sable took his hand, her fingers cold but steady.

They had three hours until dawn.

And below them, the third anchor was waiting to learn what Austin Veyron would give up to stop it.