Chapter 233: Cinderhold Map

When the sun rose over Ash Spine, it wasn’t just one camp anymore, because people were traveling through the north ravine with bundles of supplies, the former laborers were counting out food rations, and the former guards were stacking their weapons together where anyone could see them, all while the paths revealed by the Ash Spine source showed three ways out instead of the one crown road.

Austin Veyron looked toward the platform in the middle of the camp, knowing the source had been held for so long that there was still more he could ask of it, because he wanted to ask it how to reach Cinderhold the quickest, how to get the most fighters there, and how to trap Maelor before he could reach the true reservoir, and he wanted to use the source as his map.

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

"The way to Cinderhold."

"And what would it make?"

"Someone who owns the road."

"Then smaller," Sable said as her crown shard lit up with the pale stone. "Ask what it can reveal to you."

The source appeared as a mound of ash and stone on the ground near the camp’s supply counting board. "I cannot be bound to a crown again, but I can reveal the paths I can open for you, and if you understand what those paths cost, I will show you."

"What does the path to Cinderhold cost?" Tessa asked as she laid out a sheet of paper with routes on it.

"There are two old paths that will get you there. One is shorter, but it will take you over a crown scar, meaning Maelor can see everyone who travels it. The other is longer, but it will take you through the salt caves, which are safe from the crown but not built to move carts quickly."

Calder wrote both down. "Who will need to decide on this?"

"The councils of West Rift, those who survived Ash Spine, and everyone who will need to guard these paths after us," Tessa replied.

Marcus and Elena came on through the relay, and the map was shared to the Grand Meridian, Cindervale, Brinewatch, Seregate, and Fenmarch, as well as the other shelters that had started sending word after the fall of Eastgate, so that no one was given a plan, only a map of what each path could cost them.

Elena stayed on the slate longer than Marcus did, and when she spoke, her voice was softer. "You were supposed to come home."

"I know," Austin Veyron said.

"I won’t stop you from going." She let out a sigh that he could hear through the relay. "I’ll just tell you that I’m still holding the window side, and I’m going to keep holding it." He touched the slip over his heart, and the paper was warm from the sun.

Kethra and Rovan stayed to help the former marchers as they left, while Domas and Lessa kept track of food, water, and medicine for those who stayed behind, and some traveled west while others decided to stay at Ash Spine and make it a home instead of a military stop.

Veyra sat on an overturned supply crate while Tessa rewrapped her shoulder, refusing to wince, and when Austin Veyron sat down on the crate beside her, she leaned her good side against him without a word and let him stay there until the bandage was tied, her eyes half closed against the sun, as though for those few minutes there were no roads to choose at all.

A woman came from the east around noon, a demon with soot-covered wings, a torn red coat, and a tube strapped to her back, and she fell to her knees in front of the path map before Rin had a chance to ask her name.

"My name is Seris," she said. "I was a messenger for Cinderhold’s outer wards. Maelor is there, and the city is about to seal itself off."

"Will you tell us what you know?" Tessa asked, offering her some water.

"Yes. We have twelve hours before the outer wards close, and Maelor is moving all the crown guards to the lower level of the city. He believes that with the reservoir he can turn all of Cinderhold’s underground paths into furnace lines."

She handed the tube to Tessa, and it was full of messenger notes about the outer wards and the lower-level paths, how much heat was being used, and one order burned in black-red flame.

CINDERHOLD BELONGS TO THE CROWN.

The camp went silent when they read it, because Maelor wasn’t just building a reservoir, he was claiming the entire city before anyone in Cinderhold could decide what they wanted to do.

Crown scouts came through before the councils could finish reading, riding ash hounds down from the crown scar and over the rubble, with their leader holding a red seal above the map.

THE CAPITAL ROAD BELONGS TO THE CROWN.

They were trying to reach the tube, and Rin tore through the seal the leader was holding while Tamsin took out an ash hound that was about to lunge at Seris, and Veyra sliced through a scout’s chain sword before it could cut the map of the outer wards.

Austin Veyron saw the words on the red seal and realized that the road to Cinderhold didn’t belong to the crown just because Maelor had warded its entrances, but that he was creating a funnel, because by making everyone believe the road belonged to him, anyone who came to Cinderhold would be walking into his line of sight.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The capital-road ownership claim. Not the road itself, the messenger, or the map of the wards."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron placed the white root chain against the seal in the leader’s hand.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a road leading to a city gate that forced you to bow before you could enter.

THE CAPITAL ROAD BELONGS TO THE CROWN.

He consumed gate.

The seal broke, the ash hounds lost their red trail, and the scouts scattered away from the map, running in every direction, until Rovan and the former crown scout grabbed one of them before she could reach the crown scar.

Rin landed next to Veyra, wiped the ash from her tails, and held up one claw. "Four," she told Austin Veyron before he could ask her what she was counting. "I’m adding that one to the debt."

"You add everything to the debt," Veyra said.

"Yes, I do," Rin said, and leaned her hip into Veyra’s on the side without the bandage.

Seris laid out the map of the outer wards and told them again that they had twelve hours before Cinderhold sealed itself off from everyone outside its walls, and that once it was sealed, Maelor would be able to use the reservoir to make furnace lines throughout the city’s underground paths.

The councils discussed the two paths, and Austin Veyron watched as they worked out what each one could do and who wanted to take it, asking only, "What can each path carry, and who chooses to take it?"

By the time they came to a decision, the Ash Spine source had lit up both paths on the map, and the clock to Cinderhold had started ticking.

They didn’t choose based on distance alone, because the repair teams from West Rift could guard the relay station at the crown scar if they knew scouts would be drawn there trying to take it, those who stayed at Ash Spine could bring food and medicine through the salt caves if they decided to leave their new shelter and help, and Seris knew the outer wards but not the path to the reservoir.

"A small team should travel through the salt caves, and the rest should stay on the crown scar to watch for scouts," Marcus said over the relay. "West Rift keeps the power to call us back, and the Ash Spine source will show us both paths but won’t lead anyone further than it knows."

"Every team will also send a count every thirty minutes to let us know if anything has changed," Elena added. "If the wards close early, the team turns around instead of trying to force its way into a city that’s already on fire."

Austin Veyron hated the withdrawal condition the moment he heard it, because Maelor had only twelve hours and the reservoir was in the capital, and he wanted to tell them that if he made it to the city, he wouldn’t turn around, though he knew that was selfish.

Veyra stood beside the map. "Name it."

"Going on, even if word comes to turn around."

"And what would it make?"

"Someone who calls a warning too cautious because he wants to reach his destination."

"Then smaller," Sable said, her shard casting a light over the two paths. "Go in only if you can walk away from it."

Austin Veyron nodded. "We take the salt caves, and the crown scar teams observe only. If we’re told to turn around, we will."

They all knew walking away wouldn’t come easily to him, but at least they had made him say it out loud, and Sable touched his hand on the edge of the map and held it for a second, as if she meant to make sure he kept his word, while Veyra, on his other side, said nothing at all and simply bumped her knuckles once against his, which from her was the same as a signature.

Seris opened the lining of the tube, and another map was hidden inside, showing a lift that ran under Cinderhold’s eastern wall, along with a warning.

LOWER WARD ACCESS BLOCKED BY HEAT AT THE TENTH BELL.

Calder translated the bells into field time. "Eleven hours and forty minutes."

The scouts had failed to take the map, but now Maelor knew they were sharing the routes, and he wouldn’t sit idly by waiting for them to reach his city, so that on the horizon the walls of Cinderhold were already beginning to glow red as the city sealed itself off from the world.