Chapter 235: Lower Ward

Cinderhold’s lower ward sat beneath the oldest parts of the city, and when the lift stopped, Austin Veyron stepped out onto a small street lined with furnaces, brick buildings with red ward towers rising past them and black smoke that carried the smell of crown fire, while every gate on the street was locked with a red-black plate.

Seris looked at the plates and the courier codes scratched underneath them. "Lower ward count at the next bell. Maelor is ordering everyone to the central ration hall."

"What kind of count?" Tessa asked.

"He calls it a heat distribution count." Seris’s jaw clenched. "In the older courier language, that means the crown will count who’s receiving warmth, food, and travel. It’s a count of tribute."

Austin Veyron wanted to break every ward plate, open every street in the city, and turn it into a battlefield before Maelor could count anyone.

"Name it," Veyra said.

"Opening every street."

"And what would it make?"

"The one who chooses which panics are allowed to happen."

"Then smaller," Sable said as her crown shard glowed. "Find out which streets need to be opened first."

Someone stepped out of one of the alleys, a woman in the gray coat of the lower ward, with two others behind her carrying cooking tools and lanterns.

"My name is Tova. I help run the food lines in this area. If you came in through the salt lift, you entered the city under the crown’s notice, which means you either have an escape route or you’re about to bring soldiers to our door."

"We know a route to the caverns," Tessa said. "We can’t guarantee it will stay open, but will you show us the map of the ward?"

Tova looked at their route ember map and opened her own. "Here’s the central ration hall. The whole lower ward will be brought here at the next bell, and there’s access to the reservoir underneath the hall. But if Maelor uses the food count to claim the ward, he can mark everyone who enters and take every route in the lower city."

Nyra held her heart shard up to the map. "The heat is higher under the hall. They aren’t just counting people to feed them."

The street filled with crown soldiers in black-red masks with gate lances in hand, and when the first soldier struck a ward plate with his lance, the words burned over the alley.

THE LOWER WARD BELONGS TO THE CROWN.

They marched toward Tova and her food line, and Rin came down from the gutter and ripped the lead lance out of line with her claws, while Tamsin slammed another soldier into a wall before he could reach the map, Veyra cut the red fire away from the ward plate, and Calder guided the cooks to the back door.

Austin Veyron saw the claim on the plate and knew that the crown sealing the streets of the lower ward didn’t mean it owned them, because the people of the lower ward had their own kitchens, clinics, and homes long before Maelor’s flame ever reached them.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The lower-ward ownership claim. Not the ward, the residents, or the gates."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron pressed his white root chain to the plate.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a whole neighborhood reduced to a number on one ruler’s ration board.

THE LOWER WARD BELONGS TO THE CROWN.

He consumed number.

The plate shattered, but the gate didn’t open, and instead it revealed a manual release hidden under the crown fire, which Tova’s workers knew how to work, so that together they opened the alley leading to the western food lane, while the other plates along the street began revealing their manual releases as well.

Without the claim, the soldiers were confused, no longer knowing what they could attack or which streets counted as the crown’s property, so that two ran toward the ration hall and one took off his mask and backed away from the food line.

"People can get to the clinic now," Tova said. "But the count at the ration hall is still coming."

Tessa sent an update to West Rift.

LOWER WARD REACHED. MANUAL RELEASES FOUND ON GATES. PROBABLE COUNT OF RESIDENTS AT RATION HALL FOR USE AS TRIBUTE. RESERVOIR ACCESS UNDER RATION HALL.

The relay sent back a message.

KEEP CIVILIANS SAFE FROM THE COUNT. DO NOT LET RESERVOIR ACCESS BECOME A PRIVATE ENTRY. INFORM US WHEN THE BELL CHIMES.

Calder looked at Seris’s courier clock. "Thirty-eight minutes."

Tova pulled out another map of the lower ward, with more detail on the food lanes, the water points, the clinic, and the hidden passages. "If the count starts, we can get some people out. But we need to keep the hall too, because it holds the communal food and heat."

Austin Veyron wanted to go straight to the reservoir and leave Tova to deal with the people in the ration hall.

"Name it," Veyra said.

"The reservoir."

"And what would it make?"

"The one who thinks other people’s starvation matters less than his target."

"Then smaller," Sable said, covering the hall on the map with her hand. "Deal with the count first."

The bell began to heat, and in thirty-eight minutes everyone in the lower ward would be at the central ration hall, where Maelor would try to mark them as tribute.

Tova called all the lower ward workers into the alleyway, and she didn’t ask who was willing to fight, only how many people they could move down each lane.

"We have twelve carts and two runners on the west food lane," one worker said.

"The clinic has seven open beds and no extra heat cloth," another said.

"There are three hidden passages to the back of the hall," a building steward said. "One is sealed by a ward plate. Two are clear for now."

Tessa wrote the numbers on Tova’s map, and Calder updated the relay, sending word beyond Cinderhold of how many food carts, beds, and exits they had and when the bell would chime, not telling anyone what to do, only letting them know what was available.

Elena responded through the relay not long after with information from the Grand Meridian. "Seven beds isn’t enough. We’ll send more heat cloth through West Rift, and Brinewatch has lanterns it can share." She lowered her voice so only he could hear. "And you, stay where they put you. I’ll know if you don’t."

Austin Veyron smiled and touched the slip over his heart, and Veyra smirked, because she had clearly overheard.

Seris studied the courier code on the central hall. "They’ll sort everyone into three lines, heat, food, and travel, which lets the crown see who needs what and use it against them."

Nyra’s heart shard pulsed. "The lower ward can stop them labeling people if we can make the hall into a witness."

"How do we make a hall full of soldiers into a witness?" a man asked from one of the food carts.

"We tell them the truth," Tova said to everyone in the alleyway. "We tell them we have food because of our kitchens, heat because we share it, and travel because we keep the streets open. If we say it before they label us as tribute, we win."

The plan went out to everyone who wanted to help, some taking the food lines and others helping at the clinic, while those who wanted to leave the city were told how far they would have to travel and how much water they would need, and those who chose to stay at the hall knew there could be crown soldiers and that they could be marked.

Austin Veyron watched them all work and knew he wanted to be at the center of it, because he could protect everyone and keep the crown from marking anyone, and it felt good knowing he could, which was exactly what made it dangerous.

"Name it," Veyra said.

"The center of the hall."

"And what would it make?"

"The one whose protection turns people into another count."

"Then smaller," Sable said, placing her hand on the map. "Be where they need you to be."

Tova looked over the people she trusted. "Austin Veyron, you’ll go with Veyra, Sable, and Nyra to the food line. Rin, you’ll take the east side of the roof, and Tamsin will guard the back exit to the cellar. Seris, Tessa, and Calder will stay with the map and relay any changes during the count. If the crown decides to mark the hall, we need to know every exit available."

"We’ll do what the ward needs," Austin Veyron said.

Rin grabbed his sleeve as she started climbing to the east side of the building, then grabbed Veyra’s collar too and pulled them both close together. "You stay with the food line, and if either of you gets marked, I’m adding interest." She let go and climbed the rest of the way to the roof.

Sable walked beside him toward the hall, and when they reached the line, she took his hand and didn’t let go.

Thirty minutes remained until the bell chimed, and at the central ration hall, red smoke was starting to leak out of the doors.