Chapter 236: Ration Hall Count

Smoke continued to pour from the sealed doors of the central ration hall, but the lower ward came anyway, with tokens, empty pots, clinic slips, and jars of water, while kitchen carts were pushed to the side door, clinic runners stood by the back cellar exit, and crown patrols lined up by the front doors in black-and-red masks with their gate lances held low.

Tova stood in the line with the food tallies. "Twelve food carts. Seven clinic beds. Three barrels of water by the west lane. The salt exit is still open. No one needs a crown brand to eat."

The hall doors opened, and a crown quartermaster walked onto the platform in front of the entryway, a demon in red and black clothing with a furnace brand on his forehead.

"I am Quartermaster Dres. Cinderhold needs an emergency count of heat. Heat workers to the north lane. Food claimants to the east lane. Dependents to the south lane. Those who follow will be provided heat and rations."

The floor marked each lane with red symbols.

THE FURNACE NAMES WHO DESERVES HEAT.

People shifted nervously as they realized the north lane faced a hot iron door, the east lane passed a crown clerk’s desk, and the south lane ended at a red gate that didn’t show any exit.

Seris translated the courier code from the brand’s seal. "The north lane takes you to the furnace labor line, the east lane takes you to a debt claim on food, and the south lane is for route marks and holds you there." She turned to Austin Veyron. "He isn’t distributing rations. He’s collecting tribute."

Austin Veyron wanted to get on the platform, punch Dres in the face, and tell everyone what they needed to do, because if he made the crown afraid, the crowd would follow.

Veyra stepped next to him. "Name it."

"Taking the hall."

"And what would it make?"

"The crown, standing in for them behind a different door."

"Then smaller," Sable said, holding her shard up to the marks on the floor. "Take a stand on what Tova is counting."

Tova lifted her slate of tallies. "Kitchen staff, state what you have on hand. Clinic staff, state your needs. Families, state what routes you know. We won’t let this hall be broken into lanes until we know the price."

"We have two carts of grain, one of roots, and no oil," one of the kitchen workers said.

"We have seven beds, three burn patients, and one chest of medicine," one of the clinic workers replied.

An old man held up his jar of water. "Three barrels by the west lane. Nothing coming from the east pipe."

As more of the lower ward gave their real tallies, Dres scowled. "You’re wasting time that should be spent on emergency distribution. The crown is here to bring order where you have none."

He struck the brand on his forehead, and the crown patrols advanced toward the food line, but Tamsin took one out with her spear from the line, Rin came down from the ceiling and clawed a patrol’s mask off, and Veyra sliced through the chains appearing across the cellar exit.

Nyra lifted the heart shard to the symbols on the floor. "The brand will mark everyone who stands in the lanes and feed them into the reservoir’s needs."

Austin Veyron saw the claim in the red lines and knew there was no need for the furnace to name who deserved heat, because pipes, workers, stores, and cooperation were what made heat, and the crown just wanted people not to know where it came from, so they would obey.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The furnace-names-who-deserves-heat claim. Not the heat, the residents, or the hall."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron placed the white root chain on the red symbol between the lanes.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a winter that only let those the ruler deemed useful open their doors.

THE FURNACE NAMES WHO DESERVES HEAT.

He consumed useful.

The lanes broke apart on the floor, and the north iron door opened onto stairs leading down to furnace cages, while the ledgers on the east clerk’s desk burned away to reveal stolen rations, and the south gate unlocked onto a back alley that ran west.

The hall didn’t dissolve into panic, because the people already knew what they had to offer, so that they began to roll food carts toward the west lane exit, clinic staff chose who would get beds and who needed to stay away from the furnace, and people carried water to each other away from the furnace line, and no one commanded the lower ward to survive, because they simply knew where their resources were.

Dres tried to run toward the furnace, but Tamsin and Calder stopped him, and Calder held up the burned ledgers. "You took food from this ward and gave it to the crown as a reserve."

Dres turned to the lower ward. "The crown needs power to keep our city safe."

Tova stepped forward. "Our city is not your reserve."

Dres let go of his brand and ran down the stairs toward the furnace line, and Nyra looked after him. "The reservoir is down there, but the heat pipes are starting to mark our names. The crown may still be able to pull us into the reservoir, even without the lanes."

Tessa looked at her relay slate.

TALLY STOPPED. FOOD AND MEDICAL LINES CLEAR. RESERVOIR STAIRS CLEAR. NAMES OF RESIDENTS STILL PULLING TOWARD RESERVOIR.

A message from West Rift appeared on the slate across the city map.

KEEP UPPER WARD SAFE. DESCENT TEAM NEEDS TO CLEAR NAMES FROM RESERVOIR WITHOUT TAKING CITY’S HEAT.

Austin Veyron looked at the stairs and at the people who had stood up to the crown in the hall, knowing the reservoir was open but that the city could still lose its heat if they took too long below.

Tova didn’t clear the hall once the stairs were open, and she told no one what to do, but showed what they had on hand and asked for volunteers, so that two kitchen workers took on moving grain through the west lane, three clinic staff took the burn patients away from the furnace line, and others took the front doors to tell everyone coming in that the crown lanes were destroyed, that the true food tally was on display, and that the salt exit was still an option.

It wasn’t much to look at, only people carrying bags of supplies, reading lists, and keeping doors open, but that was difficult for Maelor to feed on.

Nyra followed a thin red line leading down the reservoir stairs. "The names aren’t being pulled by their bodies, but by the heat they owe. If the reservoir takes our names, we’ll still have food and water, but our needs will answer to the crown."

Seris found a way into the courier lines near the stairs. "There’s an old line that runs through the ledger room before the reservoir. We may be able to send our names back to where they belong in the city."

"Will the upper ward last until we do that?" Tessa asked.

Tova looked at the tally slate. "For now, yes. But if the crown takes the hall or heats the pipes in the ward, we need the stair team to tell us what it sees. Don’t disappear under the city on us."

Austin Veyron wanted to say they would take out the reservoir no matter what happened above them, because it sounded heroic, and heroic things never had to admit they might fail.

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

"Going until it’s over."

"And what would it make?"

"Somebody who acts like the people above don’t matter if he never reports back."

"Then smaller," Sable said, pointing at the relay slate. "We go as far as we can and still report back to the hall."

Calder set a thirty-minute timer beneath the city bell schedule. "If the upper ward fails, we reconsider. If the names start pulling faster, we report. If we can’t reach the reservoir without taking the city’s heat, we leave and find another way."

It wasn’t a great answer, but it limited Austin Veyron’s want for one final answer, and when Veyra placed her good hand on his arm above the mark, he knew she meant to limit him too.

"I’m going with you," she said. "So you’d better come back with me. That’s how we do things."

"That’s how we do things," he said.

Tamsin took the back, and Rin went up to watch for patrols, but before she left, she jumped down off a beam, kissed Veyra on the lips, and poked Austin Veyron in the chest with her claw. "Thirty minutes. I’ll be counting." She was back in the rafters before either of them could answer, and Tova stayed with the public tally at the front of the hall.

Veyra touched her lips with two fingers, looked at Austin Veyron, and said, "Don’t," before he had even opened his mouth, though the corner of hers wouldn’t stay flat.

Elena’s voice came over the relay as they made their way to the stairs. "I heard you set the timer. I’ll be waiting on every report. Don’t make me wait."

"You won’t have to," Austin Veyron said, and under his shirt the slip over his heart rustled as he moved, the paper soft now from how many times he had touched it, as though it had been worn into something closer to skin than ink.

Austin Veyron, Veyra, Sable, Nyra, Tessa, Calder, and Seris began their descent, and on the third step Sable took his hand, and he didn’t let go.

Above them, the lower ward kept telling the truth about what it needed, and below them, the reservoir kept trying to turn those needs into heat.