Chapter 237: Deep Ledger

The deep ledger lay below the ration hall, a room covered in black metal with names, food lines, clinic lines, and route lines etched into it, and red heat traveled from each line down to the reservoir line at the center of the room, so that every need listed above, from food to medicine to water to homes to routes, was flowing down to fuel Maelor’s crown engine.

Tessa held the relay up to the wall closest to them. "Upper ward count is stable. The food line is open, the clinic has seven beds open, and the west route is open. Names are still traveling down."

Calder checked the timer. "We have twenty-five minutes until our first report is due."

Austin Veyron looked at the names and wanted to devour the entire ledger, because if he swallowed every name line, the reservoir wouldn’t be able to use the city’s needs to fuel its engine, but that meant every food line, every clinic line, and every route that depended on them would end up inside his power.

Veyra noticed him looking at it. "Name it."

"All of the name lines."

"And what would it make?"

"A place where all of a city’s needs would go to be owned."

"Then smaller," Sable said, holding up her broken crown shard so that it lit the names on the wall. "Take the claim that says the reservoir can take their needs."

More crown guards appeared from the side hallways, demons in red and black masks with lances dripping hot ink, and each lance carried the same phrase.

THE RESERVOIR HOLDS WHAT THE CITY OWES.

One of the guards swung at Tessa, and Veyra caught the lance on her sword and deflected it with her good arm, while Seris flew across the room and blinded another guard with the soot from her wings, Calder blocked the stairs from any guards trying to cut the live line, and Veyra kept pushing through, cutting the lines of red ink that were trying to grab onto the route lines.

Austin Veyron knew that what the lances said was false, because the reservoir didn’t hold the city’s debts, it held copies of what the city needed and called them debt, while the people above still had their kitchens, water lines, clinics, and routes, and Maelor had only hidden that from them behind fire.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The reservoir-holds-what-the-city-owes claim. Not the city, what it needs, or the heat lines."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron placed his white root chain on one of the dripping lances.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a list of hospital patients filed under the account of someone who ruled over them.

THE RESERVOIR HOLDS WHAT THE CITY OWES.

He consumed account.

The lance went cold, and all of the black metal around them changed, the red lines of names still there but no longer something the reservoir lines could take as debt, and the crown guards faltered, not knowing what to do with lances that no longer carried the claim, so that two of them ran and the last one took off his mask and stepped back from the stairs.

A woman came out from behind one of the panels with a ring of heat keys around her hand, wearing a soot-stained coat that marked her as someone who maintained the pipes.

"My name is Velis. I keep the lower reservoir. Maelor made us feed all of the ward counts into this ledger and told us the city would freeze without it."

Nyra held the heart shard up to the heat keys. "She has a connection to the true lines of heat."

"Will you choose to show us?" Tessa asked.

"I choose to show the city what the reservoir takes from them."

She opened the panel, and behind it were three lines of pipes leading to the lower ward, one to the kitchens, one to the clinics, and one to the homes, which Maelor had braided together at a black valve and pushed up to the throat of the crown reservoir.

"The city doesn’t need a crown line to heat it," Velis said. "It needs these three lines separated and sent where they belong. But the upper throat is getting too hot, and if we cut this braid without opening the source lines first, they’ll blow up the lower ward."

Tessa relayed the information to Tova.

KITCHEN LINE, CLINIC LINE, AND HOME LINE FOUND. MUST OPEN SOURCE LINES BEFORE CUTTING THE BRAID AT THE BOTTOM.

Tova sent back through the relay.

KITCHENS CAN OPEN THEIR SOURCE. CLINICS NEED TWO MINUTES TO OPEN THEIRS. RESIDENTS MUST OPEN THEIR GATES MANUALLY. DO NOT CUT THE BRAID UNTIL ALL THREE ARE OPEN.

Austin Veyron heard what it would take to open the source lines and wanted to cut the braid anyway and let the lines run where they needed to go, because the names were already free, so why not let the heat travel to them as well.

Veyra stood next to him. "Name it."

"Cutting the braid before he can see what we did."

"And what would it make?"

"Someone who thinks it’s fine to put a city at risk because he wants to move faster."

"Then smaller," Sable said, pointing to the lines that ran to the lower ward. "Let them open their lines."

They stayed in the room and waited for the upper ward to open its source lines, with Veyra at the staircase, Seris guarding the side hallways, Calder talking with the one guard who had stayed, Velis checking how much heat was coming through the lines, Nyra keeping hold of the valve, and Tessa keeping the relay open.

Rin came over the relay while they were waiting. "Kitchen lines are open. I’m on the roof above the clinics, and I can see their lights. Tell him to stop making that face at the pipes."

"He isn’t making that face," Veyra said.

"He is," Sable said, and Austin Veyron realized that he was smiling.

"Good," Rin said, as if she could hear it through the slate. "Keep doing that. And Veyra, you’re doing the thing where you hold your shoulder like it doesn’t hurt. I can hear it from up here." Veyra’s ears went red, and she lowered her bandaged arm a little, and when Austin Veyron opened his mouth, she pointed her sword at him without turning around.

KITCHEN LINE IS OPEN.

CLINIC LINE IS OPEN.

HOME LINES ARE OPEN.

With all three lines open, Velis used the heat keys to open the valve, and the kitchen heat started traveling to the lower ward’s food halls, the clinic heat to the burn beds, and the home heat back to the lower ward’s houses, while the deep ledger went dark.

But a louder roar came from above them, because Maelor knew they were separating the lines and was now pulling heat from his crown flame engine to feed the throat.

"He’s at the throat," Velis said, fear in her eyes. "If he brands the network, every line in Cinderhold will wear a crown."

The names were free and the city was getting its heat back, but they still had to reach the throat.

Once the valve was open, more crown guards came from the side hallways, not all of them moving toward the ledger, but all of them still carrying hot lances and knowing what Maelor wanted them to do.

"Hold the stairs," Veyra told them.

"I can block that side for about a minute," Velis said. "But the pipes will need air after that."

Tessa looked at the time on the relay. "We have four minutes until our first report is due, and we need to know if we can reach the throat before he brands it."

Calder kept the guard’s weapon out of his reach while Seris questioned him. "How many are at the throat?"

"Maelor, the crown engineers, and the guards from the barracks," the guard said. "The engineers think branding the city will help it. They don’t know it will control all of the lines."

"Will you choose to tell them that?" Calder asked.

The guard looked at the lines that were open now and the heat traveling through them. "I’ll tell them."

He blew a whistle from his belt, and it sent a message up through the pipes.

THE SOURCE LINES ARE OPEN. THE BRAND WILL NOT HELP THE CITY.

Some of the guards stopped when they heard it, and one put his lance down, but the others kept coming at them.

Austin Veyron knew that Maelor’s power came from keeping people from knowing what lines they were guarding, and now that they knew, some of them still wanted to fight for Maelor, but at least they knew what they were doing.

Nyra pointed to a lift running up beside the upper line. "We can take that to the throat, but we’ll need one of Velis’s heat keys, and the upper ward will know which way we went."

Austin Veyron wanted to take the lift without telling anyone where they were going, because if they attacked Maelor by surprise, they could reach him faster.

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

"Going up to him before he knows we’re there."

"And what would it make?"

"Someone who tells others it’s fine to keep secrets to get somewhere faster."

"Then smaller," Sable said, holding up the relay. "Tell them we can reach the throat, and let them know what we need."

Tessa sent the condition up to the upper ward.

WE CAN REACH THE THROAT USING A MAINTENANCE LIFT. CROWN GUARDS AT THE TOP. TELL US WHAT THE CITY NEEDS FROM US.

Tova sent back through the relay from the ration hall.

THE UPPER WARD IS FINE FOR NOW. FOOD, CLINICS, AND HOMES HAVE THEIR HEAT BACK. GO TO THE THROAT AND KEEP US UPDATED.

Elena came through the relay after Tova. "Keep us updated means I want to hear you breathe. Don’t stop." Austin Veyron touched the slip over his heart, and Veyra leaned her good shoulder against him.

They turned toward the lift, and Sable followed close behind him, her hands on his belt as though she didn’t want the lift to leave without her, and when the cage lurched upward, she leaned her forehead between his shoulder blades for one breath and said, so quietly that only he could hear, "Whatever is at the top, we answer it together," and then she straightened and raised her shard to light the shaft.

The roar from above swelled louder, and Maelor was putting brands on the city one line at a time.