Chapter 238: Reservoir Throat

The lift climbed through the upper levels of Cinderhold’s heatworks with Velis spinning the heat keys in her soot-stained hands, Seris reading the courier codes that lined each level, Tessa holding the relay open, and Calder keeping track of the city bells, while Veyra, Sable, Nyra, and Austin Veyron waited around the lift rails as red light flashed past the grate.

"Report from the upper ward," Tessa said.

"Food lines are still running, clinic lines are still running, and the residential areas are heating as normal," Tova reported through the relay. "The crown sent patrols to the main heat tower in the center of the city. We can keep the count going for now."

For now was what worried them.

The reservoir throat pulsed above them as each separated line tried to reconnect to Maelor’s ignition engine, and Austin Veyron could feel the network through his DEVOUR seed, kitchen stoves, clinic heaters, home vents, and everything else that kept people warm, and he knew he could devour it, that one act and the brand would fail, but he would be holding every one of those warm rooms inside his own hunger.

Veyra saw him go still. "Name it."

"The network."

"And what would it make?"

"The one who owns all of Cinderhold’s heat."

"Then smaller," Sable said, her crown shard shining on the red pipes. "Take the ownership, not the heat."

The lift stopped at the reservoir throat below Cinderhold’s central tower, a large room filled with pipes leading into a circular engine that hovered above a white-red heat pool, where Maelor stood above the engine with the portable crown flame and the crown engineers worked around the control board as black and red sparks flew from it.

A message was burned across the engine’s wheel.

THE CROWN OWNS THE HEAT OF CINDERHOLD.

"You broke my ledgers and gave the people their counts," Maelor said to them. "So I decided to use the source. Everyone needs heat in their home, the clinics need heat, and the kitchens need heat. If they have one crown, they will have all of that."

"They think they’re fixing the pipes," Seris said, recognizing the engineers’ codes. "They don’t know the brand will tie every heat line to a tribute."

Calder shouted to the nearest engineer. "The lower ward separated its lines. Your engine isn’t helping them, it’s stealing what they need."

The engineer didn’t respond, and Maelor struck the engine with his crown flame, sending brands flowing into the pipes.

Crown soldiers attacked from the upper levels, and with Tamsin still holding off the rest at the far end of the hall above them, Calder caught the first one with a seized chain staff and Veyra took out the next soldier’s lance with her good arm, while Seris flew down from a pipe on her wings and ripped two cables from the board before the soldiers could cut them off from the platform.

"Six patrols are heading down to the bottom of the tower," Rin told them over the relay from the roof. "I’m buying you time. Don’t you dare finish this without me."

"She means you," Veyra said to Austin Veyron, without taking her eyes off the soldiers, and then, after a beat, quieter, "She means me too," and the way she said it made him want very badly to get all three of them out of this tower alive.

"The brand isn’t in the heat," Nyra said, holding the heart shard above the engine wheel. "It’s in the message that says the crown owns it. If we remove the message, the pipes can stay separate."

Austin Veyron knew what he had to take, because Cinderhold didn’t belong to the crown just because its people needed heat, and the crown only wanted to own the lives of everyone in Cinderhold by branding their source of warmth.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The crown-owns-the-heat-of-Cinderhold claim. Not the heat, the pipes, or the people above us."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron placed his white root chain on the message spinning across the engine wheel.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like every cold room in Cinderhold written into one ruler’s deed.

THE CROWN OWNS THE HEAT OF CINDERHOLD.

He consumed deed.

The engine wheel let out a screech and stopped the brands from entering the pipes, and the crown engineers fell back from their boards as the codes changed from black-red to ordinary heating codes, so that some of them finally realized what Maelor had been doing.

One of the engineers lifted her hands from the board. "I’m Ferrin. I thought the crown brand would help with our heat loss. I choose to shut down the crown heat line."

Two others did the same, closing the black-red lines that ran from the portable flame into the engine, while the lower ward kept heating through its own lines.

Maelor let out a roar and swung his portable crown flame at them, and Veyra blocked it, her white fire clashing with his black-red fire and breaking part of the engine ring, while Sable cut another of the crown’s cables and Nyra raised a boundary around the heat pool to keep it from blowing into the city’s pipes.

Austin Veyron could feel the power left in the engine, and DEVOUR wanted it, because taking it would stop the dying ignition engine from destroying the room.

"Name it," Veyra said through the noise.

"The heat surge."

"And what would it make?"

"Cinderhold’s furnace."

"Then smaller," Sable said, pointing to the heat valves. "Let the engineers take care of it."

Ferrin and the engineers who had turned looked over the valves and released the heat into the tower’s vents, an unused upper forge, and the river’s old cooling lines, which would make Cinderhold colder that night, but would keep the crown brand from having all the heat.

The ignition engine shattered, and Maelor backed toward a round, dark hatch under the upper platform. "You save what you can and refuse to have a crown because you’re afraid to be great."

He thrust his portable flame into the hatch and opened the true reservoir beneath Cinderhold, and the tower shook with a heartbeat as the heat pool turned to black fire, while underneath it something huge turned in the dark, fed by every furnace and light in Cinderhold.

The ignition engine was destroyed, but Maelor had opened what it was feeding, and the throat changed as the ordinary pipes began to shake, the crown-heart pulling a thin line of black fire from each of them, so that while the source valves were still working for now, every heat line in Cinderhold had a link to the heart below.

Tessa sent the update up to the city.

TRUE RESERVOIR OPEN. HEAT LINES SEPARATED BUT LINKED TO HEART. COUNTS HOLDING IN LOWER WARD. MAELOR WENT DOWN.

"We can see the lines running through the heat in our ward," Tova said from the ration hall. "We can keep the food and clinic lines open, but if the heart takes more heat, people will start believing the heat itself wants to be owned."

"The heart isn’t taking all the heat right now," Velis said, studying the pressure gauges. "It’s learning what the city needs. Once it freezes one area, the others will take the brand to stay warm."

Austin Veyron could feel the call from below, because it wasn’t just one demon core but all of Cinderhold’s heat bound to one hungry core, and he wanted to go down and devour the heart before it learned more about the city.

Veyra grabbed the back of his coat before he could move. "Name it."

"Going down to it first."

"And what would it make?"

"The one who tells everyone else they aren’t fast enough to survive."

"Then smaller," Sable said, holding the crown shard over the hatch. "Tell the city what’s happening before you follow Maelor."

Tessa sent the update through the routes to all of Cinderhold, that they would have heat but the heart was pulling on it, that no new crown brands were to be trusted, and that they should report any areas turning cold and keep their source valves open to the public, which wouldn’t protect them, but would stop the first frightened ward from selling its warmth to someone who promised to keep it warm.

Elena was the first to respond. "I read that twice." She wasn’t as calm as she usually was. "Under the whole city. Linked to our heat." She paused. "I’m not going to tell you not to go down. But I am going to tell you to come back up. All of you."

"We will," Veyra said, answering for Austin Veyron.

"All of us," Sable added, and he found that the hand he had on the slip over his heart wasn’t steady either.

The engineers chose their places, one staying at the throat while two went up to the wards to help with the heat wheels, and Velis gave Seris a key ring that would open the lower levels of the reservoir.

"There are old lines that will take you to the outer level of the heart," Velis told them. "Just remember, it will learn your heat and use it against you if you let it."

Calder stayed behind at the lift, and Rin signaled that more crown soldiers were coming to the base of the tower, so they didn’t have much time.

Sable stood next to him by the hatch and slipped her hand into his, and Veyra stood on his other side and leaned into him with her good shoulder, and for a moment the three of them looked down at the black fire together.

Above them, Cinderhold began keeping its fires alive in public, and below them, Maelor waited beside his heart.