Chapter 54: The Conductor

Something jerked me sharply. My right arm... had fused dead into the cooled clay.

​"Lie still," Ephraim's voice sounded muffled. "Don't twitch. It's stuck dead."

​I opened my eyes. The sky was gray. Ephraim squatted nearby.

​Overnight, the metal had cooled. But before that, it had been red-hot. The rags wrapped around the joint, the leather straps, my jacket—all of it had fused into a single black-and-crimson crust.

​"Where..." "Where is he?"

​Ephraim nodded somewhere behind him. With effort, I turned my head. My neck crunched.

​Zeno was there.

​Frozen in the middle of what used to be the first floor of the mill, sunk up to his knees in charred beams.

​I tried to sit up. I managed on the third try—only because Ephraim caught me under the armpits.

​"We... need to leave," I whispered. "The Order..."

​"The Order is gone," Ephraim interrupted. He handed me a flask. "Drink. The water is warm, I heated it on the coals."

​People emerged from the fog, from the direction of the village. Hans walked first. Behind him—the blacksmith and three other men with axes.

​They stopped ten paces away. Hans looked at the ruins of the mill.

​"Alive, then," Hans said.

​"Yeah," Ephraim stood up, shielding me with his body. "And the mages are dead. Every last one of them."

​"The mill is dead too," the blacksmith spat. "What are we supposed to feed our children with, old man?"

​"If it weren't for this kid, everyone would be dead. The Order spares no one, not even simple villagers."

​After a brief silence, Hans spoke...

​"Leave," not looking me in the eyes. "Right now."

​"We can't," Ephraim said firmly.

​"Leave Zeno," someone muttered. "And leave the kid."

​"No way. Better help us. Drag us to Bear Crevice. Two kilometers up. And you'll never see us again. A favor for saving you."

​Hans was silent for a long time.

​"Bring the ropes. And the logs."

​Zeno weighed almost half a ton. To move him, the men used the remains of the mill shaft as levers, cursing non-stop.

​"A-a-nd one! A-a-nd two! Damn it, what's so heavy in him!"

​Zeno collapsed onto his side with a clang. They loaded him onto a drag sled knocked together from floorboards. Six sturdy men harnessed themselves to the straps.

​They made a smaller sled for me—just an old door. Ephraim laid me down, spreading his jacket underneath.

​"The arm... tie the arm," I wheezed when he leaned over me. "Or it'll tear off."

​He nodded. Tied my prosthesis to the boards so it wouldn't dangle.

​Sh-r-r-r-k...

​I turned my head. Zeno was riding behind, his head bobbing, mud clogging the seams of his armor.

​"Hold on, Kid, hold on," Ephraim whispered, walking beside me.

​I kept slipping into delirium, then coming back to my senses.

​When we reached Bear Crevice—a narrow fault in the rock leading to karst caves—the men stopped.

​Hans cut the ropes with a knife.

​"That's it," he said, breathing heavily. "On your own from here. This is the edge of the hunting grounds. We don't go there."

​"Thanks, Hans," Ephraim said.

​"Don't mention it," the elder spat.

​They left quickly. The wind in the crevice howled colder.

​Ephraim stood at the cave entrance.

​First, he dragged me in. Leaning into the rope, bracing his boots against the stones.

​Then he went back for Zeno. And with the help of some artifact, dragged him in too.

​After he dragged Zeno in, Ephraim immediately collapsed next to him and lay for about ten minutes without moving.

​"Ephraim..." I called weakly.

​"Let me catch my breath..."

​He crawled over to me, covered me with a dirty blanket the men had left.

​"It's cold. A fire would be good... but there's no wood."

​"Zeno..." I tried to extend my left arm. "Move me... closer."

​"Why?"

​"I have to."

​I pressed my left palm against his chest plate.

​Come on, I thought. You can't just turn off because of some water and steam. Turn on. Call me an idiot. Tell me about efficiency. Do something.

​Sleep was pulling me in. And then I felt it. A faint vibration under my palm.

​B-z-z-t...

​"S-sys... tem... Crit... failure..."

​"Zeno?" I pressed my ear to the armor. "I'm here. What do you need? Diagnostics!"

​Pause. A long one.

​"C..."

​"What?"

​"C..."

​"Speak!"

​"C... Copper..."

​The word hung in the icy air of the cave.

​"C-circuit... break... conductor... need... c-copper..."

​Silence. The vibration vanished. Stone again.

​I stared into the darkness. Copper. The best conductor after silver. He needs to bridge the burnt-out startup circuit. A piece of wire.

​But we were in a cave. Stone. Moss.

​I started laughing hysterically.

​"You have a fever," Ephraim said, touching my forehead.

​"Copper..." I whispered through tears and laughter. "He needs copper, Ephraim."

​"Where are we supposed to get it? Hans didn't even have a copper pot."

​"It's here," I said quietly. "Right here."

​"Where?"

​"In my arm."

​"No," he said firmly. "Don't even think about it. I won't do it."

​"You'll have to," I closed my eyes. "You'll have to take it apart, Ephraim."