10 #4

Sel’s family came in soon afterward. His older sister and two boys brought a clean blanket. Isolde helped uncover his face. She had removed the mud and closed his eyes in the mine.

“Were you with him?” his sister asked.

“I arrived after he died.”

“Was he alone?”

“Sava was nearby. The others kept calling him. We brought him out with everyone.”

The woman placed a hand on Sel’s chest.

“He cared for a horse that hated everyone.”

“Mella told me.”

“The animal was waiting for him this afternoon.”

Isolde found a piece of charcoal and asked his sister for the horse’s name. The woman began speaking about it as she spread the clean blanket over Sel. The boys helped fold the edge; one added that it bit anyone who tried to saddle it. Isolde listened until they were ready to take him.

Before dawn, three guards emerged through an eastern fissure. They said a root of hot stone had held the ceiling until they reached the stairs. When the last crossed, the gallery collapsed behind them.

Hearing it, Isolde rested her fingers on the barn wall. She felt warmth for an instant and waited for it to fade.

Isolde left the barn while Nydel slept around the wounded. She carried the copied code, twenty-seven names, and a new reason to follow the machines’ route.

* * *

The official report credited the rescue to the Guard and the commission’s engineers.

Nydel told another story.

Twenty-six people had come out through a door opened in the rock. A woman in a gray cloak had carried fire into a mine full of gas and kept it the size of a coin. She listened to the dragon, held the exit, and disappeared before giving a lasting name.

The story traveled with workers, washerwomen, and carters. Every version changed a detail. The cloak stayed gray. The flame stayed small.

Isolde heard the first song from the hillside.

She had returned to the post to gather their last belongings. Kaoran rolled maps. Two saddlebags, food, and Thalyon’s strap, recovered from its hiding place, waited beside Bruma. Enna stood by the wall with Doven, Teren, Sava, and Mella.

“Soren has asked for fifty men,” Doven said. “They’ll arrive in three days.”

“Soren knows the road to the house,” Kaoran replied. “We’ll have to leave before then.”

“We’ll leave the keys in Nydel,” Isolde said. “The chamber holds medicines, and the well connects to the streambed. Each person gets the route they’ll use.”

She gave one key to Enna, another to Doven, and a third to Teren. Sava received the vein markings and the gallery record. Mella would keep the family lists. Joren would gather the witnesses from Cendral.

“Where are you going?” Enna asked.

Isolde looked at the map of the living. The red carts traveled toward Arkhe. Rheskan had been seen near the sea. Ydrael’s chains followed the same direction.

“First to the Ember Plains,” she said. “Then to the port.”

Kaoran handed her the pale-handled knife.

“You turned twenty-three nine days ago,” he said. “I thought this time we could celebrate when no one was bleeding.”

Isolde looked at her bandaged hands.

“We have a few hours left.”

Enna took out a small oatcake. She had brought it wrapped in the cloth she used for herbs. Doven contributed a bottle. Teren found three uncracked cups and a broken one for Kaoran.

They ate beside the wall as the sun sank. Isolde cut the cake into small portions so there would be enough. Enna handed back the one she had left on the table.

“That one is yours.”

Isolde held it a moment before tasting it. She would have liked to hear Aelyn argue over the broken cup, her father ask for another piece when he already had one. She could stay beside the wall with that wish while Teren poured the drink.

Sava told them Pella would keep her arm and Emon had survived another night. At the mention of Sel’s burial, they lowered their cups. Isolde rested the list she would carry on her knee.

“I should stay,” Isolde said.

“You’ll be on the arrest list before the burial is over,” Enna replied.

“I can attend from the woods.”

Mella shook her head.

“Sel’s last task was caring for another family’s horse. They’ll lead it behind his body. We’ll say he helped get the wheel running. You’ve already put his name where it belongs.”

Isolde took out the mine list. Beside Sel, she had written: exit recovered; body returned; family informed. She added a line about the horse.

Mourning was part of the map too.

At dusk, Isolde put the saddlebags on Bruma, and they went down to the house. Kaoran left the door open. Inside remained a table, clean blankets, and a message for anyone needing shelter: take what is useful, leave a sign.

“Will we return?” Isolde asked.

“Roads go both ways,” Kaoran said.

Isolde stopped at the threshold. Her bag’s strap pulled at her side; she loosened a buckle before following Bruma.

Nydel lit three lights in the distance.

Isolde answered with a small flame in her palm. She held it for three breaths and closed it.

Kaoran took the southern road. Bruma followed. Isolde walked behind for a few steps, then moved beside him.

The door stayed open to the wind.