16 #2

“Darian would use my name to widen the search. The families would need to leave before the army sealed the range.”

“It might also make the miners rise.”

“Inside a gallery Varek controls. He could cut off the entrance and arrest their relatives outside. I want to know how we’ll get out before asking anyone to shout a name.”

Ancia rested her hands on the table.

“My people have spent years waiting for a reason to rise.”

“Give them a way out, evidence, and the power to choose the moment.”

“You speak like someone who can wait on a safe road.”

“I’ve spent three years waiting while I learned to walk again.”

The quarry went silent. Isolde wished she had not said it in front of so many people. Ancia glanced down at the left shoe and immediately looked up.

“We’ll have to crawl at the second bend,” she said. “Can you put weight on that knee?”

“For a while. Then I’ll need someone to take the lamp.”

“Pela will carry it.”

Kaoran moved the map closer to the light. Isolde stopped hiding her hand behind her body and pointed to the bend Ancia had mentioned.

Ancia closed the map.

“The Brotherhood votes.”

Sixteen adults gathered around the kilns. Ancia explained the prisoners’ presence, the chains, and the risk to the shelter. Each person put a piece of charcoal into one of three buckets: evacuate the shelter, enter the mine, or keep the network hidden.

Eleven chose to enter. Four wanted to evacuate first. One woman laid her charcoal on the ground.

“My son is in the side chamber,” she said. “I’ll go with any decision that gets him out.”

Ancia picked up the piece and put it in the entry bucket.

“Twelve.”

Isolde watched the process. The Brotherhood shared the risk with those who would pay for it. It also accepted that the shelter would have to disappear afterward.

“We begin evacuating now,” Ancia decided. “Six people guide the families to the northern kilns. Eight of the Brotherhood will go in with Iria and Kaoran. The rest prepare wagons for those coming out of the gallery.”

She asked them to take the stolen link too. Two people fastened it to a crossbar and loaded it onto the tool wagon. The crack would have to survive as evidence even if they lost the shelter.

The woman with the charcoal was named Pela Oss. She knew the chamber gate. Her son, Keden, had disappeared in Arvek forty days earlier.

“They offered to clear the debt on the house,” she said while tying on a kerchief. “He signed for six months. The depot recorded him as a runaway in the third.”

“Do you think he’s still alive?” Isolde asked.

“I think I’m opening a door tonight.”

Ancia handed out tools. Isolde received a copper wedge, a hammer, and a damp cloth mask. Kaoran carried rope, two lamps, and the pale-handled knife. Isolde’s short blade stayed hidden beneath her jacket.

Jesa, Cori, and two crew members prepared the wagon. They put medicine on top, charcoal underneath, and a false manifest copy in the driver’s box.

“If you take more than an hour, we’ll deliver the load and go in through the office,” Jesa said.

“If a bell rings, the main exit will be closed,” Ancia warned.

“Where will we get a bell?”

“Esvan installed a small one inside his office. He likes having the mountain’s only warning.”

Cori adjusted the reins.

“Then the first person there gets to keep it.”

The sun sank behind the range.

Rheskan showed two patrols on the high road. One was returning to Arvek. The other carried the blue plate west. He had chosen to follow the instrument from the air, beyond its reach.

Isolde touched a red vein before entering the old tunnel.

“Ydrael.”

The mountain answered with a heartbeat.

“We’re getting the people out. Then we’ll destroy whatever pieces we can. I need you to show us the cave-ins.”

The dragon showed the pressure of the four chains on his body. Every contact with the link in the range increased the pull of the anchorage they were testing. Helping would exact a physical price from him.

“The choice is yours.”

The answer took time.

Ydrael showed thirty-one lights behind the gate. Then he added the three in the test chamber.

A line of heat followed the vein inward.

He had chosen to help.

The tunnel descended in tight curves. Ancia led with the lamp covered. Pela followed. Isolde was third, and Kaoran brought up the rear of the ten.

The red vein appeared every few paces. Sometimes it marked a wall. Elsewhere, it crossed the floor like a root. Ydrael sent warmth where the route could bear weight. Cold marked voids, broken beams, or blue plates.

They reached a fork.

Ancia pointed left.

Isolde felt cold in that direction.

“Right.”

“It ends in a shaft,” Ancia whispered.

The vein showed an image of the bottom. A loading platform hung four paces below. They could reach it by a ladder at the side.

“There’s a platform.”

Pela removed a stone. Behind it, they found the rusty rungs.

“That section was closed six years ago,” she said.

“Ydrael remembers the weight that passed through it.”

“Does he remember every stone?”

Isolde touched the wall.

The answer passed through the link’s cold and a stretch of rock submerged in water. Isolde lost the image as soon as she tried to look beyond it. The chain transmitted pieces of the place; between them lay gaps Ancia would have to recognize.

“He feels the ones that touch his fire,” she said.

They climbed down the ladder. The platform still had a manual mechanism. Four people turned the wheel until it reached the level of a haulage gallery. Wagons could be heard on the other side.

Ancia put out the lamp.

Two guards passed, pushing a worker. The man wore an iron collar around his neck. One soldier pulled it to make him walk faster.

Kaoran waited until they crossed the platform. He dropped behind the last, covered his mouth, and pressed a point below his ear. Isolde caught the first guard’s arm. Pela held the collar to protect the worker’s neck. Ancia struck the guard’s knee.

Both lay on the ground.

“Can you walk?” Pela asked the worker.

“Yes.”

“Name?”

“Raden Ull.”

“Shift?”

“Fourth gallery. They were taking me to the punishment room.”

“Now you’re coming with us.”

Raden looked at Isolde. He had seen the speed of the attack and the leather glove. He kept his question to himself.

They tied the guards and left them on the platform. Kaoran took a coat. Its sleeves were too short. Ancia put on the other guard’s helmet.

“The support chamber is at the end,” Raden said. “They’ve closed the gate and removed the crank.”

“Why?” Isolde asked.

“People were knocking for water. The noise bothered them during the tests.”

Pela tightened her grip on the hammer.

They walked between wagons loaded with blue stone. Workers looked away at the sight of uniforms. No one spoke. Without bells, every sound became a threat: a creak could mean a cave-in or a badly fitted wheel. The foremen decided when a gallery was in danger.

Raden began marking the walls with charcoal. An arrow pointed toward the platform. Nearby workers saw it. One dropped a tool to cover the mark as a supervisor passed.

The Brotherhood grew through small gestures.

The gate appeared behind two empty wagons. It had six iron bars and a blue disk in the center. Faint knocks came from within.

Pela rested her forehead against the door.

“Keden.”

The knocks stopped. Then three answered.

“Mother,” a muffled voice said.

Pela closed her eyes.

Ancia examined the disk.

“The lock absorbs heat. The mechanism is behind it.”

“I can cool the bar by heating the frame,” Isolde said.

“The change will split the stone.”

“That’s the aim.”

“It may also activate the plates in the test chamber.”

Isolde touched the red vein. Ydrael showed the distance: two chambers and an obsidian wall. The pulse would travel. The chains inside the room would wake.

“We’ll have little time afterward.”

“We have little now,” Pela said.

Ancia inserted the copper wedge between the disk and the frame. Isolde placed both hands on the surrounding stone. She heated a broad circle slowly. The lock drank some of the energy. The red vein tried to carry it into the deep galleries.

Ydrael’s pain came with it.

Isolde kept her breathing steady. Hold for one. Two in. Five out.

The frame expanded.

“Now,” she said.

Ancia struck the wedge.

The disk split at the edge. Pela and Raden pulled two bars. Kaoran used the rope on the third. The Brotherhood members raised the rest.

The gate opened half a pace.

The smell of sweat, dust, and sickness came from the chamber.

Pela slipped in sideways. A young man fell against her. His face was gaunt, and blood had crusted in his hair.

“I knew you’d come,” he said.

The woman held the back of Keden’s neck.

“It took you forty days to be right.”

Thirty-one people were inside. Seven could barely walk. One woman was heavily pregnant. Two men shared a shirt to cover themselves. They had received one bucket of water since dawn.

Isolde looked at Ancia.

“The wounded first.”

The Brotherhood paired up. Raden explained the route. Keden pointed out those who needed help. Pela stayed by the gate to count people leaving.

The red vein vibrated.

Ydrael showed three lights moving inside the test chamber. One fell. The other two tried to lift it.

“They’ve started,” Isolde said.

A deep blow traveled through the mountain.

The blue stone in the wagons lit up.

* * *

Jesa reached Esvan depot with the office bell ringing.

The wagon had passed the first gate thanks to the salt seal. The wheel supervisor found fresh mud and ordered the crates unloaded. Cori pretended to argue over payment. While three guards checked bandages, a blue pulse crossed the yard.

The horses reared.

Jesa released the brake. The wagon rolled toward the office and blocked the main entrance. Cori jumped onto the driver’s seat, reached a window, and went through feetfirst.

The records keeper rose from his desk.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for a bell.”

She found it beside the door. She released the cord from the hook that held it gathered and threw the free end out the window.

Jesa caught it.

“The first person has arrived,” she said.

She pulled three times.