24 #2

Six prisoners were tied to a cable between two towers. Oren was the oldest. Snow plastered his white beard against his chest. Sera stood beside him, her ring torn away and a wound on her forehead.

Two guards watched the cable. A third studied the lower road through a spyglass.

Isolde signaled.

Beren circled the first tower. Tavra climbed over the shrine. Rheskan waited on the ridge, beyond the plates’ range.

Isolde emerged behind the post.

The guard with the spyglass saw her reflected in its lens. He turned and drew his sword. She reached him before he could shout. She slammed his hand against the wall and knocked him unconscious.

Tavra fired at the cable above the second tower. The bolt cut a bell rope. The sound made the other two guards look up. Beren struck the first from behind. Isolde caught the second and held her blade beneath his throat.

“Key.”

The man pointed to his belt.

Isolde freed the prisoners.

Sera ran toward the lower exit.

“My father.”

“He led Cevran down toward the valley,” Isolde said. “We’ll go back for him.”

Oren could barely stand. He clutched the inside of his jacket with one arm.

“The order is here.”

“The original?”

“The original and the seal.”

“Give it to Tavra.”

Oren shook his head.

“I know the shutdown route. If I’m separated from the document, I lose my value.”

“Your value is in staying alive.”

Beren knelt in front of him.

“We worked together at West-9. You can trust her.”

Oren looked at Isolde.

“Who are you?”

“The person who came to get you out.”

The old man studied her hair, her eyes, and the scar on her hand.

“I saw you at Cendral.”

“Then you know what waiting can cost.”

Oren handed the jacket to Tavra.

A low bell sounded from the ridge.

Rheskan sent an image of cables tightening inside the ice.

Cevran had discovered the deception.

“There’s a winter passage behind the post,” Darel said. “It descends to the west.”

“Take your family and the prisoners,” Isolde ordered.

Tavra held Oren’s jacket against her chest.

“I’ll go with them.”

“Beren too. Kaoran, bring up the rear.”

“I can wait here.”

“Your work is with the family.”

Kaoran looked at Luma. The older girl’s eyes were unfocused, and she leaned against the wall.

“All right.”

Isolde approached Sera.

“Your father is coming with Cevran. Can you show him the entrance when you see him?”

“I can get him off the road.”

“Do it when the soldiers are looking at me.”

Sera took one of the guards’ spears.

The column began entering the passage. Rheskan flew over the ridge and bit the first blue cable. The current ran through his jaw. He pulled away with a roar.

Isolde felt the pain in her own teeth.

“Leave them,” she said.

Rheskan showed her the weight of the cornice and the figures walking beneath it.

Rheskan searched for another cable beneath the cornice.

This time he struck it with a rock. The anchor came loose and fell down the slope. Half the cornice was free of tension.

Cevran entered the lower post.

Alcen was tied to his horse. Six technicians followed with the core. Darian’s guards had disappeared.

“Sera!” Alcen shouted.

The young woman hid beside the tower.

Cevran raised the copper plate.

“You have something of mine.”

“You’re carrying too many stolen things,” Isolde replied.

“The archive belongs to the commission.”

“The names belong to their families.”

Cevran pointed to the upper post.

The technicians fired two cables. The points embedded themselves in the tower and formed a blue arc over the path. Isolde was inside it.

The captain advanced.

“Lord Varek wants your body alive.”

“And Darian?”

“The regent has lost access to this operation.”

“He also lost his guards.”

Cevran smiled.

“They asked too many questions.”

Isolde saw blood on one of the white cloaks.

Rage rose.

She took one breath.

Cevran took another step.

She took a second.

The core searched for the fire inside her.

She took a third.

She kept her hands open.

“Where are they?” she asked.

“The pass will have more posts when the thaw comes.”

Isolde threw her knife toward the cable on the horse. The blade cut the strap holding Alcen. Sera came out behind the tower, struck a technician with the shaft, and grabbed her father.

Isolde set fire to the snow between them and Cevran.

The fire ran over a layer of oil Beren had spilled as he withdrew. Cevran stepped back. Sera took Alcen to the passage.

The blue cables discharged.

The arc of light caught the flames and sent them back at Isolde. She crossed her arms. The impact hurled her against the post’s wall. Stone split the skin above her eyebrow.

The core began charging another discharge.

Rheskan dropped a second rock from the ridge. It fell on one of the posts. The cable slackened. Isolde passed beneath it and attacked the technicians.

She struck the first man’s rod. The discharge entered his plate and knocked him down. The second raised a shield. Isolde used its edge to turn him toward Cevran.

The captain stopped the blow with his sword.

“You always choose whoever’s on the ground,” he said.

Isolde drove the shield against him.

“That’s why you’re still running.”

Cevran cut the metal from top to bottom. The point reached Isolde’s thigh. The wound was narrow and cold. Her leg lost strength.

He lunged for her neck.

Isolde dropped to one knee and let the blade pass. She struck the burn on his cheek with the hilt of her knife. Cevran screamed. She swept his feet out from under him and set the edge against his throat.

The fifth bell rang.

The captain smiled up from the snow.

“It’s too late.”

A technician pulled the core’s lever.

The cables inside the cornice contracted.

The mountain cracked.

Isolde looked toward the ridge. A white line opened above the passage. Rheskan beat his wings beside the last anchor. The mass of snow began sliding beneath him.

“Rheskan, the passage!”

The dragon looked at Cevran beneath the knife and turned back toward the figures waiting under the covered passage.

He dug his claws into the cable and pulled toward the empty slope. The first tongue of the avalanche changed direction. Tons of snow swept past the post and covered the lower road.

The second tongue struck the passage roof.

The wood split.

Isolde heard Enya scream.

Cevran drove his knee into her wound. The knife flew away. He rolled toward the core, grabbed the plate, and ran for a horse.

Isolde got up to follow him.

Another blow shook the passage.

“Kaoran!” Beren shouted from inside.

Isolde saw Cevran mount. The plate was beneath his breastplate. One of the technicians handed him a dark bag he had picked up beside the entrance.

Oren’s jacket.

Tavra appeared beneath a fallen beam with empty hands.

“The girl is trapped!”

Cevran spurred his horse toward the eastern ridge.

Isolde took a step after him.

The passage collapsed farther.

She went beneath the wood.

Snow filled the corridor. Darel and Beren held a beam on their shoulders. Enya shielded Teri against the wall. Luma lay beneath a broken post.

Kaoran covered the girl with his body.

A beam had struck his side. Its end rested on his back, keeping him from breathing.

“Get Luma out,” he said.

Isolde slid her hands beneath the post.

“When I lift, Beren pulls you both out.”

“The girl first.”

“You’re coming out together.”

Isolde sought the fire left in the stones. The core was still pulling from outside. She found a tiny seam beneath the snow and conducted it into her arms.

She lifted.

The beam rose a finger’s width.

Beren dragged Luma by the shoulders. Darel took her. Kaoran tried to move. A wet sound came from his chest.

“Again,” Isolde said.

The fire trembled.

Rheskan set a claw on the roof from outside. The pressure eased.

Isolde raised the beam another handspan. Beren pulled Kaoran out.

The wood fell.

Isolde crawled beneath it before the corridor closed.

Kaoran was conscious. Blood stained his lips. Every breath produced a bubbling beneath his ribs.

Isolde knelt.

“Look at me.”

“I’m looking.”

“Where?”

Kaoran moved his right hand to his side.

“The rib went in.”

“Lung?”

“Probably.”

Enya came over. She had worked as a healer’s assistant before marrying Darel.

“He needs to get off the mountain.”

“There’s a medical post to the west,” Darel said. “Two leagues downhill.”

“The avalanche blocked the passage,” Tavra replied.

Darel pointed to a shaft between the posts.

“The route for bodies. It goes down through the rock, but we’ll need rope.”

Isolde looked at the eastern exit. Cevran was riding along the ridge with the original beneath his breastplate. A riderless horse stamped the snow a few paces from the shaft. She only had to reach it.

Kaoran coughed. Blood fell onto his fingers.

Isolde knelt beside Kaoran and pressed a cloth to the corner of his mouth. Her master’s hand sought his staff from habit and fell before it found it.

“The seal,” he managed.

“Oren, tell me what you still have.”

“The copies left the coast. I can testify about the original.”

Kaoran tried to raise his head. Isolde kept the cloth in place.

“I’m taking you to the medical post.”

“You can catch him.”

“I can. Beren, bring the spears for a stretcher.”

The horse was still loose. Isolde heard it move away as she cut a strip from her own cloak. She had wanted this decision throughout the descent from Cendral: for someone to see a body at the edge of the road and stay. Now her hands shook as she made it.

She asked Enya to check the knot. Beren supported Kaoran by the shoulders while Darel searched for boards to brace his back.

When she looked at the ridge again, Cevran was gone.

Enya cut open Kaoran’s shirt. His left side had a sunken shape beneath the old bandages. Air entered in short breaths. Blood appeared every time he coughed.

“He has to be moved sitting up,” she said. “The blow has caved in part of his chest.”

Isolde felt for the pulse in his neck.

“Will he reach the post?”

“If we keep him warm and prevent another blow.”

Darel gathered two spears and a cloak. Beren added boards from the post. They built a stretcher with a raised back. Kaoran tried to help with his right hand.

“Stay still,” Isolde said.

“I can tie a knot.”

“You can breathe.”