29 #4

Cevran reached the upper controls. He inserted the copper plate into another console.

“Reverse the flow!” he ordered.

The technicians connected two arms to the dark cylinder. Pressure returned from the eastern stations.

The fissure stopped closing.

It had lost thirty-one centimeters.

Oren looked at the scale.

“He can reopen it if he keeps the distributor.”

Isolde saw the black arm on the floor. The route to Ydrael had been severed. The eight arms still fed the wound.

“He’ll need to build a new containment system before he can synchronize.”

“How much time?”

“Let’s ask Ydrael.”

Isolde touched the black metal.

The ancient dragon’s presence came weakly. He showed her broken plates, pressure building in eight places, and a moon completing two cycles.

“Two months, perhaps,” she said.

“Time for the evidence to arrive.”

“Time for Varek to change his plan.”

The outer wall opened.

Soldiers came in from the upper level.

Isolde and Oren ran toward the conduit. Beren waited at the first sluice gate with Rian. Elar and the eight conductors had already passed through.

The water in the channel was chest-deep. Broken plates released heat, and the current was rising.

“Rian can’t swim,” Beren said.

Oren took a wooden door off its hinges. They laid the man on it. Beren pushed from behind. Isolde led the way.

The soldiers reached the sluice gate.

Cevran gave the order to shut off the water.

A grate dropped in front of Isolde.

She thrust the black arm between the bars. The metal held. Beren pushed the door carrying Rian. The current struck their backs.

Isolde called to the fire.

The fissure answered with a flare from inside the complex. Heat traveled along the black arm to the grate. The bars bent.

Oren went through first. Beren pushed Rian through the gap. Isolde crossed last.

The grate fell behind them.

The channel swept them along.

They emerged into the river beside the old bridge. Kaoran waited on the bank with two people from Halver. A rope was tied around his waist. He threw it toward Beren.

They pulled Rian out on the door. Oren came next. Isolde’s knees touched earth.

“Cylinders,” she said.

Kaoran pointed in three directions.

“The first is heading to Arkhe. The second is with a family from C-7. The third just took the road to Caleryon.”

“Who’s carrying it?”

“A mill inspector named Eda Sol. Lenda arranged the contact.”

“The hunt will follow her.”

“She changes carts in Halver. The cylinder travels on inside a coffin full of records.”

Darian had sent that cart toward the Council.

The evidence would travel under his seal.

Rheskan appeared over the river. He had left the twelve conductors with forest guides. He flew toward Isolde, circled once, and landed well away from Rian’s stretcher.

His right wing trembled with the effort.

Isolde showed him the black arm.

“The route’s severed.”

Rheskan touched the metal with a claw and pushed it toward Oren.

He wanted them to keep it as evidence.

Then he looked at Three Needles.

The red glow had faded. The wound remained open and under maintenance. From the valley, they could see that one of the blue lines had gone dark.

The freed people saw it, too.

“Cendral closes when they stop feeding it,” Vena said.

“Tell them everywhere you go,” Isolde replied.

Vena nodded.

The groups left the river by separate routes. Elar walked with the eight from the first room. Vena led the ten from the third. The twelve people Rheskan had rescued followed two guides. Beren and Oren accompanied Rian.

Isolde stayed with Kaoran until the valley was empty.

“You came back to Cendral,” he said.

“I went in by the bridge.”

“What’s left there?”

Isolde looked at the new rope hanging over the river.

“A fissure, machines, and men who work to keep it open. The day I fell is still inside me. It no longer directs my path.”

Kaoran drew a careful breath.

“And Ydrael?”

“He has one less chain.”

“Rheskan?”

The dragon was drinking upstream. He lifted his head at his name and went back to drinking.

“He has his own path.”

Kaoran put away the mirror.

“Then let’s leave before Varek gathers his men.”

* * *

The news reached Caleryon in two days.

Varek received the first report without witnesses. C-0 had lost the black route, thirty-one centimeters of fracture, and thirty-one people. Three cylinders had escaped down the river. One was traveling toward the Council.

Cevran requested authority to search every cart, house, and archive between Cendral and the capital.

Varek approved the request.

Then he read the descriptions from Neraval, Halver, and C-0. The face matched. So did the age. The wounded leg, the left hand, and the fire bond completed the tally.

He wrote a name on the private order.

Isolde Valarys.

In the public version, he kept another:

The nameless warrior.

He declared a rupture emergency, suspended civilian transit, and offered protection to anyone who handed over documents, routes, or people associated with the figure.

Eda Sol’s cylinder crossed the White Gate inside the Halver coffin while the guards read the order.

The evidence reached Caleryon.

The hunt began moving toward Cendral.