Chapter 369: The Way Out

"Alliance officers," Corvale said. "On the floor. Keep your hands where I can see them."

The man glanced past Ren toward the retreating footsteps. His hand dropped, and cutting pressure spread low across the passage.

Ren recognized it from the landing. There he had drawn the fight onto open ground. Here Corvale stood behind him, with the officers at the desk farther back and Eira taking Mei toward the yard. He could move out of the cut’s path. They could not all clear it in time.

He raised Stonewall a stride ahead of his boots.

The knee-high barrier caught the working across its face. Grit burst outward and struck the opposite wall. Ren stayed behind it until the pressure broke, then moved toward the narrow gap at its lamp-side end.

Behind him, Eira’s voice continued beneath the footsteps. He could no longer make out her words.

— • —

Ren cleared the barrier and closed before the man could send another cut along the floor.

Close Sever’s line ran through the man and into the open heavy doorway. Ren could see no safe end to it. He left the art unused.

At the landing, Deepsnap had broken the paving under the man’s foot. He would not try that beneath a roof whose supports he hadn’t examined. Lenna had checked the ground at Kilnreach before he built beneath the beds; he had no such guidance here.

The man retreated a step toward the heavy door, then struck across Ren’s approach. Pressure gathered along his forearm.

Ren raised his guarded arm with Titanhide active beneath it. The strike caught the curved glass at an angle and slid along it. Force drove through his forearm into his hand. His fingers tingled, then lost their feeling, but the guard stayed seated.

He reached with his other hand and missed the retreating wrist.

The man turned his striking side away and stepped back again. Ren followed, denying him the distance he had used for the first working. A palm struck Ren’s chest across the harness strap. Titanhide took the blow; Ren’s breath caught, and the strap pulled tight across his shoulder.

He caught the wrist before the man could withdraw it.

At the landing, Deepsnap and Riptide’s water had spoiled the man’s footing before Ren reached him. Even then, Ren had brought Heavenpiercer beneath his raised elbow to make him stop pushing.

Here the floor was sound beneath them both.

Ren set Holdfast under his boots and forced the captured arm down.

The man dropped his weight and turned into the grip, trying to bring his elbow over it. Ren felt the pull through his shoulder. He held the wrist, kept his feet planted, and drove the arm farther down as the man tried to straighten.

One knee struck the stone.

Feeling was returning to Ren’s guarded hand. He pressed it against the man’s upper back and forced him forward, controlling the captured arm until the man lay on his front. Ren settled his weight across the hips and kept the wrist behind the back.

The man tried to roll. Ren stopped him before his shoulder cleared the floor.

"Stay down."

He stopped struggling. Ren kept the hold.

— • —

Corvale had kept the officers back during the exchange. Now he brought two forward while the lead officer covered the heavy doorway from the passage.

"Secure his hands. Ren, keep him there."

One officer took the free arm. The other wound cord around the wrists while Ren maintained pressure on the captured one. They checked the knots and left the ends clear of his grip.

"Bound."

Corvale looked at Ren. "Can you keep control while we move him?"

"Yes."

"You stay with him. The bindings won’t stop a working."

Ren nodded. He flexed the fingers of his guarded hand without lifting its palm from the man’s back. They moved, though the smallest still felt dull. His other hand had not loosened on the wrist.

"Far door?" Corvale asked.

"Nothing else through," the lead officer answered. "I can see the threshold. The rest is out of sight."

From behind the desk, Vesper called that Eira’s group had reached the yard gate. Corvale turned enough to hear her without stepping into Ren’s space.

"Have someone confirm they’re at the transport."

"An officer’s gone after them."

Corvale sent another officer to the yard with orders for the collection point: a separate cart for the prisoner, Ren traveling with him, and notice ahead that custody would require more than the bindings they had used here.

He waited for the order to be repeated before turning back toward the heavy door.

"We still have that interior and the side building to check."

He assigned three officers to remain with the lead, keeping the near passage covered while she watched the far threshold. An officer in the yard was to watch the building from which the covered tray had come. The desk clerk and the first guard remained under separate watch.

"Relief is coming," Corvale told the lead officer. "Hold here until it arrives. Report anyone who comes through."

She acknowledged him, then returned her attention to the opening.

Ren looked toward the desk. Stonewall still crossed their route, with only the narrow gap he had used beside the lamps. They could not take the prisoner through it three abreast.

Keeping the wrist pinned, he lowered his barrier into the floor. Loose grit remained across the stone. He waited until the officers had checked the footing before preparing to lift the man. The lead officer kept watch toward the heavy door throughout.

"Ready," he said.

— • —

Ren brought the man to his knees, keeping the wrist controlled while an officer took each upper arm. They paused there before raising him the rest of the way.

The man tested the grip as he stood. Ren drew the arm back into position and waited until both feet were settled beneath him. Only then did he release Holdfast.

They walked toward the desk with Ren close behind and the officers at either side. Ren held the bound wrist directly, rather than relying on the cord. His guarded hand stayed on the upper arm, where he could feel each shift before the man turned.

The open side room passed on their left. Beside its basin stood the bowl Ren had seen when Eira opened the door. He caught that much through the doorway without turning his head, then followed the officers past it.

At the desk, the clerk sat with his hands on the wood. The first guard was seated against the wall under watch. Both looked up as the group approached; the officer beside the desk moved them through without stopping.

Vesper stood at the roofed doorway. She stepped aside, checking the yard before they crossed the threshold.

"She’s at the transport," she said. "The officer came back. Eira’s with her."

Ren nodded and kept walking.

The delivery cart remained on the paving. Its workers waited beside it under an officer’s watch, and the crate left near the doorway had not been moved. Corvale took the wider route around it so the prisoner could pass without squeezing between the load and the wall.

Across the yard, the wagon leader sat between two officers near the closed carriage. He looked at the man Ren was holding. Neither spoke.

Ren kept his grip through the gate and onto the road. He could feel the man’s wrist working against his hand, small turns that stopped whenever he tightened his hold.

— • —

The collection point lay below the bend, beside the shed where they had waited. Mei’s transport stood with its rear doors open.

She sat on the bench beside Eira. The plain guest-room blanket covered her shoulders, and she held its edges together at her collar. Eira showed her a cup and waited until she loosened one hand to take it.

Ren stopped well short of them.

An officer came from the second cart and spoke to Corvale. The message had reached them. The prisoner would travel separately, with Ren maintaining the restraint and two officers inside to assist. The people receiving them had been warned to prepare for a cultivator who had attacked with a working.

"I’m staying for the search," Corvale told Ren. "Keep him with you until custody is ready to take him. Have them send confirmation back."

"Understood."

One officer entered the prisoner cart first. Ren and the other brought the man to its step, keeping his arms controlled as he climbed. Inside, Ren seated him at the edge of the bench and took the place beside him, keeping the bound hands clear of the backrest. The officers settled where they could watch him and assist without crowding Ren’s hold.

There was no partition to hide the man’s hands. Ren checked his position against the bench and tightened his grip when the prisoner tried to turn toward the open door.

"Stay facing forward."

The man faced forward. Ren kept hold.

Across the collection point, Eira took the cup from Mei and set it aside before reaching for the transport door. Mei drew the blanket closed again. Ren saw her hands at its edge until Eira pulled the door across the opening.

The escort took their places. The transport began moving at a walk, leaving the collection point ahead of the prisoner cart.

Ren watched it reach the bend. No one ran after it. When it passed out of sight, he looked down at his guarded arm, still braced against the prisoner’s upper arm.

A groove scored the glass from near the elbow toward the wrist. The plate remained seated, but he would have the craftsperson inspect it before wearing it again. His fingers could feel the cloth beneath them now.

Corvale stood beside the open cart door until the transport had cleared the bend. He checked with the escort officer, then stepped down toward the yard.

"Now the rest of the building."

The officer closed Ren’s door. A moment later the cart moved, and Ren adjusted with it without releasing the prisoner’s wrist.