Chapter 228: Watch Your Head!

"I’m just saying," Felix complained as he met Arthur and Emily at the bottom of the lecture hall steps, shifting the heavy strap of Aegis Bulwark on his shoulder, "thirty pages on wyvern migration patterns is ridiculous. I just finished an hour of heavy shield drills in full plate, and now I’m supposed to spend my lunch break reading about where lizards go for the winter."

"You’re in the same ecology section we are," Emily pointed out, tucking her notebook into her bag. "And your job is to stand in front of the wyvern and get hit. You don’t need to know its mating habits."

"I like to know where my enemies sleep," Felix muttered.

"Unless it migrates directly into your shield, I don’t think it matters," Arthur said. "Why didn’t you leave the tower shield at the armory rack?"

"I’ve got formation drills at two," Felix said. "I’m not hauling this thing back to the armory just to pick it up again after lunch. Come on, we’re going to miss the chicken."

They turned down the wide stone walk toward the central courtyard. With the municipal festival approaching, the quadrangle was crowded with city work crews and flat-bed drays. Timber arches were being raised over the main intersections, and apprentices in canvas aprons were uncoiling thick copper leads across the flagstones to power the overhead festival lanterns. Students had to step over toolboxes and rope coils just to cross the lawn.

Near the stone archway leading to the dining hall, a two-man rigging crew was using a mana-winch to hoist a heavy brass lantern housing up to a crossbeam while a third worker stood by the timber post below.

"The regulator is clicking," Iris Rowan’s voice cut through the rattle of the iron chain.

Arthur glanced over. Iris stood a few paces from the base of the timber post, her pale hair tied back with black twine and her canvas bag slung over one shoulder. She was pointing at a cast-iron junction box bolted to the upright beam.

"Hold the chain a second, Corin!" the lead rigger called up to the scaffold plank before crouching beside the box. He tilted his head, listening to the uneven, raspy hum coming from the casing, and cursed under his breath. "Damn it. Sounds like one of the porcelain dampeners cracked."

"It’s not just cracked," Iris said sharply as Arthur, Emily, and Felix walked up behind her. "The containment loop is cycling faster. If the winch drum loses its braking field while the load is suspended, the cable’s going to strip the gear."

The rigger frowned, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his glove. "I can’t just yank the wire out under load, miss. It’s tied into the courtyard branch line. Bran! Run over to the main feeder post by the fountain and throw the third breaker!"

His apprentice dropped his wrench and sprinted across the grass toward the stone distribution pillar by the fountain.

Arthur looked up at the timber arch. Above the plank where the second worker—Corin—was leaning out to hook a safety chain around the lantern, the bronze runes along the winch collar were flickering an ugly, erratic orange.

"Rowan," Arthur said, stepping up beside her. "Is that breaker going to get thrown in time?"

Iris flinched slightly at his voice, then looked back up at the flickering runes. "No. The back-pressure is already spiking. Get out from under the arch!"

"Corin, leave the chain and get off the plank!" the lead rigger shouted, backing away from the post.

Corin let go of the lantern housing and scrambled backward toward the ladder—just as a sharp CRACK echoed from the junction box.

White sparks blew out through the iron seams. Above them, the braking field on the winch drum failed all at once.

The heavy brass lantern plunged as the winch brake failed. Its chain snapped taut, wrenching the pulley bracket sideways and splitting the timber cross-arm. The sudden jolt kicked the scaffold plank upward. Corin lost his footing and went over the edge. His safety line caught on the lower brace, leaving him dangling below the deck just as the lantern swung back toward the post.

At the same time, the sudden wrenching torque split the lower collar of the timber A-frame, kicking the heavy wooden support leg sideways toward the walkway.

"Watch your legs!" Emily shouted.

She lunged forward before the kicking timber post could sweep across the flagstones, planted her boots wide against the stone curb, and caught the sliding beam with her right shoulder and both forearms. The impact drove her boots back against the lip of the paving stones with a heavy thud, wood groaning as she wedged the fractured leg against the curb to keep the whole arch from folding into the path.

The snapped copper power lead whipped across the gravel, spitting blue sparks and showering shattered lantern glass toward two first-year girls who had frozen by the benches. Felix stepped between them and slammed the bottom edge of Aegis Bulwark into the flagstones, taking the lashing copper cable and a spray of hot glass across the steel faceplate with a loud clang.

Up under the archway, the heavy brass lantern was already swinging back toward the dangling worker’s ribs.

Arthur locked his eyes on the deep band of shadow cast across the upper scaffold plank by the stone arch behind it.

Shadow Step.

The courtyard blurred. Arthur stepped out of the shade on the narrow wooden planking right above the trapped worker. Keeping his braced left wrist tucked against his ribs, he dropped to one knee, hooked his right hand into the back of Corin’s leather harness, and threw his weight sideways against the pillar to haul the man around the corner post.

CRASH!

The swinging brass lantern smashed into the timber upright where Corin’s chest had been a split second earlier, denting the metal housing and showering them both in splintered oak.

"I’ve got his belt!" the lead rigger panted, scrambling up the ladder rungs on the outside of the post and grabbing Corin’s waist with both hands. Together, he and Arthur dragged the pale, gasping worker up onto the wooden deck.

Down on the walkway, the broken copper lead was still arcing wildly against the flagstones, sending violent tremors through the timber leg Emily had wedged against the curb.

"The breaker’s jammed!" the apprentice shouted from the fountain pillar, yanking with both hands on the iron shutoff bar as blue sparks spat from the slot. "The surge is locking the latch!"

"Don’t touch the copper!" the lead rigger yelled down from the scaffold.

Iris stepped up to the smoking junction box on the post, pulling her brass calibration rod from her pocket. The main feed was burning far too hot for her meager mana reserves to overpower, so she slid the tip of the rod into the narrow vent at the corner of the casing and sent a thin thread of mana into the control line, pinching the feedback loop shut.

The blue flare at the fountain post sputtered out.

"Now!" Iris shouted.

At the fountain, the apprentice threw his weight against the iron bar. With the back-pressure broken, the breaker slammed down with a heavy clunk.

The humming cables went dead. The smoking lantern swung once more at the end of its chain and hung still.

Emily let out a harsh breath, stepping back as the wedged timber leg settled heavily against the stone curb. She shook out her right arm, wincing as she flexed her bruised forearm.

"Everybody stays back from the rope line!" a loud voice barked.

The head groundskeeper came marching across the lawn with two wardens at his heels, a clipboard already in his hand. The wardens quickly roped off the archway while the groundskeeper cornered the lead rigger, who held up the shattered halves of the porcelain dampener from the junction box and explained how the winch brake had blown.

Arthur climbed down the ladder from the scaffold as Corin was helped onto a bench, nursing a wrenched shoulder and a long scrape down his forearm.

Emily walked straight over to Arthur and grabbed his right hand, turning it palm-up. The rough hemp of the worker’s harness had left a red friction burn across his knuckles, but his left wrist was still strapped safely in its leather splint.

"Left hand didn’t touch anything," Arthur said before she could ask.

"Your right one looks like you tried to catch a rope saw," Emily muttered, though she didn’t let go of his fingers until she was sure the skin wasn’t split. "How are your ribs?"

"Fine. The lantern hit the post, not me."

Over by the roped-off post, Iris was wiping black soot off her brass calibration rod with a handkerchief while the groundskeeper finished taking her name and asking whether any students had touched the box before it blew. The lead rigger backed her up immediately, telling the groundskeeper that the girl’s warning had kept Corin from getting his chest caved in.

By the time the groundskeeper finally waved the four of them away from the ropes, a good part of their lunch hour was gone.

"Unbelievable," Felix grumbled, hoisting his shield back onto his shoulder and inspecting a black scorch mark across the steel rim. "I carry a forty-pound door across campus for one morning, and people immediately start throwing live power cables at it."

Arthur walked over to where Iris was tucking her soot-stained handkerchief back into her bag. Now that the shouting was over, she was staring back at the twisted lantern housing hanging above the cobbles.

"That thing should’ve held another five minutes," Iris muttered.

"Well, it didn’t," Arthur said.

"I noticed."

Arthur glanced toward the bench where the infirmary orderly was wrapping Corin’s shoulder. "At least you caught it before someone got killed."

Iris followed his gaze, her fingers tightening briefly on the strap of her bag.

"Yeah," she said quietly.

"Come on," Emily said, hooking her thumb toward the dining hall doors. "We’ve still got time before afternoon bells, and I’m starving. You coming, Iris?"

Iris blinked, looking between the three of them. "I was going to read in the archive."

"You can read while you chew," Felix said. "And if you don’t come with us, the groundskeeper’s probably going to come back and ask you to fill out an equipment damage report."

Iris cast one dubious glance toward the groundskeeper, who was currently waving a sheaf of forms at the city contractor.

"Fine," Iris decided, falling into step beside Arthur.

The dining hall was loud and smelled of roasted chicken and cabbage soup. They squeezed onto the end of a long oak table near the side windows. Arthur slid onto the bench next to Emily, resting his right arm casually behind her waist while Felix set his heavy shield against the wall with a thud that rattled the salt shakers.

Emily immediately speared a roasted potato off Arthur’s plate with her fork.

"Hey," Arthur protested. "I’m an injured hero."

"You held onto a rope for three seconds," Emily said around the potato, leaning her shoulder comfortably against his chest. "I held up a tree."

"Consider it my tax for supervising," Arthur grinned, nudging her thigh under the table with his knee before looking across at Iris, who was neatly cutting her chicken into small squares. "Speaking of things not blowing up—how did Friday’s practical go? Did the kinetic loop hold?"

"I passed," Iris said, sitting a fraction straighter on the bench. "Professor Halden still docked me ten marks because my initial output was below the standard curve, and the slate cracked on the final release, but the loop held."

"Still a pass on the transcript," Arthur said. "So Tuesday’s idea worked."

"Your Tuesday idea would have blown the slate apart if I hadn’t spent two nights recalculating the staging intervals," Iris replied. She looked down at her plate for a beat. "Though I probably would have wasted another day trying to force the parallel channels if you hadn’t brought it up. So... it wasn’t completely useless."

Felix stared at her across the bread basket. "Wait. Halden gave you a passing mark on a cracked slate? Last week in Vanguard Theory, I drew a flanking diagram that was slightly crooked, and the lecturer told the entire room my formation looked like a diseased turnip."

Iris laughed at that. Felix looked offended, which only made her laugh harder.

"Halden fails half the class if someone breathes too loudly while he’s grading," Iris said, setting her fork down. "On Wednesday, a boy in the front row dropped his brass compass during the inscription lecture, and Halden made him re-polish every slate in the cabinet."

"See?" Felix pointed his fork at Emily. "The magic faculty are lunatics. At least Morwenna just hits us with a stick."

"Morwenna hits you with a stick because you drop your elbow," Emily corrected, stealing a carrot from Arthur’s plate before pushing her bench back as the warning bell chimed in the courtyard tower. "I have to run to the west shed and oil my gauntlets before two. See you tonight, Arthur?"

"Yeah," Arthur said, catching her hand for a quick squeeze before she stood up.

Felix groaned, hauling Aegis Bulwark back off the wall. "Back to the turnip lecturer."

They walked out through the side doors into the courtyard together, where the contractors were now winching the dented lantern housing back down onto their flatbed cart under the watchful eye of two wardens.

At the corner of the archive walk, Iris stopped and adjusted the strap of her canvas bag, looking up at Arthur.

"Do you always get involved the second something breaks on campus?" she asked.

"You were the one standing under the arch shouting at the construction crew," Arthur pointed out. "I was just walking to lunch."

Iris considered that for a second. "Fair point."

She gave Felix a small nod and headed down the stone path toward the enchantment wing.

"She’s quieter than I expected for someone who just stuck a brass rod into a live power box," Felix remarked, watching her go.

"Wait until she starts billing you by the hour," Arthur said, turning toward the upper lecture halls. "Come on. If you’re late to formation drills, I want a front-row seat."