Chapter 244: Shard Trail

No one was celebrating in Cinderhold once the heart was gone, because there were still broken lines in the lower ward, the fuel cart was behind on its delivery to the east residential blocks, and runners were still bringing the injured to the clinic’s warm rooms, while the public heat map on the wall of the ration hall showed block after block in yellow or red.

Tova stood under the heat map with a stick of chalk. "Seven kitchen lines are burning. The clinic has four warm rooms open, and we’ll have two more when the wheel crew changes out. The residential blocks in the east are still waiting on the fuel cart, which has reached the gate but not the vents. No crown marks on the new source lines."

Velis and Ferrin marked the heat line map with their own information, and they weren’t going to lie to the people of Cinderhold about their heat lines and pretend everything was fine, so they listed which lines were broken, who was fixing them, and what each block could expect that night.

Rin had been waiting for them at the top of the stairs when they climbed out of the heart, and she rushed over to Veyra and hugged her, careful to avoid the bandaged shoulder, and then turned and wrapped Austin Veyron in a hug as well, squeezing his neck and whispering into his collar, "You still owe me. I haven’t forgotten." Then she let go of him and acted as if she had only been checking him for burns.

Now she sat on the edge of the map table with her boots swinging back and forth, while Austin Veyron stood near the First Ember switch and wanted to touch it, because if he touched it with DEVOUR, he could know every heat line in Cinderhold, where the lines were broken and who was cold, but the heat map would become his instead of the public’s.

Veyra saw him staring at it. "Name it."

"Knowing every heat line."

"And what would it make?"

"The master of a map that others built."

"Then smaller," Sable said, her shard glowing in the dim light of the First Ember switch. "Know the public map."

Austin Veyron read the public map, and there was no shard trail on it, until Tamsin found a broken piece of wall in the east tunnel with a black-red line across it, leading away from Cinderhold.

Calder followed it with his lamp held low. "It’s not going to the crown scar. It’s following the old courier lines. It wants a place with many fires and broken records."

A courier arrived at the ration hall before he could explain more, a demon woman with small copper horns and a gray coat covered in grime from her journey, who had made it to Cinderhold by running through three manual gateways.

"My name is Imra, and I’m from the Lantern Counties. We received your warning that the crown was using contracts to control people’s heat, and then our first district stopped telling us its plan for the winter hearth."

Tessa took the packet she had brought. "Will you share your full report with us?"

"Yes," Imra replied. "In the Lantern Counties we have a hearth festival every winter. The streets give fuel to the common hearth and receive a share of the heat in return. Someone has been offering people private flame lots before the festival, giving them more heat at a private price."

The packet held a map of the hearth festival and a list of how much fuel each street would provide, along with a message left by the shard.

THE WARMEST HEARTH WILL BE SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER.

The shard had made it to the Lantern Counties.

Crown scouts came through the east service tunnel before they could take it in, wearing cracked black masks, and the lead scout carried a shard-marked lantern that left black fire across the route map.

THE SHARD ROUTE IS THE CROWN’S.

Rin jumped off the map table and tore the lantern apart with her claws, while Tamsin kept the lead scout away from the First Ember switch with her spear, Veyra sliced through a scout’s blade chain with her good arm, and Calder and Seris kept the scouts from getting into the city and disrupting the rebuilding.

Austin Veyron knew the shard route wasn’t the crown’s just because Maelor’s shard had left its mark on it, because these service tunnels had been built by workers and couriers long before the crown hid inside them.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The shard-route ownership claim. Not the shard itself, the service tunnels, or the courier lines."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

He put the white root chain into the flame of the torn lantern.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a path erased so that an enemy could reach its destination first.

THE SHARD ROUTE IS THE CROWN’S.

He consumed erased.

The shard trail split on the public heat map and revealed where it was really traveling, along with two false trails that ended in collapsed storage corridors, and the crown scouts became confused, one running from the area while the other took off his mask and fled toward the open tunnel.

"That’s the real path," Imra said, pointing to the line on the map heading northeast toward the Lantern Counties. "They’ll be auctioning off the first hearth at sunset tomorrow. If the shard turns the hearth festival into private flame lots, people will think they have to buy heat from whoever has the most of it."

Marcus and Elena came through the relay with information from the route network.

"We’ll leave Cinderhold to Tova, Velis, and Ferrin," Marcus said. "The route can send a small party east and carry the public heat map to each stop."

"The Lantern Counties will want to know what’s happening," Elena said. "Send them the contract, the trail, and what they can do to keep the shard from controlling their hearths, and let them choose what to do with their hearths before the team gets there." She said the last part to Austin Veyron. "When you make your way back, stop by the Grand Meridian if the route allows it. I just want to see all of you in one piece."

"If the route allows it," Austin Veyron said, touching the slip over his heart.

"It will," Elena said, "or I’ll tell it to."

He wanted to leave now, because the shard was only a day away and they needed to reach the hearth before it took over.

Veyra saw him preparing to leave. "Name it."

"Getting there before the shard and taking it."

"And what would it make?"

"A hunter who believes he has to get there before every other city."

"Then smaller," Sable said, rolling up the map from the Lantern Counties. "Warn them about the shard, and travel with the route."

Tessa sent out the packet, with the details of the private flame lots, how much fuel was public, what the counties could do to keep their hearths open, and what the shard claimed as its own, and each lantern station began sending out its public fuel count.

The route council didn’t think Austin Veyron was going off on his own, and Tova, Velis, and Ferrin stood at the Cinderhold heat map and began listing what they would do while he was gone, who would monitor the First Ember switch and the public heat map, which teams could work on the yellow warnings, and which lantern stations they would need to hear from once the team reached the Lantern Counties.

"We don’t need you to promise us Cinderhold will be safe," Tova said to Austin Veyron. "We just need the information to know when it isn’t."

Ferrin pointed to the new heat map. "If a line goes red, we send out teams. Yellow means we’re low on fuel or hands, and black means we stop, check the source, and warn people before it becomes a contract."

Velis gave Seris the heat line keys. "The city keeps the First Ember switch. These are for keeping the lines up if we need to. If the shard comes back around, we’ll use the public map before anyone tries to make their own deal."

Austin Veyron accepted the terms and didn’t take the First Ember switch for himself, and while it wasn’t as satisfying as holding a safeguard in his seed, it would let Cinderhold take care of itself when he wasn’t there.

Imra opened a letter from the Lantern Counties, where some districts had already told their people about the private flame lots, and one street had decided to turn the offer down and pool its fuel, while another wanted to accept because it didn’t have enough fuel to make it through the winter, and a third wanted to know whether it could keep its communal hearth open if some houses bought private flame lots, and there were many questions, but every one of them was fair.

Tessa told them what Cinderhold had done. "Let the people know what the contract says, how much fuel is public, and what other heat sources they can use. Don’t tell them what to do, but make sure those who are buying know what they’re buying."

A lantern station came through with an alert.

FIRST DISTRICT HEARTH HAS TURNED BLACK AT THE EDGES. AUCTION HAS BEEN MOVED UP TO TOMORROW NOON.

The shard was moving faster than they had expected.

Seris traced the route to the east service line. "We can reach the edge of the Lantern Counties before the first bid if we stay on the route."

Calder looked at the masks the scouts had dropped. "Maelor is hurt, but his shard knows we’re coming. The service line won’t stay quiet."

Austin Veyron looked east and wanted to go on ahead of them, because he knew the feeling of needing to be there before the hearth was taken, and Veyra knew exactly what he was thinking. "Name it."

"Being there before the hearth bell."

"And what would it make?"

"Somebody who gets there before others have a chance to help themselves."

"Then smaller," Sable said, touching the blue-wax packet from the courier. "Travel with their fuel count."

They headed east through the service line with the relay open, Rin on Veyra’s bandaged left side and Sable on Austin Veyron’s right, close enough that they brushed against each other in the dark, and at one point Sable’s hand caught his wrist and stayed there a little longer than the ground called for, while Veyra, without turning around, reached back and tapped his knuckles, as if to say she knew and it was fine.

Behind them, the public heat map kept updating as Cinderhold rebuilt, and ahead of them, the first hearth was beginning to look like a crown.