Chapter 248: Regional Bid

The Beacon shook as black numbers filled the county board, wood in Southglass becoming a bid against coal in Eastvale, North Ridge’s emergency stores becoming high-priced lots, and heat for the clinics set beside merchant convoys, because although the shard had lost its claim of authority over the Beacon, it was still using what it knew of scarcity as a bidding market.

Wenna pulled the levers by hand, using both arms, while the blue relay light battled the black-red. "Each county can still send in its information, but the shard is slipping in a hidden value before it reaches the other counties."

Calder followed how the board was converting the information. "It puts a price on scarcity. The fewer options a county has, the higher the value it puts on them. It isn’t trying to sell them fuel. It’s trying to sell them their own desperation."

Austin Veyron looked at the county board and knew he could devour the entire bidding system, so that the shard’s rules and its knowledge of which counties were panicking would become part of him before midnight, but then every county would have to go through his hunger to understand its own emergency.

Veyra saw him thinking about it. "Name it."

"The whole board."

"And what would it make?"

"The keeper of their hidden emergency."

"Then smaller," Sable said, setting her shard on the brass table. "Take the claim that makes the bidding happen."

Imra used the county board to speak to every county at once. "All counties, list what you can provide beyond your emergency fuel, your roads, and your people."

Voices filled the relay.

"This is Southglass. We have two days of wood and some coal, and one shelter cellar that’s stocked. Our road can’t take carts, but we can send runners on foot."

"Eastvale here. We have our emergency stores of coal, but the cart road is frozen. We have two teams who can break through if they get heat cloth."

"North Ridge. We have our emergency wood, but one sled is broken. We can send the wood if the road to our clinic stays open."

As the counties gave more information, the black bid amounts flickered, and a county envoy from Southglass appeared at the Beacon’s door, a demon man named Hadrik in a coat covered in snow, holding a request board under his arm.

"Southglass has an offer from Eastvale," he said. "They want half our wood in exchange for coal. They could keep their clinic running, but we’d have only one day of wood left."

The shard laid a solution in red across the top of the board.

ACCEPT TRADE. EASTVALE WILL KEEP CLINIC RUNNING. SOUTHGLASS WOULD HAVE TO BUY MORE WOOD FOR ITS PEOPLE TO SURVIVE THE NIGHT.

Hadrik looked at the many lenses of the relay board. "If I don’t give them our wood, they may not have enough heat in their clinic to keep their patients alive. If I do, Southglass may not have enough to keep our own people alive."

Austin Veyron wanted to tell him what to do, because he could see what both counties needed right there on the board.

Veyra saw him open his mouth. "Name it."

"Making the decision for him."

"And what would it make?"

"The one who decides for others and calls it their consent."

"Then smaller," Sable said softly. "Show him the other options."

Tessa looked over the relay options. "North Ridge can send some of its emergency wood to Eastvale on foot. Eastvale can provide coal if the cart road gets cleared. And Southglass can give a smaller amount of wood and still keep its emergency cellar stocked."

Hadrik read all the options to Southglass and Eastvale, and the two counties argued over the relay board until they agreed that all of them would give some of their resources to one another, with North Ridge opening its wood store and sending runners on foot to Eastvale, Eastvale sending heat cloth to the crews clearing its cart road, and Southglass giving wood without touching its emergency cellar.

The shard’s solution broke on the board, because it had been selling desperation, and desperation always drew the highest bid.

Seris pointed to the middle of the bidding engine. "The hidden values are coming from a phrase under the board."

Nyra held out the heart shard, and it brought a phrase up onto the brass.

WHEN SUPPLY IS AT ITS LOWEST IT HAS THE HIGHEST BID.

The shard was looking for the most desperate counties and placing the highest bids on them.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The lowest-supply-brings-the-highest-bid claim. Not the emergency supplies, the fuel, or the counties asking for help."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron placed the white root chain on the black brass.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like a storehouse turned into an auction house.

WHEN SUPPLY IS AT ITS LOWEST IT HAS THE HIGHEST BID.

He consumed storehouse.

The black values shattered, and while the county reports were still on the board, they no longer created bids, because the Beacon was showing how much fuel each county had, how much heat it needed, how long it would take to reach them, and how many people they could provide for, so that it no longer showed desperation, only the information that proved they were in an emergency.

Remnants tried to attack the lenses on the tower, and one was trying to drive a black spike into the Southglass lens when Tamsin tackled him and Rin destroyed the spike with her claws, while Calder and Seris fought two remnants on the stairs and Wenna held the levers down by hand.

The countdown continued.

MIDNIGHT AUCTION: 00:11:42.

The shard’s core lifted out of the bidding engine, no bigger than a lump of coal and burning black, having lost its claim on the information and its authority over the Beacon, but it still had time.

Wenna saw another message appear on the board.

FROST LANTERN VAULT ACCESSING.

The shard was trying to break into the Beacon’s lower levels and reach the Frost Lantern Vault, where the counties stored their emergency maps and winter travel paths.

"If it gets into that vault, it will control every map we have by morning," Imra said.

The auction had failed, but the maps would become its next crown.

A black route opened beneath the center of the Beacon, and the maps in the vault below began to lift off the walls, darkening with the shard’s black fire.

Wenna looked from the countdown to the vault beneath them. "If the shard can alter those maps, it will control where people travel all winter. We have to warn the counties."

Tessa used the county board to send a message to every county.

AUCTION HAS FAILED. THE FROST LANTERN VAULT IS UNDER ATTACK BY THE SHARD. KEEP YOUR MAPS DISPLAYED IN YOUR COUNTY. DO NOT FOLLOW NEW DIRECTIONS UNTIL WE WITNESS THEM.

The counties began sending more information about their maps and how they would protect them, Southglass putting its maps up on the streets, Eastvale sending its information to the North Ridge cart road, and North Ridge sending out map runners to show people its wood roads, because they knew the Beacon would no longer control what people did during the winter, and they would have to learn to use their own maps.

Austin Veyron watched the black route opening under the Beacon and wanted to jump down and stop the shard from altering the maps himself.

Veyra grabbed his arm with her good hand. "Name it."

"Getting to the vault before anyone can stop me."

"And what would it make?"

"The one who turns a warning into his own private hunt."

"Then smaller," Sable said, pointing to the board. "Go down with the people who know what a changed map can do."

Wenna picked up a portable lens from the table. "I know the vault sequence, and Imra knows the courier access. Tessa and Calder can watch the county board in case the shard alters any maps."

Seris and Tamsin went to check the stairs for any more remnants, and Rin started up toward the roof to see whether more were coming, but she stopped in front of Veyra first and touched her forehead to hers, and then to Austin Veyron’s, before climbing to the roof. "Come back up, or I’ll come down," she told them, and disappeared over the edge.

Veyra stood looking at the empty ladder for a moment longer than she needed to, then glanced sideways at Austin Veyron. "She means it, you know," she said, and her voice was softer than she probably intended. "And so do I."

The midnight countdown ended.

MIDNIGHT AUCTION: FAILED.

The board returned to blue, showing the local information with the black route at the bottom, and for a moment the Lantern Counties could see what was happening in their winter with no one bidding against them.

Elena spoke through the relay with a smile in her voice. "Midnight passed and nothing was sold. I watched every county light up blue." She took a breath. "Now go take down the shard. I’ll be up."

Austin Veyron felt the slip over his heart, and Sable put her hand on the back of his and held on.

Then the vault door opened beneath the Beacon, and a cold black wind rushed through the tower as the maps began flying toward the hole in the floor, while the shard disappeared into the dark, leaving a phrase in the frost.

THE MAP WILL BE OWNED BY THE ONE WHO ESCAPES.

Nyra held out the heart shard. "That’s our next target. It wants to own the escape routes."

They began making their way down to the vault, while above them the counties guarded their maps and below them the shard tried to take control of every way out.