"There," Lira whispered, the metal barrel of the spyglass trembling against her cheekbone as she tracked a pair of armored guards hauling a heavy wooden crate toward the rear of the camp. "Directly behind the primary bellows-house. The wagon with the double-reinforced iron chassis and the imperial seal burned into the tailboard. Rhovan’s inside it. I saw the latch drop from the outside less than a minute ago."Kaedron narrowed his eyes, tracking the movement through the swirling plumes of greasy, sulfurous smoke that billowed constantly from the camp's massive array of portable hearths. "And the guards?""Four men at the post, rotating every quarter-glass," Jarev murmured, his metallic shoulder grinding as he shifted his weight. "Plus whatever reserves are sitting around the main mess fire fifty paces to the west. If we rush the wagon, we'll have half a cohort on us before we can pry the oak door off its hinges.""We aren't rushing anything," Kaedron said, his voice cold and flat as h

"Hold your breath," Kaedron hissed, his boots sinking into the fine, blinding crust of the alkali flat as the distant thunder of imperial hooves echoed off the canyon walls.Lira pressed her back hard against the alkali-stained rock face, her hand clamped tight over her mouth to stop the ragged wheezing of her lungs. "They're turning," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the howling badland wind. "They caught the southern drift of our footprints.""They won't follow us into the maze," Jarev rasped, his left arm grinding with a sickening metallic screech as he hauled his dead weight around a narrow bend. The metal had crawled further up his collarbone now, catching the pale desert light like a polished butcher’s blade. "No sane scout rides into the Red Ridge cuts after dark. Too many shafts. Too many drops.""We aren't looking for a place to hide, Jarev. We're looking for a place to stop before your arm gives out completely," Kaedron snapped, grabbing the mercenary by his good

"Shelter costs iron, traveler, and out here, iron is the only currency that doesn't rot," the old miner spat, shifting his grip on the notched timber-axe as he stepped further into the amber circle of firelight. His eyes darted past Kaedron to the heavy forging tongs resting upon the stone anvil, lingering on the subtle, unsettling red hue shimmering beneath the dark scale of the metal. "And looking at that piece you've got half-shaped on the block, you've brought a very specific brand of trouble right into our front hall.""We didn't bring it to trade, and we certainly didn't bring it to share," Kaedron replied, his voice dropping an octave as he planted his boots firmly against the packed earth floor of the drift. He stepped slightly to the left, subtly positioning his broad frame between the miner and Lira, who was already sliding her fingers deeper into her satchel of chemical reagents with agonizing slowness. "We just need the hearth for an hour to re-temper a bearing and bind a

"Before the sun clears the ridge?" Harl echoed, his voice dropping from a mocking rasp into a sharp, jagged snap as he lowered the timber-axe an inch, pointing its notched iron head directly at Jarev’s metallic chest. "Boy, you’re already sitting in the belly of the beast. General Kald’s vanguard crested the outer basin forty minutes ago. They aren't looking for deserters. They’re looking for you, and they brought enough trebuchets to level this whole damn mountain into gravel.""Kald is here?" Lira stepped out from behind Kaedron’s shoulder, her face draining of color as she let go of the glass vial in her cloak. "He moved his main force through the pass overnight? That’s impossible without losing half their artillery to the mud.""Tell that to the engineers freezing their hands off on the north ridge," another miner snarled from the back of the group, stepping into the amber circle. He had a heavy pickaxe slung over one shoulder, its head dark with dried grease. "They’ve got three s

"You think a handful of coals is going to stop a siege engine?" Harl barked, lunging forward to knock Kaedron’s hands away from the bellows lever, his leathery face twisted into a mask of pure terror. "Kald didn't march an army through the freezing mud just to watch you heat up a horseshoe, smith! Those trebuchets on the ridge are loaded with fifty-pound spheres of raw, unrefined royal ore. One direct hit on this drift and the whole mountain caves in on our heads!""Then get out!" Jarev roared, stepping directly between the old miner and the blazing hearth. The metallic left arm flared under the amber firelight, the smooth, mirror-polished steel humming with a low, bone-shaking frequency that made the loose shale rattle down the cavern walls. "Nobody asked you to die for us, Harl. Take your men and crawl back into your holes!""This is my town, metal-boy!" Harl screamed back, his voice cracking with rage as he hefted his timber-axe, the notched iron head trembling inches from Jarev’s