Iven put the empty pea sack beside Daren’s bowl before she served him.“This was yesterday morning,” she said. “The last handful.”Around the hall, spoons slowed. Daren set his own down.“I know I was late.”“You know what the message said. You weren’t here.”He had expected questions about the road, perhaps gratitude for the barley. He had not expected to feel defensive while looking at a sack that weighed nothing.Iven described the ninth evening. Pella had watched two children fall asleep without finishing their thin broth because there was almost nothing in it worth staying awake for. Brida had stopped the gate repairs. Gathering parties had gone farther than before, returning with sore feet, bitter roots, and no certainty there would be more tomorrow.No one had died. That fact did not make the day harmless.Daren looked at the hands around the room. Some were wrapped where roots had been dug from stony ground.“I should have allowed more time.”“You should have told us what you

By morning, the first green shoot had fallen flat.Orin stood beside the worktable with his hands clasped behind him, looking as if he had been caught breaking something. Daren checked the marked line. The boy had not crossed it.“I didn’t touch it,” Orin said.“I believe you.”Asha arrived on her crutch and asked who had moved the box during the night.Nera raised her hand.“Smoke was coming under the shelf. I put it farther from the hearth.”“Did you mark where it had been?”“No.”Asha closed her eyes briefly. Daren expected anger. Instead, she asked Nera to show the exact places.The clean box had spent half the night beside a cold shutter. The cooler comparison box had remained near the inner wall, which was warmer than anyone had realized. Their careful arrangement had been changed by an ordinary attempt to protect it.“So we know nothing?” Tovin asked.“We know we need to control where we put things.”“And the dead root?”“We examine it.”Daren helped lift the boxes into better

Daren stopped the first bucket when it came up steaming.“Where were you going to pour that?”Tovin looked toward the yard drain. Then he looked at Asha’s marked barrels and understood.They carried the bucket to an empty tub instead.The mill wheel stood still. With its gate lowered, the flooded chamber had begun to empty through a narrow crack below the basin, but not quickly enough. Volunteers worked from the upper steps, passing buckets without putting anyone beneath the unsupported ceiling.Brida had tested the doorway with a long pole. One stone shifted when she touched it. She marked the place and refused entry until timber braces held the arch.Daren remained above her, seated beside the drawings. He could see a strip of dark water and the curved edge of the broken basin. That was all.It was more than enough to imagine what might go wrong.Edrin knelt on the dry landing with Berrit beside him. His tools lay on a cloth between them, released one at a time as Brida needed them.

Vann seized the mule’s lead before the silver line dragged it off the path.Daren shouted for him to let go.The carter held on until Jun struck the fastening with a hatchet. Leather parted. The halter flew downhill, and the mule stumbled backward into the others, wild with fear but still on its feet.Across the cut, a man cranked a little bronze winch fixed to a tree. Two guards stood beside him. The green sash around one waist was familiar.“Transport levy,” the steward called.“Come collect the strap,” Vann shouted back.The winch operator freed his hook. The line glimmered with borrowed light. Daren could see the small stone set into the housing; it supplied the strength the operator's arms lacked.Not limitless, then. Not harmless.Brida ordered everyone behind the quarry lip. Asha drew the mules back while Berrit and Pellan dragged the tool bundle out of the open. Selka remained beside Daren, white faced and furious at an arm she could not use.“Don't,” he said when she began to

Daren's chair remained empty while Keela explained her terms.He sat on a bench with his leg supported, close enough to hear and far enough from the table that nobody could pretend his body filled every place of authority. Iven had arranged it. She had not asked whether the symbolism pleased him.The sixteenth morning shone through the hall's patched shutters. Seventy residents were eating thin barley porridge supplemented with roots. The two visiting burners had brought their own food and shared dried apple with the children before beginning business.Keela wanted the crossing repaired, the damaged approach kept sound, and a clear answer about who could speak for Hearthfast when Daren was away or injured. In return, Cinderbank would allow agreed travelers and pack animals through its path, subject to the deck's safe load and the burners' own needs.“No soldiers using our roofs as a road to yours,” she said.“No taking animals because we need them,” Iven added.Keela nodded.Brida lai