The King Who Broke Heaven’s Tithe

Chapter 65 What the Barley Bought

The barley waited outside the gate while Keela read the words free discharge.

She had come from Cinderbank after Pellan carried the warning about the buried chamber. Two burners stood behind her. All three had mud up their shins from inspecting the lower cut.

“Into this,” she said, laying a rough drawing beside the stores sheet.

Her drawing showed the crossing, the charcoal shelter, and three small pools used by travelers. Rusk's showed a red line ending in empty ground.

Daren placed the drawings together.

The line ended in somebody's water.

Rusk rubbed the burn across his jaw. “The clause means an unobstructed outlet.”

“Then write where,” Keela said.

It was late on the thirty third day. Daren's shoulder had stiffened after the descent. He sat with a blanket around him while Pella dried his boot near the hearth. Outside, the store wagon's driver was growing impatient.

Fifteen and a half pounds remained after the day's ration. The sacks beyond the gate held forty two more. Every person at the table knew the difference.

Brida had agreed to six days of structural work beginning tomorrow, subject to the agreed safety limits. Berrit would fit supports and parts at his bench. Edrin offered supervised mechanism work, with his tools still issued individually. None had agreed to opening the return into the western cut.

Rusk pointed toward the mountain. “They won't pay for a blocked drain.”

“Will they pay for a broken foundation?” Daren asked.

The examiner's mouth tightened.

The stores escort entered before he could answer. Sergeant Heth wore boiled leather beneath a short grey cloak. His two spearmen remained outside. He carried no visible sign of cultivation, but he had the confidence of a man accustomed to other people moving when he arrived.

“Are these the workers?”

“Three adults,” Rusk said.

Heth read the names. His finger paused at Edrin's.

“Tools under restriction?”

“Here,” Daren answered.

“Then his supervising officer can release him into our custody for the term.”

“No,” Edrin said.

The word was quiet enough that Heth seemed to think he had misheard.

Edrin swallowed. “I'll work here. I won't go back up.”

Daren watched his hands, pressed flat on his knees. He had admitted doing dangerous work under Arvek. He still owed answers. None of that made him a piece of equipment they could trade for grain.

“Hearthfast work,” Brida said. “Under the inspection agreement.”

Heth looked at Rusk.

The examiner took the stores sheet and crossed out the custody line. Then he wrote the location beneath the three names.

“Your officer can question me about it.”

For a moment, the room held still.

Heth did not challenge him. He pointed to free discharge instead.

“That remains.”

Rusk looked at the two drawings on the table. Daren let him look. Filling the silence with another argument would only give him somewhere else to turn.

At last he wrote a different first stage: the lifting mechanism stopped, its load secured, and the outlet route inspected before any release. The remaining eighty four pounds would be delivered when that stage passed, whether or not water had yet reached the western cut.

Heth read the alteration with obvious dislike.

“I'll report it.”

“Please do,” Rusk said. “I need them to send a correct drawing.”

They signed copies. The three workers would begin tomorrow and complete six agreed working days by the end of Day Thirty Nine unless conditions forced a recorded delay. There was no enlistment, custody transfer, or claim on their households.

Iven inspected the first sacks before allowing them into the hall. Forty two pounds, weighed in front of the driver. The tally rose to fifty seven and a half.

Nobody applauded.

Iven opened one sack and poured a handful into a shallow bowl. The kernels were sound, with only a little dust. She let the three workers see it before the sacks were carried away.

Berrit touched a grain with one scarred fingertip. “My children eat whether I'm down there or here?”

“Your portion remains yours,” Iven said. “This buys the work you agreed to. It doesn't buy a new way to punish your family.”

Brida nodded, but Edrin kept looking at the barley. He had no household waiting at his bench. The food he earned would be eaten by people who still watched him handle every tool. Daren wondered if that made the bargain harder or easier to accept.

Edrin finally lifted his eyes. “I want my copy where I can read it.”

Nera gave it to him. He folded the sheet carefully and put it inside his coat.

Keela stayed long enough to arrange warnings before any change in flow. Her people would close the crossing if it became unsafe, and Hearthfast would help travelers wait above the cut. The arrangement protected a route without pretending the two settlements had become one.

After the visitors left, Edrin approached Daren's bench.

“I thought you'd take the food.”

“We did.”

“You know what I mean.”

Daren did. He also remembered how quickly he had imagined what Edrin could repair if his fear made him obedient.

“Your account of Arvek still needs hearing.”

“I know.”

“And tomorrow, your work needs watching.”

Edrin nodded. It was not forgiveness. He seemed almost relieved by that.

Outside, Heth mounted the store wagon. He studied the shortened gate before turning toward the ridge road.

Daren watched him go.

The mountain had paid for a stopped wheel.

Somebody above them would still expect an open drain.