Chapter 61: The Gold
POV: Seraphina
The dark veins beneath the wounded paladin's skin were still spreading.
Corwin pushed the wet sleeve higher. Another fall of earth struck Gavrel's shield beside him, forcing his elbows down as the pale light bowed closer to his head.
"We need the corruption out before we move him."
Seraphina could still taste the water she had swallowed. Grit caught against a back tooth. Beneath the surface, her shin burned where the fall had scraped it, and a dark line ran from the cut on the hand of the paladin supporting his wounded companion.
"Anyone else with an open wound?" Corwin asked. "Even a small one."
The third paladin checked himself without lifting his boot from the buried wood. Liora felt beneath her sleeves with one hand and kept the other on Seraphina.
Yona's voice came from the broken lip. "Is Lucien down there? He came up beside the supply wagon. I can't find him."
Seraphina counted the faces around her again. Lucien had not answered Gavrel's call.
"No."
Something gray showed behind the axle, pressed against a beam.
Liora saw it too. "Gray sleeve."
Seraphina leaned toward him. Liora pulled her back by the sleeve.
"I can reach him. Stay there."
Liora let go of Seraphina and caught Lucien's shoulder. He lay across an old broken timber, one arm hanging into the water and his cheek against the wet wood. The beam kept his chest above the surface. His face had turned sideways, and swelling was already forming at his temple.
There was no open wound.
Seraphina started toward him.
"Your feet," Thalion warned.
Mud closed over the top of her boot. She stopped with one arm still extended, waiting for Lucien to breathe. He had offered her a place in his archive. She had thanked him and wondered what Thalion would make of it.
"Keep his face clear," Corwin told Liora. "Don't lift him yet."
Liora supported his head. Before Corwin could reach his neck, Lucien coughed and spat dirty water across the timber.
"Lucien."
Her voice carried to the men on the road. Thalion turned toward her, but a clod broke away beside his shoulder and sent both his hands back against the bank.
Lucien opened his eyes. They did not settle on anyone.
"My books."
"Your case is with the horse," Yona called. "Leave it."
He tried to push himself up.
"Don't," Seraphina said.
Lucien stopped. His gaze moved past her and found the wounded paladin. Even in the poor light, the dark veins showed beneath the man's skin.
Corwin watched his unfocused eyes. "He was unconscious. Treat it as a head injury until I can examine him."
If Lucien could not work the ritual again, who would bring her scars down?
The thought came before she could stop it. He had scarcely drawn a full breath and she was already counting what she needed from him.
The wounded paladin coughed against his companion's shoulder.
"Renn," Seraphina called. "Bring the keeper staff from behind my saddle. Lower it on a line."
"And the short saw from the wagon kit," Corwin added. "Hurry."
A crack opened above Gavrel. Thalion packed it shut while the shield dropped another inch.
"Small burns," Corwin said to her. "That was what I cleared you for. Give me time to cut him free."
"Look at his arm. He hasn't got time."
"You cannot open it wide. Your arms won't take it."
"And the fire will call them," Yona said from above.
Seraphina looked up. Men moving beside the wagon blocked most of the remaining daylight. Beyond them were the road, the waystation track, and whatever the two sentries could see that she could not.
"I know it calls the demons. The veins are still spreading. I'm using it."
Gavrel drew a breath through his teeth. "Nazim, keep men on the road. Leave the track sentries at their posts. Call down anything they see."
Renn returned with the staff as a soldier tied the saw to another line. Seraphina caught the shaft and worked the wet rope loose.
The end sank into the mud beside her boot. She fed a little fire into it and tested the ground below. Corruption ran beneath the timbers, farther than she could follow while the man beside her struggled to breathe.
"Thalion. The wall is still clean?"
"This part. I haven't checked beyond it."
She remembered the overflow coming back up the staff, burning through her wrists while she held on because letting go would make it worse.
"I may need to ground it there."
His eyes dropped to the shaft. "Tell me before you move it."
Seraphina opened the fire around her shin. Heat reached the scrape and met the corruption entering through it. She kept the flow low, waiting to feel whether it would clear what was already inside her.
The burning eased. Skin closed over the scrape, and she widened the soulfire through the pit until it reached everyone trapped there.
The dark line withdrew from the supporting paladin's hand. The cut closed. When he raised his face to her, she caught herself waiting for Sereth's words.
"His leg," he pleaded. "Please."
Of course. His friend was dying in his arms.
Seraphina pushed farther. The veins stopped spreading. Some of the gray left the injured man's mouth, and her stomach cramped once, hard, as the corruption she had swallowed began to clear.
Near the timber, Lucien coughed again. His breathing came easier, but his eyes still struggled to focus.
At the estates, damage from a failing anchor spread outward into the surrounding land. Here, the corruption continued below the road and moved upward through the mud and water.
She followed it deeper. It kept going beyond the distance she could safely search while holding the soulfire around everyone trapped beside her.
"Lucien."
His eyes opened again.
"Do any of the records you checked mention a structure under this road?"
His brow tightened. "No."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing like this."
That was far enough. The people in the pit needed her attention here.
Pressure built in her wrists. The mud took some of the overflow, then refused the rest.
Not again.
She reduced the flow. A vein darkened again beneath the wounded man's skin.
"The wall. Now."
Thalion drew one hand down through the bank and packed a sloping shelf beneath the water. "Beside my wrist. Slowly."
Seraphina kept both hands on the shaft and slid its foot through the mud onto the soil he held. Pain reached her elbows before the excess began draining into the bank. Her fingers ached around the wood.
Thalion's magic met hers there.
"Is it too much?"
"Keep it there."
"That isn't what I asked."
He met her eyes. "Some is still coming back. I can hold the soil, but it won't take all of it."
She let her fire reach for him. The bank firmed beneath his palms. Heat gathered under her ribs where his magic met hers, familiar enough that she almost leaned toward him before his shaking shoulder pulled her attention back.
Liora steadied Lucien through another coughing fit.
"What about his head?" she asked.
"Let me examine him first," Corwin said.
Seraphina kept the healing away from the swelling. Healing beneath her own skull had taken all her concentration. Lucien needed that same care, and she could not give it while holding the fire around everyone else.
Wood scraped overhead. Anton had reached the rear wheel with two soldiers carrying ropes. He crouched on the intact road, bracing the wagon bed from beneath while they secured it to another wagon well back from the break. Pale light showed through the stone of his breastplate.
Gavrel's knees bent. Dirt spilled past his shield and down the back of Seraphina's collar.
"Thalion."
"I have it."
His forearm pressed into the wall. Seraphina increased the fire enough to keep the wounded man's veins clear.
Gavrel's shield straightened.
Gold spread across it from the center. Another fall of earth struck the light. This time the shield held its shape.
It had always been pale.
Above them, Renn raised his shield over the lip to protect the rope handlers. Gold lit its underside too.
Seraphina turned toward Anton. The same color was spreading through his breastplate.
Renn. Anton. Gavrel.
The men whose names she had given Lucien.
Gavrel followed her glance, but Corwin called for the saw before he could speak.
The soldier lowered it within reach. Corwin tucked the handle through his belt and called for another rope. Liora still had both hands on Lucien. She could not brace him too.
Corwin secured the loop beneath his arms. "Take my weight. Don't lift."
The line tightened. He leaned across the gap and reached beneath the water.
"Hold still."
The wounded man gripped his companion's arm while Corwin felt along the wound.
Corwin's expression changed.
"What?" Seraphina asked.
"The flesh is closing around the wood."
Her fire had loosened Corwin's stitches from Sereth's skin. This wood was still joined to the timber in the bank, with a beam trapping the man's leg beneath it. If the fire forced it loose here, it would take part of the leg with it.
Seraphina drew the healing back from the puncture and kept clearing the corruption around it. Holding the wound open took more control. Pressure sharpened in her wrists.
"There," Corwin said. "Leave the wound to me."
He set the saw against the sharpened section beneath the man's thigh. "I'm freeing the wood, not the leg. We lift him with it still inside. I remove it when he's out of this water."
The wounded man swallowed, then nodded once.
Corwin's first stroke dragged his boots through the mud. His shoulder jerked up as the rope caught him.
"Hold!"
Both lines went taut above them. Corwin waited until his own held, found the cut again, and started sawing. Each stroke shook the injured man against his companion's arms.
Seraphina looked at her own arms.
Fine gold branches had passed Corwin's morning mark. Still below the elbows, but farther than they had been when he checked her.
She tightened her grip on the staff and kept the soulfire where it was.
"No more," Yona called.
"I'm holding it steady."
The line under Seraphina's skin kept moving anyway. Yona watched for another moment, then ordered the rope handlers to be ready.
Lucien shifted against the timber and focused on Seraphina's forearms. She waited for him to tell her how far she could let the gold climb, as though he could judge that with mud in his mouth.
His eyelids closed.
"Lucien." Liora touched his cheek. "Look at me."
Seraphina almost said his name too. A call from the road stopped her. The waystation track remained clear.
She listened past the saw, wondering how far away something could be and still find her fire.
"Nearly through," Corwin said. "Keep him steady."
Thalion's wrist trembled beside the staff. Blood had dried along his cheek from the cut at his temple. Seraphina wanted to wipe it off, but both hands stayed on the shaft while Corwin shortened his strokes.
The injured paladin jerked when the saw caught.
Corwin stopped and reached beneath the water again.
"Still attached. Don't pull him."
The rope handlers held their line. His companion tightened both arms around him as Corwin reset the blade.
He pulled the saw again. The wood shifted beneath the water but stayed attached.
A dark thread returned near the wound.
Seraphina increased the soulfire.
Gold brightened above them.
Renn looked down at his shield. Anton turned toward the gold spreading through his breastplate.
Gavrel went still.
The saw kept moving beneath the water.
Gavrel's gaze went first to Renn, then Anton. It dropped to the gold gathering around himself before settling on Seraphina.
At the rim, he had waited while she wrote his mother's name, expecting an explanation. Seraphina had thanked him instead. He had gone back to work without an answer.
She had meant to tell him when she knew enough. Then Lucien gave her the proof, and she left Gavrel waiting.
The saw scraped again.
Gavrel adjusted the shield above them without looking away from her.
"How long have you known?"