POV: Seraphina
"Since the valley," Seraphina said.
Gavrel kept his shield above them. Dirt slid off the gold and dropped into the water between their boots, but he was watching her now.
"I asked for your mother's name at the rim. I had already taken Renn's and Anton's. Lucien checked all three against his records. Your families once held keeper ground. You three are the last of that line."
"You had proof before we came here?"
"I suspected it at the estates. Lucien confirmed it at the valley, before we came down here. I should have told you then." She tightened her hands around the staff. "Your shield grows stronger near my fire. Renn's does too. So does Anton's breastplate."
Beside Corwin, the wounded paladin groaned into his companion's shoulder. The bank above them shifted again, and Gavrel braced his boots to keep the shield in place.
"You let me pick them for the front," he said. "Renn and Anton. Every day since you knew."
"Yes. When he's out of the water, I'll tell you everything Lucien found."
Gavrel pushed the shield higher. "Then get him out."
Corwin worked through the last of the wood. His rope creaked whenever he leaned forward. Seraphina held the soulfire around the wound, her forearms aching as she gripped the staff. Thalion kept one palm against the shelf beneath it, holding the soil steady while it took part of the overflow. The rest still pressed back against her hands.
"Through," Corwin said.
The injured man sagged, and his companion caught him before his chin touched the water. The sharpened wood was no longer attached to the timber, but a beam still trapped his leg. Thalion pressed his free hand into the mud beside it and made the ground sink a few inches. Above them, Gavrel's shield caught the weight of the shifting bank. The companion eased the leg out, supporting it above and below the piece of wood still lodged in the thigh.
"Lift him slowly," Corwin called to the men on the road. "Leave the wood alone. It has to come out after he's on the grass."
Renn counted for the rope handlers. The line tightened beneath the paladin's arms, and they raised him clear of the water with the dark length of wood still jutting from his leg. He cried out once, then pressed his lips together as the men lifted him over the broken edge.
Seraphina held the fire around him until four soldiers caught him and laid him on the grass. She drew it back only when she could no longer reach the wound.
"Corwin next," Thalion said.
"All of you are still in that water."
"And he's up there with a stake in his leg. Go."
Corwin looked at Seraphina's arms before gripping his rope. The soldiers hauled him up, then raised his kit and saw on another line.
Thalion ran his hand through the submerged bank and left it there a moment. When he pulled it out, mud slid from his fingers.
"There are more stakes below us," he said. "Set in rows. Whatever lies beneath them goes deeper than I can read from here. We can check it in daylight. For now, step where I raise the ground."
He made a shelf beneath the companion's boots and another beneath the third paladin. Both shelves stopped a hand below the surface. Each man tested his footing before he put his weight on it, while Seraphina kept the soulfire around them against the water's corruption.
The companion went up first. He turned as soon as he reached the lip to watch his injured friend on the grass. The third paladin followed him.
Lucien tried to stand on the timber where Liora had been holding him, but he closed his eyes and had to lean on her before he could reach the rope. She settled the loop beneath his arms. As the men started to lift, she kept a hand behind his head so it would not strike the wall.
He lifted a hand to fend off the wall and missed it the first time. Liora watched until he was over the edge, then turned back to Seraphina.
"Your turn," Seraphina said.
"After you."
"Gavrel has to hold that bank above us. We cannot stay here arguing while his arms give out."
Liora looked at the shield and took the rope. At the top she rolled onto the road, pressed a hand to her side, and crawled back to the edge to see who was next.
Only Seraphina, Thalion, and Gavrel remained below. Gavrel's arms were trembling.
"Gavrel, go next."
"You first, my lady."
"The shield is stronger because I'm here. If I go up before you, the gold may disappear while you're still under the bank."
Gavrel looked to Thalion, who pressed his other hand into the wall above the shield. "I can hold it while you climb. Wait for me."
Roots pushed out of the bank and gripped the loose earth. Thalion held the soil in place until the weight eased from Gavrel's shield. Seraphina felt the change through the staff planted on the shelf beside his hand.
"Now," Thalion said.
Gavrel lowered the shield a little at a time. When the bank held, he stepped onto the raised ground and took the rope. He climbed without looking down. At the top he raised his arm again and stared at the gold still running through his shield.
Thalion still had both hands in the wall, waiting for her to climb.
"Take it with you," he said. "I'll hold the bank until you're clear, then follow."
She lifted the staff from the shelf. Without the ground taking the overflow, pressure came straight back up the shaft. She reduced the fire until her hands could bear it, keeping enough around Thalion to protect him from the water.
He packed a step beneath her boot and raised two more in the face of the bank. She climbed with the staff in one hand. At the top, Yona caught her arm. Suri was tucked in Yona's other elbow, straining toward the pit as Seraphina turned to look for Thalion.
She held the foot of the staff above the verge. "Is this ground clean?"
"Clean," Thalion called. "Put it there."
She drove the staff into the verge. Thalion climbed the steps behind her. Each one crumbled back into the wall after he left it. When both his boots reached the grass, Seraphina closed her hand and let the soulfire around the pit go out.
The heat that had been spread through the water rushed back into her arms. She sent as much as she could down the staff and into the verge, but the ground could not take all of it at once. Suri cried out in Yona's arms. Heat surged through the wood, forcing Seraphina's fingers open. Thalion dropped beside the staff and pressed his palm into the soil. He steadied it until the pressure eased enough for her to grip the shaft again.
Her legs shook as the cold pit water came through her clothes. Yona held her upright until her knees steadied.
Across the road, the gold drained from Renn's shield and left it pale again. Under the wagon, Anton watched the same color fade from his breastplate. Gavrel kept his shield raised until its gold disappeared, then lowered it. A driver muttered something, and the soldier beside him told him to be quiet.
Nazim set men to the ropes around the wagon. They hauled it toward the wagon anchoring the lines while Anton pushed from beneath the bed. When the front wheels reached solid road, he crawled out and sat in the dirt with his hands on his knees.
Corwin had already laid the wounded paladin flat on the grass. Yona had brought his kit, and it lay open beside him. He glanced up at Seraphina as she approached.
"Is the fire out?"
"Yes."
"Keep it out. I need someone on his shoulders."
The man's companion knelt to hold him still. Corwin took the wood in both hands and worked it loose. The paladin screamed into the grass when it came free. Dark red blood followed, and Corwin packed the wound at once, leaning his weight onto the dressing. He checked the skin around it before he eased the pressure.
"Still red," he said. "Good."
He turned the sharpened end of the wood toward the last light. Beneath the mud, a gray film clung to its point. He scraped it with his thumbnail, and the film curled away and stuck there.
"Someone coated this before they put it in the ground." Corwin wrapped the wood in a strip of cloth and set it beside his kit. "Leave it there."
"Some of that could still be inside his leg," Seraphina said. "I can burn it out."
"I know. You'd have to search inside him, and I saw your arms while I cut." He kept his eyes on the leg. "Let me clean it first."
"It's one man."
"His blood is red. I'll watch him tonight. If the wound changes, we'll talk." He threaded his needle and looked up at her. "For now, you need to stop."
She wanted to argue, but her hands were still shaking. She stepped back and let him work.
Corwin stitched the leg as daylight faded. When he finished, he carried a lamp to Lucien, who sat against a wagon wheel with Liora beside him. Corwin moved the light from side to side in front of Lucien's face and asked him where they were.
"The ford below the waystation," Lucien said.
"What day is it?"
Lucien gave him a day. Yona looked up from her slate and supplied the right one. He frowned at her, then at Corwin's lamp.
"No reading or writing tonight," Corwin said. "Sleep where I can wake you. I'll have someone check on you every two hours."
"The ritual," Lucien said. "When can I do it again?"
"When I clear you."
"How long will that take?"
"I can't tell you yet. You hit your head. We'll see how you are after you rest."
Yona came back to Seraphina with the slate. She pushed the wet sleeve above Seraphina's elbow and followed the highest gold line with her thumb. It ended a finger's width above the crease. Yona marked its place and wrote down the date.
Lucien's last ritual had bought her weeks, but the gold was moving again. Now he could not even give Corwin the right day. She looked at him beside the wagon wheel and wondered how long it would be before he could help her again.
Liora approached after Yona finished writing. She stopped close to Seraphina and lowered her voice.
"The drivers saw the shields," she said. "The men at the lip saw Anton's breastplate too. They watched all three go pale when your fire went out."
"I saw them watching."
"We don't know who they'll tell tonight."
Renn sat on the verge with his shield across his knees. Anton was still in the dirt beside the wagon. Gavrel stood between them, his arms hanging at his sides. Seraphina had asked Liora to leave the question of their lineage until today. The men along the road had seen enough to start asking their own questions.
"Gavrel," she called.
He came over, folding his trembling arms across his chest.
"Take Renn and Anton off the front," she said. "Take yourself off it too. Pair each of you with a man you trust. Change the watch as you usually would, without calling attention to it."
"Renn will ask why."
"Tell him tonight, after I tell you what Lucien found. Anton too. They should hear it from us."
Gavrel held her gaze for a moment, then bowed his head to the same depth he always had. "Tonight, my lady."
He crossed to Renn. When Renn started to lift the shield, Gavrel put a hand on its rim and spoke too quietly for Seraphina to hear. Renn nodded and set it on the grass.
The last light faded off the water. Wagons still waited on the near side, and Thalion was already testing the road around the pit with two of Gavrel's men. Yona stood beside Seraphina with the slate against her chest, watching the waystation track. Both sentries remained at their posts, though the trees behind them had gone dark.
"What is it?" Seraphina asked.
"I was counting," Yona said. "From when Corwin started sawing until you closed your hand."
Seraphina looked at the fresh mark above her elbow.
"That was a long time to burn that bright."