The clan's inner hall had been aired before dawn. Lamps burned steady in the alcoves. The banners on the back wall hung from iron rings, their white emblems clear against the black. The floor lines were set in a tight grid that hummed at a lower pitch than the ward-circles in the galleries. People stood in measured rows. Robes were simple. Boots were clean. Everyone watched the door.
Kael entered first. He didn't bow. He stopped at the edge of the grid and stood with his hands at his sides. Selina came after him and took a place one step to his right. Yun stood to their left with the staff-bearer and the junior who had run the corridor. On the high bench, five elders waited. The center seat was empty, covered by a folded cloak that had not been touched for a lifetime.
The eldest woman spoke. "You brought someone through our gate. Say who."
Kael didn't delay. "We brought the one the lines answer. She is stable. She is not to be paraded. She is not a trophy. We will keep her breathing and unseen until the rifts stop widening."
An elder on the right leaned forward. "You use big words. The North Gate has six rifts in sight. The Red gathered at the council road before noon. Their car line stretches past the bridge. You think hiding one person will change that."
Selina kept her voice level. "We are not talking about the Red's cars. We are talking about what draws them here. If they cannot point to the girl and say they have her, their ranks will spread thin. They want a symbol. We do not gift it to them."
Another elder tapped the bench with two fingers. "How sure are you."
"Sure enough to bring her," Kael said.
"Sure is not a number," the elder said.
Selina answered that. "Her pulse triggered our lower ward-grid while she was still in the outer cave. The grid answered with white. The cuts held it. The lines were written for her. If you want a number, take the old records and count where that happened before. You will not find a second entry."
The eldest woman watched Kael, watched Selina, watched the room. "Yun," she said. "You brought them in. You vouch. Speak."
Yun stepped one pace forward. "They crossed under a moving rift with the girl in his arms. The wash held Red scouts and two of the doctor's thieves. The Red backed off when the sky opened. The thieves stayed on the bridge and made calls. The lower gallery accepted her without error. The clan gate took her line on the first pass. I have seen the wrong people try that door. It throws them back. It did not throw her."
The elder on the right tried again. "We could bring her here and show our people. The Red are not the only ones who need a symbol."
Selina answered him without looking up to the bench. "If you want to put a living person on a wall so men feel brave, say it plain. Then say on record that you will be the one to hold her when the camera lights go on and the rifts pull again and your rows panic."
The man flushed. He opened his mouth. The eldest woman cut him with one word. "Enough."
She turned to Kael. "What do you ask."
"Cover," Kael said. "No visitor lists. No names in the outer books. A healer who understands pressure and pulse. A room with a second exit that is not marked on a map. Three runners who do not ask questions. One scribe. A guard rotation that does not wear badges."
"You are not short of requests," the elder on the right said.
Kael didn't blink. "I also ask for the time to answer you when I am done here. I will not leave her alone."
The eldest woman nodded once. "Granted. The room below the inner library is open. It has water and a clean grid. The second exit runs to the west stair. Only the old lists carry it. I will give you the names of the three runners. The healer you want is already at the door. The scribe is waiting with her slate."
The door at the side opened. A woman in grey entered with a soft bag and clean hands. A young man with a chalk-slate followed. He didn't stare. He set his slate against his hip and waited for instructions.
"Speak to the Red," someone at the back said. "They will come up the ridge. They will test our gate. We cannot show an empty hall."
Selina turned toward the voice. "We will speak to the Red. We will speak from the wall. We will say our ground is ours. We will tell them the gate moves when we decide. If they demand names, they will lose time. They will argue with men who like the sound of their own voices. While they argue, we move."
The eldest woman looked to Yun again. "You will stand on the wall with them."
"I will," Yun said.
"You will also take two spare lines and set them on the lower ledge," she said. "If the Red break the first ring, you cut their boots with the second."
Yun nodded. "Done."
The elder on the right tried one last time. "This is a lot of caution for one girl. What if you are wrong. What if she is only an echo and not the thing itself."
Selina didn't raise her tone. "If we are wrong, the cost is a room and a guard. If we are right and we waste time, the cost is the valley. You have held this hall longer than I have been alive. Do not pretend you cannot see the difference."
The eldest woman stood. The hall quieted. "You have the cover you ask. Keep the circle small. Keep your feet under you. We will not carry you if you fall because you tried to climb two steps at once. Hold your ground. Speak to the Red. Then send our men to the outer farms. Pull the old ones in. Give the children a room where the sound is less. We finish this session."
Kael waited only long enough to bow the smallest correct bow. He left the hall, Selina with him, the healer and the scribe falling into step. In the corridor, he spoke without slowing.
"You take her room," he said to Selina. "I take the wall with Yun. If I am not back by the second bell, assume the Red tried the lower ledge. Move her to the west stair. Do not wait for orders."
Selina nodded. "Do not wait for honor at the wall. Speak and shut them down."
"I am not here for honor," Kael said.
They split at the second arch. Selina led the healer to the library stairs. The scribe trotted after her, slate under his arm.
"Name," Selina said.
"Merrin," he said.
"Write what we say," she said. "Do not add. Do not polish. If I say stop, you stop. If I say burn the page, you burn it. Do you understand."
"I do," he said.
They reached the room below the library. It had the shape of a store chamber and the feel of a safe place. The grid lines ran under the low bed and along the edges to the drain. The second door was covered by a plain shelf with three folded blankets sitting on it to make it look like storage. The healer walked the lines without speaking, set her bag on the stool, and washed her hands in the basin.
"Report," she said.
Selina didn't waste words. "Female. Late teens in body. Vision poor. Pulse interacts with grid. White. Nosebleeds after nectar stimulus. We stopped the nectar yesterday. She is weak but steady. Pressure changes cause head pain and ear pressure. She follows instructions. Keep the dose of anything near zero unless the grid tells you it can hold."
The healer nodded. "Understood. Keep people out of her ear. She needs quiet."
"She will have it," Selina said. "She also needs truth."
"Then answer her," the healer said. "Do not let her fish for it while the world pulls at the walls. It wastes her breath."
Selina went in. Mira lay where they had left her, eyes closed, head turned toward the wall. The room was warmer than the gallery. It smelled clean. The white under her skin had thinned from the cave brightness to a softer, even light, like a field under cloud.
Selina sat so the girl could hear her without effort. "We are in a quiet room under the library. The floor is safe. The grid knows you. The healer is here. She is not here to impress anyone. She is here to keep your body steady."
Mira opened her eyes partway. "Am I safe."
"You are safer here than anywhere else within a day's walk," Selina said. "The Red moved to the north gate. They want a show. We will give them talk. We will not give them a face."
Mira breathed out. "Tell me the thing you did not want to say when we were in the cave."
Selina didn't look for a softer angle. "You are the person our elders wrote into a plan they did not think they would live to see. That plan was wrong about the year and right about the type. The enemies outside believe the same thing for their side. They think a god will arrive and that a girl will be a key. They will say many words. The core is simple. They want to own you because they think owning you will make them safe. We will not let that happen."
Mira lay still for a moment. "Do you want to own me."
"No," Selina said. "I want to keep you breathing long enough for you to tell me what you want to be. If you want to leave when the ground stops moving, you will leave. If you want to stay, you will stay."
"That is clear," Mira said.
The healer came to the bedside. "I am Rhea," she said. "I will ask three questions and then let you rest. Answer with yes, no, or a short word. If your head hurts, tell me."
"Fine," Mira said.
"Head pain now."
"No."
"Ear pressure now."
"No."
"Chest tightness now."
"Light."
Rhea checked the pulse at the wrist without lifting the arm. The white at Mira's face did not change under the touch. Rhea nodded. "Water," she said. Selina passed the cup. Rhea tipped a mouthful to Mira's lips. "Small sip. We stop if it feels wrong."
"It is fine," Mira said after the second sip.
Rhea looked at Selina. "Let her listen to the hall. Let her sleep. If the pressure rises, I will adjust the air."
Selina stood. "I will be at the door. Call me."
Mira's voice was quiet. "You will talk to the Red."
"I will stand with Kael," Selina said. "Yun will speak. Kael will answer. I will watch their hands."
Mira's lashes lowered. "Come back after."
"I will," Selina said.
She stepped out and closed the door to a hand's width. Merrin sat at the small table, slate ready, chalk capped. He didn't look curious. He looked like a person who could hold his questions until the room allowed them. Selina gave him a short nod. "If anyone comes who is not on the list, you send them away. If they push, you shout. There are three men posted on the stair who do not argue."
"I understand," Merrin said.
Selina headed for the wall.
At the north gate of the Red gathering, drivers killed their engines. The red-caped banker had traded his polished office for a stone courtyard that smelled of cold incense and oil. He wore the cape over a dark suit. The cape covered the suit better than it should. Two lines of men in matching jackets stood at attention, collars stiff, faces set. In the center, a low dais waited for the one who had not yet stepped through the rift.
Arthur Halden stood at the edge of the lines with two of his children. His wife had stayed at home because she did not like the cold and because she did not like the smell of old stone on her clothes. Arthur's face was lean. His eyes were tired in the way of men who keep accounts that do not add up without help. On the drive up he had told himself he would walk away if the scene felt cheap. He did not walk away. He watched the red cape and the careful placement of men and told himself that control was better than chaos. He told himself that power could keep doors open that money could not and that this was only a different kind of lobby.
The red-caped banker stepped up. "Friends," he said. "We keep our word. We kept the rooms ready. We kept the paths clear. Today we stop keeping. Today we open."
A line of guards pulled the inner chains. The arch within the arch filled with light. Not a burst. A steady white like a film laid over air. It thinned. A figure stepped through. Not tall. Not short. Robes the color of coal. No crown. No jewelry. He did not need them. He crossed the threshold and the men in jackets moved a single step backward without meaning to.
He spoke in a voice that did not strain. "Where is the map."
The banker raised his palm. An aide brought a board with a clean drawing of the valley and the ridges and the first rifts marked in clear lines. The robed man studied it for five seconds and then pointed with two fingers.
"We take this road and this shelf," he said. "We leave the lower bridge. We do not waste time with cars on broken ground. Where is the child."
The banker's mouth tightened at the word. "We are verifying. Our watchers believe she was moved to the north face and then lost in a cut."
"Lost is a poor word," the robed man said. "They used a door. You have doors. Use them."
Nora stood to the side with the plain hand signal groups. She kept her eyes down. Her phone vibrated once. She didn't pull it from her pocket. She already knew what it would say. Report. She had reported. She had not stopped the climb. She had done her part. She told herself this three times.
Arthur's eldest son leaned in close. "What exactly are we getting out of this."
Arthur kept his eyes on the robed man. "We are getting breathable air when the rifts go wide. We are getting a seat near a tap when the new order starts pushing water only to its own houses."
His son looked at the red banners and the hard faces and didn't like what he saw. "And if they decide we are just wallets."
"Then we show them what happens when wallets close," Arthur said. His voice was even. "But we do not do it today. Today we shake hands and we nod. We wait for the next list."
The robed man lowered his hand. "Bring me a set of the old names. The ones you wrote when you were sure the world would not open and you wanted to play at religion. Sometimes games hide better facts than books."
The banker made the order without blinking. He had no sense of humor about his cape. He had written those old names on nice paper because donors liked ink. He wished he had burned them. He told himself it was fine. The Master would be busy. The Master would not read every line. He would only glance.
"Where is the doctor," the robed man asked without looking up.
"In the city," the banker said. "We let him play in his corner to keep the circles quiet. He still thinks he leads a club."
"Do not let him break his toys where I can see it," the robed man said. "If he brings me a name, I will listen. If he brings me a bill, I will send it back with fire."
The banker bowed his head. "Understood."
Arthur watched the exchange. He didn't know the man in robes. He didn't like him. He also didn't see a better path. He stood still and made his face neutral. When the call came for pledges, he stepped forward and placed his hand on the cold stone. He said the words he had promised to say to get the key. He didn't look at his children. He didn't look at Nora. He looked at the robe and the hand that rested on the edge of the map and he told himself this was better than letting a daughter he didn't understand become a problem with a police file.
On the clan wall, the wind cut right through coats. Men in plain gear stood shoulder to shoulder. Women in the same gear paced behind them, eyes on hand signals, not on the horizon. Kael took a post on the parapet beside Yun. He looked down. The lower shelf held two Red patrols. The road beyond the wash was full. It didn't move. People were out of their cars and watching the sky the way tourists watch fireworks. The air above the north gate shimmered. It held. It would keep holding because the line in it was old and set very deep.
Yun cupped his hands to his mouth. "Speak," he called to the patrols. "State your business."
A Red officer with a narrow face shouted back. "We are here on lawful travel."
"Travel where," Yun said.
"North," the man said.
"North is closed," Yun said. "Find a different hill. There are many today."
"We have rights," the man said.
"You have legs," Yun said. "Use them anywhere else."
The officer tried a different angle. "We'll speak to your chief."
"You are speaking to me," Yun said.
The officer looked angry at the answer and also stuck with it. "We have reports that a person of interest was carried along this ridge."
Yun didn't blink. "You have reports. I have a road to keep. Turn around."
The officer raised his voice. "We will file a petition with the council."
"File whatever keeps your hands busy," Yun said.
Kael kept his eyes on the lower ledge. He didn't watch the talk. He watched the two men in the second patrol who checked the footings with their boots and then checked them again, like they were looking for a hollow sound. He pointed once. Two of the clan guards shifted their stance and set their weight over the thin line that would shear the top layer of rock if someone tried to pry.
"Left pair," Yun said under his breath.
"I see them," Kael said.
The officer tried the last tool in his pouch. "We have orders from our Master."
Yun's words carried just fine. "And I have orders from my feet."
A few of the clan guards smiled. Most did not. They kept their eyes on hands and on rocks. They waited for a signal that didn't come. The Red pulled back five paces and began to argue with men in their own jackets. The men in the jackets pointed at the sky. The patrols looked up because they couldn't help it. A winged shadow crossed the ridge. It wasn't a machine. It wasn't a bird. It moved like it had a plan.
Selina reached the parapet and took a place on Kael's other side. "Healer is set," she said. "The girl is steady. The scribe is patient. The room is quiet."
Kael kept watching the lower pair. "Good. The Red are wasting time with their words. They will try hands next. Not now. After they call someone."
Selina scanned the shelf. "The one with the narrow face is the caller."
"Then we watch his pockets," Kael said.
They stood for another ten minutes while the patrols failed to agree on a legal phrase that would make the mountain open. Then the call came from the west parapet.
"Movement."
Kael and Selina crossed the wall. The new rift on the west side widened to the size of a cart. A shape like a pavilion roof pushed through. It set itself on the high shelf and steadied. People walked out under it and stood in the thin sun. Their robes moved in the wind like fabric on real bodies, not costumes. Two took three steps forward in the air and kept walking. No wings. No engines.
The wall did not cheer. It did not gasp. It stiffened. The eldest woman came up the stair with two guards and looked once and then looked at Kael.
"Hold the north. Do not let them climb," she said.
"They will not," Kael said.
She looked to Selina. "If the girl wakes, tell her we are not putting her on a bench. She will think that because she is young and because we are old. Tell her she can speak to me in a chair with no arms and that I am not here to take her name and write it on a page. Tell her to sleep."
"I will tell her," Selina said.
The eldest woman left.
Yun leaned close. "The Red will pull half their line to go greet their man in robes. They want a front-row picture."
"Good," Kael said. He pointed down. "Left pair again. Ready on the cut."
Selina raised her hand. The signal ran down the line to the two guards planted above the hairline cut. The narrow-faced officer gave up on talk and waved his men in. Boots hit rock. The first row reached the cut and stamped without knowing it. The line held. The second row stamped. The line still held. The third row came in tight and put six men on the same two-foot run of thin stone. Selina dropped her fingers. The guards pulled. The thin layer came off clean. The front boots lost purchase and slid. The men behind fell forward. No one died. That was not the point. The point was the noise it made and the time it took to swear and stand up and point in three directions at once and look stupid in front of their own camera.
"Enough," Yun called. "Go back to your cars."
The narrow-faced officer shouted something about law. Kael didn't catch the words. He didn't need to. He checked the west again. A figure had stepped to the edge of the new pavilion roof and was looking this way. The figure raised a hand in a small, precise greeting. Kael didn't return it. He didn't turn away either. He kept his face blank. He watched the man's eyes. The man watched his.
"Selina," Kael said without moving his mouth much.
"I see him," she said.
"We keep our heads down," Kael said.
"We do," she said.
They stood on the wall until the bells counted the hour. The Red patrols gave up the ledge for the moment and went to shout at their own drivers. The man on the pavilion roof turned and walked back into his own line. The rift light thinned. The air pressure eased. It did not return to normal. Normal had left.
Selina left the wall and took the direct stair to the library room. She knocked once and slid in. The room was quiet. Merrin sat at the table, slate on his knees, eyes down. Rhea stood by the bed and adjusted the cloth under Mira's head.
"Status," Selina said.
"Stable," Rhea said. "Head clear. Ears clear. Chest easy."
Mira opened her eyes. "Are we good."
"We are holding," Selina said. "The Red tried the lower ledge. We cut it. They stopped. Their leader stepped through the north gate. They will be busy greeting him."
Mira took that in. "Is my father with them."
"We do not have eyes in that yard," Selina said. "I can tell you what he would do because men like him do not change their steps when they want something. He would stand near the front. He would not speak first. He would sign the paper when the list comes around."
"Thank you," Mira said. "That is enough."
Rhea poured a small measure of water. "Sip," she said. "Then rest. Your body is doing work without a show. Let it."
Mira drank. "How long do we stay in this room."
"Until the first rush ends," Selina said. "Then we go down one more level to a place with no lines on any map. When we move you there, we will not speak. We will not stop. You will hear steps and then quiet. That will be the count you keep. If anything hurts, you say one word. Stop. I will hear you."
"I understand," Mira said.
Selina sat for a minute and watched her face until the lines of her brow eased. "I will leave the door open a hand," she said. "If you need me, say my name."
"I will," Mira said.
Selina stepped back into the hall. Merrin looked up with a question he had held for an hour.
"Ask it," Selina said.
"Should I record the names who come to the door," he said. "There have been three. Two walked away when I told them to. One waited until the guard made him move."
"Write their names," Selina said. "If they lied, write what they said first and what the guard said after. That tells me who likes to change stories."
Merrin nodded and set chalk to slate.
Selina went back to the wall.
Arthur Halden's phone buzzed while the robed man spoke to the banker about road closures. Arthur checked the screen. One message. A number he knew. He opened it and read two words he had expected and still didn't like.
It's her.
He didn't answer. He put the phone away and kept his face smooth. His son looked at him and narrowed his eyes.
"What," the son said.
"Nothing," Arthur said.
"You are lying," the son said.
Arthur didn't blink. "We are not doing this here."
The son folded his arms. "You want to get rid of her and keep the money. That is what you want."
Arthur turned his head. He looked at the boy he had dressed in good coats and sent to good schools and kept close to deals he should not have seen. He did not smile. "I want the family to come out of this with doors to walk through. The world just changed in an hour. Try to keep up."
The son stared at him. "You are going to hand her over."
Arthur kept his voice flat. "I am going to keep a seat at the table. You should be quiet if you want one for yourself."
Nora heard the exchange because the air carried words now. She looked at the man in the cape and then at the man in the robe and then at Arthur and his son. She thought about the girl in the corridor with the light under her skin. She thought about the phone in her pocket and the message she had already sent. She didn't pray. She didn't know how. She said one sentence in her head and it wasn't to any god. Don't let me be wrong.
The robed man turned to face the lines. "We begin," he said. "Hold your places. I will not say this twice."
The banker lifted his chin. The guards raised their hands. The crowd fell quiet. The rift behind the arch made a low sound that wasn't a voice and wasn't wind. The sound drew a line from the edge of the yard to the far ridge.
On that ridge, the clan wall stood still.
Kael kept his post. He watched the narrow-faced officer try to push one more time and then give up. He watched the two men who had tested the rock earlier argue about whose idea it had been. He watched a black bird with a long tail cross the gap and sit on a post and not move when men shouted. He waited for the second bell.
When it came, he left the parapet and went down the inner stair.
Selina met him at the bottom. "She is steady," she said.
"Good," Kael said. "We move her deeper at last light."
Selina nodded. "The elders agreed."
Kael looked at her for a beat. "And you."
"I agreed before I asked," she said. "I only needed them to speak it."
They walked the short corridor side by side. They didn't take each other's hands. They didn't talk about names that weren't in this room yet. They kept their steps quiet and their eyes open. When they reached the library door, Selina stopped him with a palm.
"One thing," she said. "When she asked what she is to us, I told her the truth. Person first. Duty after."
Kael didn't hesitate. "Good."
He pushed the door. Rhea looked up and nodded. Mira turned her face toward the sound.
"Are we done with the wall," she asked.
"For now," Kael said. "They will go clap for their leader. That is time for us."
"I am ready," Mira said.
"You do not have to say you are ready," Selina said. "You can say you are tired and we will carry you anyway."
"I am both," Mira said. "I am tired and I am ready."
"Then we go at last light," Selina said. "We go quiet. We go clean. We do not look back."
Mira closed her eyes. "I hear you."
Selina stood by the door until her breathing evened. Kael took the first watch in the chair by the shelf. Rhea sat on the stool and set her hands in her lap. Merrin turned a page on the slate and checked the names again. The rifts hummed under the floor. The hall held.
No one spoke for a long time. Outside, the Red lifted flags. Inside, the clan did not lift anything. They kept a girl's breath easy while the lines under the world finished their first turn.