Chapter 265: Devourfire

The injured Glassfire stayed at the Tide Hearth. Its companions waited until it was settled, then slipped into the water beside Spear’s raft, their clear armor glowing beneath the surface.

Ren called the others in from the platforms. Ward was already beside him with Keep; Snap joined Riptide and Bolt in the water, followed by Mosaic, Lantern, Saber, Ribbon, Anvil, Wick and Loom. Knock came down last.

Balm stayed on the wounded guard. Hearth was still home.

"Ward leads if I go down," Ren told them. "If we get split up, back here. Spear knows the way."

He checked the thin connection through Keep, waited for the last of them to reach the raft, then nodded to the guides. The two Glassfire headed out together, and Spear followed them around the island.

— • —

Ren heard the Glass Hearth before he saw it.

Its flame made a thin, uneven roar, quite unlike the Tide Hearth’s steady rush. When the raft rounded a black headland, he saw a white-orange fire burning low in the middle of a ring of platforms. Its edges were pale enough to see through.

Dull-orange Lawfires floated beside the outer stonework. Raiders moved above them, their bodies patched with basalt, glass and packed ash. Several held Glassfire by the arms; others were forcing captives toward the far end of the ring.

A much larger Lawfire burned there, with smaller fires gathered around it. The Devourfire standing in front of it was twice the height of the raiders beside it.

Heavy glass plates overlapped across its basalt chest. Fused slag formed one shoulder, and its long arms hung almost to its knees. Orange light showed at the joints whenever it moved. It turned as the raft approached, keeping itself between Ren and the captives.

[RACE: PYREBORN.]

[HEARTFLAME: DEVOURFIRE.]

[HEARTFLAME GRADE: FURNACE.]

[LAW COMPOSITION: FIRE.]

[HEARTFLAME TRAIT: DEVOURING.]

[DANGER TO HOST: SEVERE.]

Ren looked from the panel to the plates covering its chest. He would have to get through those to reach the Heartflame.

The leader raised an arm. The nearest raiders stopped advancing, though the ones holding captives kept their grip. A Glassfire twisted toward the approaching raft and was hauled back against its captor.

The leader began to speak. Its voice carried across the water in a rough steam-and-stones sound, with pauses between the pieces the System translated.

[CONCEPT: WORLD. DYING.]

[CONCEPT: WE. EAT. WE. LIVE.]

It gestured past the pale Hearthfire toward the open water beyond, along the route Spear had shown him.

[CONCEPT: TIME. FIRE. BEYOND.]

[CONCEPT: WE. KNOW. ROAD.]

Its hand opened toward Ren, then swept toward the passage.

[CONCEPT: YOU. PASS.]

It pointed at the captives.

[CONCEPT: LEAVE. THEM.]

The leader kept its hand extended toward the open water. Beyond it, the smaller Devourfire had left enough room for the raft to pass between their platforms. Ren looked along the gap, then back at the captives still held beside it.

Ren glanced at the Glassfire struggling beside the platform’s edge. A crack ran through its shoulder, and its captor’s fingers were digging into the break.

He could follow the bargain well enough. The Devourfire would let him through if he left them to feed. Whether it could actually deliver the Timefire routes hardly mattered with that hand closing on the broken shoulder.

He shook his head.

"No."

As the raft reached the stone, he stepped onto the platform and moved toward the captive.

— • —

The leader dropped its arm. The raider shoved the Glassfire aside and reached for Ren, giving him room to get between them.

He cut through its arm at the elbow and drove cold water into the exposed joint. The stump greyed as he pushed the captive behind him, but the raider lunged again with its other hand. Ren blocked it with water and backed toward the platform’s outer edge.

The others were already moving. Riptide dragged a current along the stonework, sweeping two raiders into the sea. Mosaic appeared as a second Ren on the far platform, drawing more away from the captives, while Lantern’s silk spread through the smoke overhead.

"Ward. Water side. Give them a way out."

Ward surfaced beside the platform, with Keep still riding high on his back. Anvil reached the far corner and blocked the approach, leaving a strip of stone between them that led to the water. Spear climbed up beside Ward and beckoned to the freed Glassfire.

Ren pointed toward it. The captive hesitated, then ran.

The wounded raider tried to follow, but Knock struck it from the side. Its damaged body broke against the stone, exposing the chest coal; another blow crushed it before it could rise. At the far corner, Anvil caught a second raider trying to force its way into the lane and broke through its chest.

Ren turned toward the remaining captives as they pulled free of their distracted guards. One stumbled, caught itself on the stone and kept moving toward Spear.

The Furnace leader extended its arm.

Light flared in its seams, and a Glassfire near the lane jerked backward. Its Heartflame stretched through a crack in its chest, drawn toward the leader. Its feet scraped over the stone as it tried to follow the others.

Ren caught its intact forearm and pulled it toward Ward.

The Glassfire’s weight dragged against his grip. Its feet scraped, then his boots did, and he had to lean back to keep from falling into it. The Heartflame kept stretching toward the leader while Ren slid another few inches across the platform.

His heels settled and his knees bent into the stance he had practiced. Holdfast caught before he could think through the movement, carrying the sea plants’ grip he had inherited from Aldric down into the cracks beneath his feet.

[HOLDFAST — BEGINNER: HOLDING.]

The sliding stopped. Ren tightened both hands around the Glassfire’s arm, braced against the pull and tried to draw it closer. Its chest coal was still being dragged out through the fracture, and he couldn’t bring it back just by holding the body.

"Ward!"

The whale rose beneath the captive, lifting it against the platform’s edge. Ren held on until its weight settled onto Ward, then loosened his fingers enough to let Spear help it farther back.

Two more Glassfire hurried past him. Another followed with a Cinder held close against its chest, ducking as a piece of stone struck the lane behind it.

Ren stayed anchored between them and the leader. His knees were shaking, and he had to force air out before he could take another breath. He could feel the grip beneath one heel begin to loosen.

Across the platform, the leader leaned farther into its reach. Snap moved around its unguarded side, and Saber followed.

— • —

Snap’s shot struck the leader in the ribs. Saber came in beneath its arm and cut into the slag shoulder, forcing it to turn toward them.

The pull broke. On Ward’s back, the captive’s stretched flame drew into its chest, and Spear bent over it while the last fleeing Glassfire reached the water.

Ren kept his feet planted and raised Deepsnap.

Snap was close to the leader’s flank. Ren held the shot until it moved clear, following the chest as Saber forced the larger body around.

The leader swung at Saber, exposing its chest as it turned. Ren released the pressure shot into the overlapping glass plates.

A crack opened across them. One plate lifted at its edge, showing a narrow strip of dull-orange light underneath, but the chest held together. The leader recoiled and brought an arm across the damage as Snap advanced.

Ren released Holdfast. His knees nearly folded, and he caught himself with a hand against the stone while the roots withdrew from the cracks beneath his boots.

The leader backed toward its Lawfire, striking at Snap with one arm and keeping the other across its chest. Saber pressed it from the side. A blow caught Saber’s blade-arm and threw it wide, but Snap’s next shot struck the damaged plate before the leader could follow through.

Glass broke away from its chest.

The leader twisted toward the water. Saber caught up with it at the edge, drove a blade into the opening and struck the exposed Heartflame as its arm came down toward him.

The orange light went out. Its raised arm broke apart before it landed, and the rest of the body collapsed across the platform in a heap of glass, basalt and slag.

The nearest raiders retreated toward their Lawfires. Ren stayed beside the escape lane as the pack drew back around the wounded. None of his people followed the fleeing Devourfire into the smoke beyond the platforms.

— • —

The Cinders emerged once the fighting had moved away from the Hearth.

Some came from beneath the bridges; others had been hidden in gaps between the platforms or inside a broken hut. They gathered near the small white-orange fire while the adults searched the damaged stonework for anyone still missing.

Ren helped move the wounded farther into the ring. The Glassfire he had caught was alive, though its Heartflame was smaller now. It lay with its cracked chest turned upward, moving its good hand as Spear lowered it onto the stone.

Ren crouched beside it long enough to check that the flame remained steady. A Glassfire came to kneel at its side, and he moved away to help carry another injured defender off the outer platform.

By the time they had cleared the lane, his legs were aching badly enough that he sat on the bridge-footing. Ward stayed near the wounded with Keep, while Snap and Saber watched the approaches.

Ren looked back toward the Hearthfire. Cinders clustered around its base, but the flame above them was still pale and low. He watched it bend in the wind, waiting for it to rise again. It recovered only to the same height.

One of the guides called to him from the outer platform. Ren pushed himself upright and went to see what it had found.

— • —

There were three Embers among the broken bodies: two small dull-orange coals and a larger one where the Furnace leader had fallen.

[LAW EMBERS ACQUIRED: 3.]

[TYPE: DEVOURFIRE. ONE FURNACE GRADE.]

[CONTAINS: FIRE.]

[HEARTFLAME TRAIT: DEVOURING.]

[ENDLESS GRAFT COMPATIBLE.]

[GRAFTING UNAVAILABLE WITHIN FRAGMENT.]

Ren wrapped each coal in cold water and put it in storage. He could examine them under the Worldroot once everyone was safe.

The guide waited beside him, then led him around the scattered basalt. Ren stepped over the leader’s broken arm and followed it to the water’s edge, where some of the stolen goods had fallen between the platform stones.

The raiders had piled goods near the leader’s Lawfire: glass blades, cut stone and a tied bundle of short glass rods, each notched along its length. Ren brought the bundle and blades to the Glassfire, then pointed out the stacked stone.

They began sorting through the pile. One carried the blades back toward the smiths’ work, while another untied the rods and laid them along the platform. It checked each in turn, comparing the notches before setting most aside.

Two remained. The Glassfire picked one up and pointed toward the leader’s broken body.

[CONCEPT: THEIRS.]

It indicated the rods it had already separated, then touched its own chest.

[CONCEPT: OURS.]

Ren nodded and waited while it held the raider’s rod where he could see. Its fingertip followed the smaller cuts along the glass until it reached a deep notch near the end. There it stopped and pointed past the Hearth, out along the water.

[CONCEPT: GATE. FIRE. MOVES.]

[CONCEPT: PAY.]

Ren traced the same notch with his thumb. The Glassfire repeated the direction, then let go of the rod, leaving it in his hand.

"For me?"

He held it out once, and the Glassfire pushed it gently back toward him before gathering up the others.

Ren turned the marker over. He couldn’t read the smaller cuts yet, but the deep one marked an obstruction along their route. Something controlled the passage and wanted payment. He would have to find out what it moved, what it charged and whether it would let the Glassfire through at all.

He looked along the route, then tucked the marker away.