Something jerked me sharply. My right arm... had fused dead into the cooled clay.
"Lie still," Ephraim's voice sounded muffled. "Don't twitch. It's stuck dead."
I opened my eyes. The sky was gray. Ephraim squatted nearby.
Overnight, the metal had cooled. But before that, it had been red-hot. The rags wrapped around the joint, the leather straps, my jacket—all of it had fused into a single black-and-crimson crust.
"Where..." "Where is he?"
Ephraim nodded somewhere behind him. With effort, I turned my head. My neck crunched.
Zeno was there.
Frozen in the middle of what used to be the first floor of the mill, sunk up to his knees in charred beams.
I tried to sit up. I managed on the third try—only because Ephraim caught me under the armpits.
"We... need to leave," I whispered. "The Order..."
"The Order is gone," Ephraim interrupted. He handed me a flask. "Drink. The water is warm, I heated it on the coals."
People emerged from the fog, from the direction of the village. Hans walked first. Behind him—the blacksmith and three other men with axes.
They stopped ten paces away. Hans looked at the ruins of the mill.
"Alive, then," Hans said.
"Yeah," Ephraim stood up, shielding me with his body. "And the mages are dead. Every last one of them."
"The mill is dead too," the blacksmith spat. "What are we supposed to feed our children with, old man?"
"If it weren't for this kid, everyone would be dead. The Order spares no one, not even simple villagers."
After a brief silence, Hans spoke...
"Leave," not looking me in the eyes. "Right now."
"We can't," Ephraim said firmly.
"Leave Zeno," someone muttered. "And leave the kid."
"No way. Better help us. Drag us to Bear Crevice. Two kilometers up. And you'll never see us again. A favor for saving you."
Hans was silent for a long time.
"Bring the ropes. And the logs."
Zeno weighed almost half a ton. To move him, the men used the remains of the mill shaft as levers, cursing non-stop.
"A-a-nd one! A-a-nd two! Damn it, what's so heavy in him!"
Zeno collapsed onto his side with a clang. They loaded him onto a drag sled knocked together from floorboards. Six sturdy men harnessed themselves to the straps.
They made a smaller sled for me—just an old door. Ephraim laid me down, spreading his jacket underneath.
"The arm... tie the arm," I wheezed when he leaned over me. "Or it'll tear off."
He nodded. Tied my prosthesis to the boards so it wouldn't dangle.
Sh-r-r-r-k...
I turned my head. Zeno was riding behind, his head bobbing, mud clogging the seams of his armor.
"Hold on, Kid, hold on," Ephraim whispered, walking beside me.
I kept slipping into delirium, then coming back to my senses.
When we reached Bear Crevice—a narrow fault in the rock leading to karst caves—the men stopped.
Hans cut the ropes with a knife.
"That's it," he said, breathing heavily. "On your own from here. This is the edge of the hunting grounds. We don't go there."
"Thanks, Hans," Ephraim said.
"Don't mention it," the elder spat.
They left quickly. The wind in the crevice howled colder.
Ephraim stood at the cave entrance.
First, he dragged me in. Leaning into the rope, bracing his boots against the stones.
Then he went back for Zeno. And with the help of some artifact, dragged him in too.
After he dragged Zeno in, Ephraim immediately collapsed next to him and lay for about ten minutes without moving.
"Ephraim..." I called weakly.
"Let me catch my breath..."
He crawled over to me, covered me with a dirty blanket the men had left.
"It's cold. A fire would be good... but there's no wood."
"Zeno..." I tried to extend my left arm. "Move me... closer."
"Why?"
"I have to."
I pressed my left palm against his chest plate.
Come on, I thought. You can't just turn off because of some water and steam. Turn on. Call me an idiot. Tell me about efficiency. Do something.
Sleep was pulling me in. And then I felt it. A faint vibration under my palm.
B-z-z-t...
"S-sys... tem... Crit... failure..."
"Zeno?" I pressed my ear to the armor. "I'm here. What do you need? Diagnostics!"
Pause. A long one.
"C..."
"What?"
"C..."
"Speak!"
"C... Copper..."
The word hung in the icy air of the cave.
"C-circuit... break... conductor... need... c-copper..."
Silence. The vibration vanished. Stone again.
I stared into the darkness. Copper. The best conductor after silver. He needs to bridge the burnt-out startup circuit. A piece of wire.
But we were in a cave. Stone. Moss.
I started laughing hysterically.
"You have a fever," Ephraim said, touching my forehead.
"Copper..." I whispered through tears and laughter. "He needs copper, Ephraim."
"Where are we supposed to get it? Hans didn't even have a copper pot."
"It's here," I said quietly. "Right here."
"Where?"
"In my arm."
"No," he said firmly. "Don't even think about it. I won't do it."
"You'll have to," I closed my eyes. "You'll have to take it apart, Ephraim."
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