Chapter 35
Prairie Fire
"Eren! When are we leaving—give me a straight answer!"
"My wound…"
"Are you even a man? It's been ten days and that little scrape still hasn't healed?" Lila stood by the bed, finger pointed at Eren's nose. "Just say it—you don't want to see this escort through, do you?"
The scabs on his head were still half there, but they no longer slowed him down.
"First thing tomorrow. I'll go find Mr. He and nail down the route."
He didn't wait for her to say more. He stood and went downstairs at once.
It had been ten days or so since the trouble.
From the second day on, Lila had asked several times a day when they were leaving. By the fifth she stopped asking. She put the bundle by the bed, filled the waterskins, and buckled the quiver.
Eren and Nova could only stall with one excuse after another.
Eren spent the time on Lin Ce's manuscript. It was hard going—one page on Crystone powder ratios, the next on how the shoot reacted. Some lines were crossed out and rewritten; the margins were packed with symbols only Lin Ce would have read. Eren went page by page, skipped what he couldn't parse, and dog-eared the few bits he could use.
In two weeks he hadn't gotten much out of it, but enough to breathe easier for now.
One note in the manuscript: if he didn't push the shoot too hard, another wild surge in the short term was unlikely. Training might steady it—but not a word on how.
Lila had latched onto the chapters on Crystone and weapons. Those pages had bolt cross-sections, powder fill layers, outer shell constraint structures, and dense bolt numbering. She often read until midnight, dark circles under her eyes the next day, and still said she was fine.
On the thirteenth day Lila finally cornered him.
They really couldn't stall any longer. Lila was already at her limit—and talk about the old mine in town was getting wilder. In the last few days bold souls had gone up into the hills. Traces of the Old Mine branch were already spreading mouth to mouth among the townsfolk. Stay longer and they'd likely draw trouble they didn't need.
Downstairs, Eren finished laying it out. Mr. He thought a moment, then nodded.
"Tomorrow's fine." Mr. He looked up at him and forced a thin smile. "Lila's looked a lot better these past few days—that puts my mind at ease. Your wound's all right too?"
"Fine. Just surface," Eren said. "Lila looks settled on the outside, but—"
"You said take it slow."
"On the road, keep an eye on her. If she really can't hold up, don't let her force it."
Eren nodded.
When he came back upstairs, Lila sat on the bed with the manuscript open to a dog-eared page.
"All set with Mr. He downstairs."
"Good."
Lila didn't look up. Her finger rested on a sketch.
"I figured out another piece. Look here."
Eren went over. That page showed a bolt cross-section, powder fill layer and outer shell constraint structure labeled beside it, and a few lines smeared by dried blood below.
"Explosive bolts," Lila said. "Lin Ce walked me through them back at the branch."
"Can you make a few? Be good to have on the road."
"Not yet." Lila shook her head. "We're short on materials, and half the writing's unreadable. I'll keep at it."
She stared at the sketch, thumb resting by a bolt number Lin Ce had written, and didn't move for a long while.
"He should've been the one to explain this."
Nobody in the room answered.
Night deepened.
Before bed Mr. He came up once more to go over the route, afraid something might go wrong on the road.
After Mr. He left, Lila still had the manuscript in her hands.
Lamplight pressed her shadow flat against the wall. She turned through the Crystone chapters again and again, dog-earing pages or scratching a light line under a row with her nail. It was fuller than the scraps she'd half-heard at the branch. When Lin Ce had gotten carried away explaining, she'd found it a bother and listened half-understanding. Looking back now, every bit she'd missed felt like a hole torn in the paper.
Nova yawned and leaned in beside her, head tilted, watching.
"Sister Lila—we're on the road tomorrow."
Lila still had her eyes on the page.
Nova waited, then added very quietly:
"If you don't sleep, your head'll hurt tomorrow."
Lila looked up then and saw Nova fighting to keep his eyes open, still stubbornly staying beside her.
"Fine. Sleep."
She closed the manuscript, lashed it with the leather cord, and set it by the pillow, palm resting on the cover a moment longer.
Nova burrowed into the blanket and curled up. Lila tucked him in and lay down beside him.
She closed her eyes but never slept soundly.
Eren lay on his pallet, awake too.
He kept going over the manuscript pages about the shoot.
Train what? How?
He drew his left hand from under the blanket, fished an iron nail from the tool pouch he kept on him, and tried bending it to practice.
He pressed the nail head with his thumb and tried to channel the force through his fingertip into the metal alone.
The pale gray tracery was hard to see in the dark, but he could feel the shoot's tight pulse against bone.
Crack—soft, almost nothing.
The nail broke at the bend. One piece bounced up and hit the floor by the pillow.
Lila woke.
She sat up almost at once. Hand on her short knife, eyes wide, sweeping window, door, stairhead.
"It's me," Eren said.
Lila's grip on the knife didn't loosen right away.
"…What was that?"
"Something fell."
She followed his voice, saw the half nail on the floor, and slowly slid the knife back to her waist.
"Sleep. We're on the road tomorrow."
"Mm."
She lay down again but didn't close her eyes right away. In the dark her voice dropped.
"Don't hurt yourself."
While it was still barely light, the three of them went out through the back door of Mr. He's shop.
Mr. He stood in the alley mouth in an old jacket, hands tucked into his waistband, like a neighbor seeing people off on a long trip.
"Once you're there, feel out how things stand at the gate. Don't tell your business to anyone you don't know."
Lila nodded. "Got it."
"One more thing—if you wouldn't mind," Eren said.
Mr. He looked over.
"We came from Bridge-Pier Village. The folks there might worry." Eren paused half a beat. "Could you find someone reliable to pass word?"
"To who?"
"Auntie Li in Bridge-Pier Village." Eren lifted his head. "Tell her we're safe, but we're still heading south and won't be back for a while—ask her to look after the village houses and fields."
Mr. He agreed. "No problem. I'll have someone pass the word when they're heading that way."
Lila reached over and clapped Mr. He's arm. "Mr. He—when there's news later, have someone send word your way."
Mr. He managed a smile, waved the three of them off, and turned back into the shop.