The Place Beside Him

“You can go with the others,” Kaelen said.

Elora had been holding his spare glove. She stopped with it between them. He had asked for it a moment ago, then looked at her as if he could not remember why she was still there.

“I know,” she said.

“Then go.”

The words were quiet. His hands were burned dark at the palms, and the shaking in them had not stopped. Behind him, the Pyre-Chime hung over the chamber floor, its main bell dull and split with lines of red fading in the metal. Snow sifted through the torn roof and melted on the stone.

Elora set the glove on the workbench. “You’ll need this.”

Kaelen looked at it, then at her. “What’s your name?”

She had answered that question once already. She drew her sleeves over her fingers. “Elora.”

He nodded, keeping the name in his attention with visible effort. Below them, someone coughed until the sound broke into a wet wheeze. Oren was counting the wounded again. Vey had started directing the others toward the stairs.

The survivors were alive. The tower was still standing. Neither fact made the chamber warm.

Kaelen picked up the glove and worked it onto his left hand. The leather caught at his swollen knuckles. He pulled harder, and a stitch gave way.

Elora reached for the cuff. He drew his hand back.

“I can do it,” he said.

She let her hand fall. “All right.”

He forced the glove on by himself. When it was seated, he flexed his fingers and turned toward the bell’s lower frame. A metal brace had slipped out of place during the Cinder-Burst. Kaelen took the short iron lever from its hook and set its end against the catch.

The lever shifted the brace a finger’s width. Then it jammed.

He changed the angle and tried again. The catch scraped. His wrist trembled; the lever slipped and struck the frame with a hard clang. Several people looked up from the stairs.

Kaelen stared at the joint. He pressed his thumb against a shallow notch in the metal, then tried to move the brace by hand. It did not give.

“Hold the lever here,” he said to Elora.

She moved at once. He did not ask her to stay. He only showed her where to brace it, then set both hands against the frame. Together they pushed. The brace slid back into its housing with a rough snap.

Kaelen let out a breath through his nose. He tested the frame once with his palm. The old easing sequence was gone from him; whatever the bell had taken, it had left the work rougher. But he had found another way to secure the brace.