"Here, he's come."
"How looks?"
"Needs a varnish, but not shattered."
They let him inside their grotto, door open only for a second. "Crystal Sir, why shine here?"
"Spire's foundation cracks," the Crystal Sir, as they called his kind, gestured under their feet with two fingers in a pistol. "Find another place."
The people living in the blue grotto exchanged dismayed looks. "Where else go?"
He shrugged. "There are plenty of places. Somewhere nearer the roof, nearer the floor. I'll be gone now."
"Shine, Crystal Sir!" they called as he left. Their grotto closed behind him. He released a pent-up breath, rearranged his scarves, and stepped out toward the edge of the balcony.
Lit from inside the crystal spires and walls, or without from plasma bulbs hanging randomly, their endless home glittered in a thousand directions. The Crystal Sir positioned his scarves behind him and leaped over a thousand-foot expanse, arms grabbing a cable-thin crystal rail and using it to slide down to another level and through a small crowd of people hailing him. The rail's natural curves and spirals brought him lower, shimmering blue translucence warping the images around him. The rail dipped under another balcony then swooped up, robbing him of his momentum, and he dropped off, landing carefully.
He forged through the crowd. He was on a market level now, and did little more than wave at people calling his title. He watched each step carefully, footsteps light, sometimes enabling the crystals in his palms to inspect the integrity. Satisfied, he ran toward a railing-less ledge and let himself drop. The empty chasm of crystal failed to bother him as he whipped out a hand and hung on to another thin crystal rail, passing through a farm of plasma bulbs, his brake hand pressed over his eyes to stop the bulbs from blinding him.
The railing led him deeper and deeper, away from where most lived. Gaining speed, he eventually reached a long, straight passage on the deepest level of the crystal world, eventually slowing as his glove ran along the smooth rail. Just as he was coming to a stop, a smooth area began under him. He went too fast to drop off normal, but stopped himself on the railing at the far end, placing both boots against it.
Aside from the crystal's natural light, there was little to see with. Stepping across the glimmering plain, passing numerous crystal columns at work supporting people kilometers above him, he eventually came to the large building, one of only twenty-five in the entire society not made from crystal. Constructed instead of scarce wood and what little bits of metal could be found from the surface, one of the homes of the Crystal Clan welcomed him.
Releasing another held breath, he removed his scarves, gloves, and boots, and went through the first hall into the common room, warm and lit with a small fire and packed with the others.
"Finished?" Kjell asked.
"All. Only a few argued; I told them it was their choice but they knew what could. The-" He stopped when a young boy ran into the room, arms out for him. "Aye, there's the little gem! Getting too big to lift!"
"Welcome home, Crystal Sir!" the boy said, as the man lifted his near-teenage body up before quickly putting him down. "Look!"
The boy showed off a pair of crystal-running gloves, charmed with the crystals set in his palms and able to sweep him along the rails. "I just finished. Good?"
"They look fine, Dess. You have good style. You'll be out on the low rails tomorrow?"
Dess nodded, mouth parted in a grin. "I've been looking forward for so long. Kjell still says I can't go too fast."
"Kjell's smart. You have to learn the rules before you can break the rules." The Crystal Sir stood and sat across from Kjell as Dess ran out. Finally relieved from the pressure, he let his shoulders slump and rested his head on the table. Kjell put a bowl of hot tuber soup by his hand.
"Mohn," the elderly woman said, wrapped in coats and scarves against the chill. Her right hand rested over the stump of her left.
"It's all coming apart, Kjell," Mohn said, looking up and grimly beginning his soup. "I feel like every day more spires show signs of stress."
"Don't let Dess hear. If he knew his idol thought so poorly of society I couldn't bear to see him. Which one this time?"
"Two," Mohn said, and Kjell leaned back. "C, D-1 and I-9. I-9 is worse, level three or maybe four, but D-1 just shows minor level one. It can be saved. I-9 will need a lot of work to make it safe."
"We'll go out first thing. We've just got done BY-7 a few hours ago. Saved half, at least." Kjell sipped her soup. "Hopefully we can get it back to full strength with a bit of thinking."
Mohn nodded. "Dess' gloves good enough?"
"Better than your first pair," she said. "Once he grows up and learns, he'll be a fine Sir. The-"
"Mohn!" The voice brought him out of his slouch. "Planning on telling me you got back?" The woman stepped over, exhibiting her long legs in tight pants shamelessly. She sat next to him with one knee under her chin. "How's my favorite Sir?"
"Just trying to get a meal in before Dess picks my brain about the low rails," he replied.
"You know I like your smell after you're done on the rails."
"Isn't your husband? Him," Mohn said, purposefully using the choppy vernacular of the people living far above them. "Why not?"
"Spending a bit too much time up there, aren't you?" The woman stood. "Talk to me when you find the rest of your words."
"See," Mohn said, raising a hand in the two-fingered goodbye wave. Once she'd left, he shook his head. "I think the worst day of her life was her wedding. Meant she didn't have an excuse."
"Don't gossip," Kjell said. "Finish up and go on, if Dess doesn't talk to you soon he's fit to burst. The second crew will be coming in soon and I don't want him bothering them as well."
Mohn got up and made his way out of the main room just as the second crew of repair workers entered, stamping the cold from their feet and clapping their hands together, laughing and talking. He entered the long hallways, eventually reaching the room bristling with pre-teen energy. One of the younger trainees fetched Dess, who came barreling out of the back once he heard.
"Listen up now," Mohn said once in a quiet room. "You have your gloves--I hear they're quite good--and you're going out for the first time tomorrow. You aren't invincible."
Dess scowled. "If you make a wrong move the crystal slices you to bits. Your mother and father get your shredded remains in a box. All that, of course, after you slowly bleed to death, painfully. I've seen it." Mohn leaned forward and hesitated, nearly pressing Dess into his chair. "It's one of the most terrible things you could ever see. I don't wish it on my worst enemy." He leaned back, relaxing. "Now. Questions?"
"What's the fastest you've ever gone on a rail?" Dess asked, the horror of the previous scene passing over him. "Were you afraid?"
"I couldn't tell you the speed. I could tell you the rail, but I won't, because I know you'll search it out as soon as you can. It was more than ten years ago. I know it's hard to think of me as anything near your age, but I was still a good deal older than you now. It was nearly straight down." Mohn sighed and crossed a leg over a knee. "There'd been some anger against the Crystal Clan then; people thought we were sabotaging the columns. I was being chased. They thought they could match me on the rails." A big smile stretched on his face. "A rail straight down, a thousand feet long, with extra power from my gloves."
Dess' mouth formed the word "wow."
"Left them picking blue dust out of their hair and spitting chopped-up curses."
"So were you scared?"
"Yes. The low rails are going to teach you to be scared, Dess. That's what they're for."
After an hour of the boy picking every cobwebbed corner of his mind, Mohn left Dess with the other children and went to the entryway to fetch his gloves for a smoothing. He turned to go to his room after grabbing them and found a woman in his way.
"I told you I wanted to talk with you," she said. "Going to just ignore me all night?"
"Go spend time with your husband, En," Mohn said, moving around her.
"Not like that," Enhinger said. "I found something today out on a rail in Quadrant D. I want you to see it."
"It can wait, can't it? I had to tell everybody on CI-9 to start relocating, and I need to put my feet up."
"It can't wait," En said. "If you hear about it later from someone else you'll be angry you didn't see it earlier." Mohn sighed and pulled on his gloves. "You go ahead and get on the rail. I don't mind being behind you."
Mohn rolled his eyes as he draped his scarves around him, pushing open the door to let in the frigid air at the bottom of their subterranean world. He ran and leapt onto the main rail to their D quadrant, speeding himself up by channeling power through the jewel in his palm into the crystal engine in his gloves.
After fifteen minutes of breakneck speed, En sped up behind him and told him where to disembark, taking the chance to put her hand around his bicep. He shook her off and slowed down until he could jump off safely onto the cold stone ground. En landed behind him with just as much grace.
"I was checking out DW-6," she said, indicating the nearby crystal column. "I thought I saw something a bit deeper in but couldn't get a good read, so I went around the back. Don't give me that face, this isn't just an excuse to get you all to myself. That's a bonus, but it isn't why we're out here." She led him around the circumference. "I figured it was just a fracture a little too deep in, or in a strange pattern. Imagine my surprise when-"
"Crystal rot." Mohn crouched and inspected the section of the column stained grey-black. He took off a glove and felt it. "Just this one?"
"I inspected everything in a wide radius," En said, arms crossed against the cold. "This was the only column with any evidence of it."
"It's a pretty small portion," Mohn said. He slipped his glove back on. "First cracks, now this. We're going to be working all night just to make sure it doesn't spread." He looked far over where they stood. "Thankfully this is an out-of-the-way column. Maybe we should just cut its connections."
"Did you ever think you'd see crystal rot?" En asked as Mohn thought. "When was the last time it was spotted . . . a hundred years?"
"More. Times ago."
"There you go with that upper speak again."
"Helps me think. Let's get back to the home. We need to send messages to the surrounding homes and get to work making sure this doesn't spread."
"I'll let Kjell know. You head up and see how many connections this column has."
They split up, and Mohn powered himself into the upper reaches of their society, where it was bright and warm and loud. He made his way back to the column after the rail led him away, and counted how many bridges led to it, how many rails spun off from it. Standing still, silently surveying, he was a strange sight among the people of the upper reaches of society, wrapped in scarves and with crystal-embedded gloves on both hands. Thankfully, it was a column without a high number of connections.
Crystal rot. He would have gladly slid around the homes and shops of most people, but needed to return to the home. He leaped to a far rail as if he was pushing himself up from a chair, latching on and flowing down. A number of teens jumped on behind him, whooping, but he quickly left them behind; they would never go deep.
Alone, glove speeding him along the rail as it dipped and soared around the trunk-like columns, he took in a deep breath and let it out until his lungs were empty. Gripping the rail tighter, he filled his glove with energy and picked up speed. The crystal columns became flashes of lightning, blowing by too fast to notice. The underground air tore through his hair and pulled his scarves out behind him, the rail nearly letting off sparks. If Kjell had seen him she would have torn him out and thrown his gloves into the fireplace. He pressed himself faster.
In just a few minutes he reached the home and slid to a stop. When he entered the home was a whirlwind. "How busy is it?" En asked when she saw him.
"Not very busy. So decided?"
"Crew now, runners to check." The woman glanced over her shoulder. "Dess thinks he'll be allowed to ride with us."
"I'll talk to him."
Mohn pushed through the number of people putting on boots, gloves, and scarves in the entryway, and found the boy in the main room. Dess ran up as soon as the man approached. "No," Mohn said as Dess started talking. "You aren't going with us and that's final."
"I can do it!" Dess said. The main room was packed with people getting ready. "I'd be on the rails tomorrow anyway!"
"And you think you're ready to speed over mile-long drops with just the strength of your hand keeping you safe?" Mohn snatched up Dess' hand and lifted the boy, crushing grip making him squeal. "You're going to be busy just like the rest of us, but not on the rails. If Kjell even knew you wanted to join us you'd be busted back a year so fast you'd probably greet a past self." He dropped Dess, who fell onto his bottom and held his hand to his chest in pain. Mohn bent and hoisted him to his feet. "Wipe those tears away, boy. I need you strong right now, do you understand me?"
Dess nodded, hands to his cheeks. "I don't want to scare you, but I'm not going to lie. Crystal rot is a very bad thing for all of us. We need everybody ready to do what's necessary to keep people safe. No one here has ever dealt with it first hand, so none of us know the right thing to do. Kjell has the most experience so we listen to her. Can you promise me that?" Dess nodded again. "Good. Go get ready."
"The other homes are all mobilizing," Kjell said, standing behind Mohn when he rose. "Everybody who can is going out to check columns. Dess and other trainees are going to warn people away from the column, but they need guardians." Kjell lifted her chin at him. "I know you'd rather be on the rails but they trust you up there. If you show up and order everyone out, they're more likely to obey. Plus, Dess will feel better around you."
"Agreed. Now?"
"In a minute. We're bringing the barge around once the place clears out a little bit."
After the work crews and rail-runners had dispersed, Mohn and another runner named Royah watched Dess and the other teens load into a car attached to one of the rails. Once the doors were closed, Royah nodded to Mohn, who leaped ahead of the barge. The barge started after him, and Royah jumped on behind. Soon the rail angled upward, beginning the slow climb to the upper reaches of the columns.
After several minutes, Mohn knew the rail would soon level off, so he pumped energy into his glove, outstripping the barge in an instant. He hit the peak of the rise and flew over it, arms out to his sides and legs tucked under him, rising and falling in an arc, free from the rail. As he fell, he hooked his left hand around the rail and brought himself to a slower pace as the barge came up behind. In another minute the barge was unloading on a crystal platform. Royah nudged him with an elbow. "Even now you have to be a showoff?"
"A bit of excitement before we get to work," Mohn said, looking at the teenagers, all regarding him with wide eyes and smiles. "It'll be on foot until we're done."
"All right kids, after us," Royah said. He looked at Mohn from the corner of his eye. "What are the crews up to?"
"Everything and anything they can to stop the rot from spreading, even if it means destroying the base of the column and replacing it with a man-made one. If we're lucky the rot is contained or even removed."
"And aren't?" Royah asked.
Mohn stopped and spun, facing the younger members of the crystal clan behind him. "Tell all, out. All. Now. No wait, no gather, no argue." He pointed at the column. "Nobody in. Any problems us. Go."
"What's on?" a man asked. "What's here?"
"Crystal rot was found on the base of this column," Royah explained. The man grimaced, forced to mentally remove words from the sentence to make it understandable.
"Crystal rot what?"
Mohn sighed and patted the man's shoulder with two fingers. "Can't you. Dangerous."
"My family's in!"
"They'll be leaving soon," Royah said. Mohn translated.
"Tell," Mohn added. "No in." He sighed again and rubbed his eyes. It felt very late. "Find away."
The man's face fell, and looked past Mohn to the column. He dropped his eyes to the floor and backed away, arms crossed and face worried.
Before long a crowd gathered around the edge of the near columns. Officials from other branches helped Mohn and the children keep people away, but there were still a great number remaining on the column. Mohn entered to convince them to leave, and spent the next hours cajoling, threatening, and pleading the people who called the column their home to find somewhere else, at least until the work was done.
At one point he heard the scrape of a glove riding a rail, and turned to find a young Crystal Madam from another home landing, eyes set on him. "Figured you, Mohn," she said, plating fists on her hips. "True?"
"True. Teams on." He relaxed his shoulders. "Has any else been found."
"Not yet," she said. "The teams from my home are fifty percent looking for rot and fifty percent planning on what to do to you if you're lying about the rot."
"It's no lie. There isn't a great deal and Kjell was confident they could contain it, but it's there."
"If Brakeless feels good about it, we don't have much to worry about, do we?" The woman turned back toward the rail she had arrived on. "You look tired, Mohn. Long day?"
"En's being serious."
"Maybe there's more to worry about than I thought. Look, why don't you take a sit down. I can help get people out of here."
"Thank you Celia, but no." Mohn adjusted his scarves. "We might not have a lot of time."
"We'd-" Celia perked her ear up, turning around again. Mohn heard the sounds of an angry crowd behind her. They both ran, going around the circumference of the column until they encountered a large group of people. Dess and two other teens from Mohn's home were at the center, jostled by the people around them.
"Now!" Mohn shouted. "Away!"
"Mohn!" Dess shouted. "They won't leave!"
"Who's to tell us leave?" a big man shouted, face red. "Crystal rot! Phah!"
"I!" Mohn roared. "Stay dangerous, leave safe!" He pushed through the crowd at the big man. "Hands away, friend, or the crystal won't be the only thing rotting."
The big man took a step back, confused by the full speech and threat he felt rather than heard. Then, hands doubling into fists, he gritted his teeth. The crowd moved away, and Celia shouted for people to make for the next column. Dess and the other teens ran off the way Mohn had come.
Mohn stripped off his gloves. "Your safety!" he said. "Like the crystal?" He channeled power into the gems set in his palms and they glowed bright blue; the energy had nowhere to go.
"Phah! Weaker!" The man took a step forward and the column vibrated. "What was that?"
"Go! Now!" Mohn said, and the man didn't argue as a deep crack, resonating up from the base to the stone roof over them, tolled through the subterranean society and turned Mohn's blood cold. The floor began to shift under his feet.
Screams shot up. The man Mohn had been about to fight had his arms out to his sides to keep from tipping over, running for the nearest column. Another crack, louder, nearly knocked Mohn over. He saw Dess leading a trail of people from around the column's curve, mouth a thin, bloodless line. Mohn ran toward them and urged greater speed. People pushed others out of the way to escape. Mohn helped a woman up and heard her frantically ask after her daughter's family, explaining where they lived. Dess grabbed her hand and pulled her forward, shooting a worried glance at Mohn as he did so. Mohn ran for the edge of the shaking column's platform and wrapped his brake hand around a rail, immediately leaping off its angled path and onto a lower platform.
The platform shifted under him, and the slick crystal floor sent his legs flying out. He got up, and as he ran he pulled his gloves back on. Shards rained from above, gouging the column, platform and everything else. It felt like he was running on sand. Cracks formed under him.
"Call!" he shouted. "Call for help!" He saw no one. He heard nothing but a thousand stones grinding against each other. His vision vibrated, and he felt the column moving more. He searched for anything with colors other than light blue.
Finally he found someone. A woman couched in a doorway and shaking, tears caught on her cheeks. Mohn ran forward and pulled her up, double checking his gloves. He tried to picture the fastest route but stopped when another crack freed the column from its earthy bonds. Mohn felt the column begin to slide first, and so the woman nearly fell when he pulled her forward. Quickly the floor angled under them, and he lost his footing, sliding toward empty air. Only a crystal railing stopped them. The woman shrieked. "Tight," Mohn said to her, and she wrapped her arms around his chest. "Trust," he said, gripping the railing with his free hand. He nodded toward a rail below them. "Tighter." The woman saw what he meant to do and nearly crushed the breath out of him. She closed her eyes as the column began tipping, a slow, unstoppable felling.
Mohn stepped off the railing when the time was right; the woman's scream was torn away.
His hand wrapped around the rail and his arm almost ripped out of his shoulder. He glanced up and measured the column's fall. He squeezed more energy into his palm and sped up. The rail angled him upward, directly into the column's path.
He took a breath and concentrated--mentally forced every drop of energy he could into the gem set in his palm, and the air tore at his scarves. His hand burned. He opened his eyes and saw the column still bearing down. He wasn't going fast enough, and there was only one way to go faster.
He flipped the woman to his other side, switching hands. His brake hand grabbed the rail and began to slow him. "Remove the glove!" he shouted, shocking the woman into action. She took the glove from his right hand, exposing the glowing gem in the center of his hand. He switched her back, grabbed the rail with his bare hand, and let the breath out. He started channeling again; lightning arced along the rail as their speed tripled from the undiluted force numbing his hand. He lost a scarf, and the speed brought them out of the column's path. Mohn closed his eyes to the searing pain. The column shattered the rail behind them and fell, smashing through rails and bridges and coming to rest along the ground a mile below, the sound of its death filling everyone's ears.
The rail brought him and his charge to a small alcove some distance away from the downed column; Mohn dropped off and fell to the floor as soon as he could. The woman rolled away.
The blue gem glimmered, crackling, in the center of a mass of blood and bone on his gloveless hand. He gripped the hand to his chest in a foolish attempt to make the pain pass, leaving smears of blood on his clothes and scarves. The woman said something to him, but he couldn't hear. The tinkling sound of falling crystal rose through the immense cavern, like murmurations to the ears.
Through the pain he realized a number of people had gathered; one of them pried his hand away from his chest. Others placed him under their arms and got him to his feet, he felt the sensation of falling, and saw the top of his toes skating off the crystal floor.
"You should have seen it, Mohn!" Dess said, hours later in their home. "I'd never seen anyone go so fast!"
"He didn't need to see it," Kjell said. "Please, Dess, he needs his rest, and you need to get to sleep. Tell the other trainees to sleep in after your work tonight."
Dess exited in his cheerily noisy way, leaving Mohn in his bed and a few adults standing around him.
After the boy's sound had receded down the hallway, Mohn looked at Kjell. "How many?"
The woman waited until somebody had closed the door. "At least a hundred. We went as fast as we could--and we got thousands of people out--but not fast enough. Dozens more where injured when it fell. Falling crystal, earthquakes." She sat in the chair next to the bed. "We lost three workers at the base, and four trainees that couldn't get off soon enough."
"Dess seems unfazed by all of this," Mohn noted.
"Somebody needs to be cheerful. He got to act the hero and see his hero act one."
Mohn looked at his heavily-bandaged hand. The pain was still enough to make him scream; he squeezed the bedsheets with his other hand. En sat next to him with her arms around his shoulders, and for once he didn't have the energy to shake her off.
Beryl, En's husband, seemed not to notice. "You haven't even been told the worst news."
"More crystal rot."
"I guess no one needed to. Yes, more's been found. A few columns here, a few columns there."
"Are they as deep as ours?"
"Some, we think." Beryl hung his head and rubbed his hands together. "We couldn't tell how bad it was. None of us had seen it before. We had no idea it had already spread to the center."
"It isn't your fault, Beryl," Kjell said, laying her hand on the man's forearm.
Mohn prodded En and nodded toward Beryl. The woman rose and went to her husband, putting her arms around his shoulders from behind and pecking his cheek with a kiss.
"There's no time to sulk," Kjell said, voice topping the emotions. "We're all going to be much busier in the next few days. Work crews will assist any way they can to refurbish columns, runners will take messages, and trainees will make sure people keep away from affected columns. I won't hear any arguing; there's plenty of space to spread out. We're taking up less than a tenth of the buildings built into the columns." She sighed, and laid her right hand over the stump of her left. "We have some strong medicine on the way for you, Mohn. One of the doctors from Center Home will come over tomorrow to see how bad the damage is."
He tried to flex his fingers and felt ripples of pain dance across his body. "You won't be riding the rails for a long time..." Kjell almost added more, then stood. "We'll let you get some rest."
"En, wait," Mohn said. Everyone else excited, and he watched as the woman blew a kiss at her husband.
"What is it, Mohn?" she purred, sitting in the chair Kjell had vacated. She crossed her legs.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" He locked her gaze. "If you had told Kjell, lives might have been saved. Instead you waited until I returned. We might have been able to get it fixed before too late."
"I didn't know what I was looking at," the woman said. She crossed her arms and leaned back. "I needed to make sure."
"You seemed sure enough when you showed me."
"You think I could tell how bad it was? Even you said it was just a small area. It went deeper than either of us thought."
He watched her squirm under his gaze. Finally, she rose and took a few steps away. She gave him a pouting face. When he didn't respond her expression melted away.
"I know what you're going to say." She turned and regarded him. "You're going to say I should have been better, smarter. Not everyone is a hero, Mohn. Some of us are just people. And then you'll say it wasn't really my fault, and I shouldn't blame myself. I know you wouldn't, because you're a hero. You're a hero to Dess, and to that woman you saved, and everyone who saw you save her. I'm not a hero, Mohn."
She left him to his pain.
"I was thinking of saving a woman's life," Mohn answered the doctor. "Surely you think my hand is worth her life, and mine?"
"You're a smart man, I hear," the doctor said, draining the blood from Mohn's hand. "I like to think you could have found a better way."
"There was no time for thought."
"How's the pain?"
"Getting better." The topical medicine the doctor had brought, stronger stuff, was numbing him to the wrist. The burden of pain was lifting. "How long will it last?"
"A few hours. Just apply more once it wears off." The doctor gently teased back folds of skin, inspecting the gruesome wound. "Looks like the bones weren't damaged much. More than can be said about the skin and muscle. Can you still channel energy?"
"I haven't tried."
"Go ahead."
Forcing himself to feel his dead hand, Mohn pushed energy through the gem in his right palm. Even with the medicine dulling his senses, it felt like his hand had been placed into a fire. The energy had nowhere to go and he started writhing. The doctor grabbed his arm and placed a crystal against his ruined palm, sucking the energy out. Mohn's hand became numb once more.
The doctor had to repeat himself before Mohn even realized he was speaking. "I said, as much as it might hurt, the fact you can still channel is good news. It's likely we'll be forced to reconstruct your hand if you ever want to ride the rails again, but it won't be for a while. There's a chance it could heal itself, but it would take months at least."
"Now, of all times," Mohn said.
"I know. These things tend to happen as such. Even if you can't be out in the field, I'm sure there are plenty who would ask you to step into a teaching role. My son even knows your name. Plus, I'm sure there are a few who would find the coincidence of you missing a right hand and Kjell missing a left ticklish."
Mohn shot the doctor a look.
"Not everyone, of course." He began to pack his things. "Unless you have any questions, I'd better get back. Central Home is in a frenzy thanks to yesterday." The doctor listened to the general pandemonium outside Mohn's room. "I'm sure you understand. I'll be off."
He opened the door to the hallway, finding Dess standing just outside. Mohn waved him in as the doctor excused himself. "How are you?" the boy asked.
"I feel all right," Mohn said, ignoring the lingering burn from channeling into the gem on his rewrapped hand. "Things could be worse."
"I'm glad you're all right." Dess sat on the chair beside Mohn's bed and swung his feet. "Kjell says I can't go on the low rails yet."
"We need everybody we can to help with the rot."
"But I've waited so long!"
"Yes." Mohn lifted his bandaged hand, turning it under the guise of inspecting it, so Dess could see all the damage. "The waiting is the worst part." He put his left hand on Dess' shoulder. "Here's a promise, boy. Unless our world crumbles beneath us, once this is all over I'll give you as many lessons as you want. You'll be the greatest rail-rider ever."
"I'd never be able to beat you!"
Mohn waggled his hand; Dess tried not to look at it. "Skills fade. Columns rot. Our world is ever-changing. You know how the books say we once lived above-ground? We didn't even know all these crystal columns were here."
"Yeah."
"Can you imagine someone living up with the sun being told not only was there an endless grove of homes and rails, but we would all be living there one day?"
"I guess it must have been weird."
"Surely. Maybe one day we'll be back in the sun."
"Very poetic of you, Mohn," Kjell said from the doorway, hands linked behind her back. "Dess, would you excuse us?"
"Yes ma'am," Dess said, exiting into the hall. Kjell took his place on the chair. "The doctor told me everything. I know you want to help, but you need to recuperate."
In response, Mohn swung the covers from his legs and put his feet on the ground, swaying slightly. "Say that again and I can't be held responsible for what I do." Kjell smiled. "I can help somehow. There's no time for me to lie around."
"Good. What you did yesterday will have spread far and wide by now, and we can use that to convince people certain columns aren't safe. Who would argue?" She leaned forward, putting her remaining hand on his knee. "Are you sure you can do this?"
"I'll need someone with me to help with bandages. You might as well saddle me with Dess; I can see you want to anyway."
"Can I help it if you know just how to handle him? Get ready and meet me in the common room, there are plenty of columns to clear out."
After slowly readying himself, pain breaking through the numbing agent now and again, Mohn stood staring at the brake glove normally on his left hand. Using his teeth, he pulled it on with some difficulty.
He, Kjell, and Dess met in the common room, and the woman explained where they were to go. "Just get them out. Your columns aren't in great danger, but they should be gone by day's end. Make sure they know which ones to avoid, and don't take no for an answer."
"Don't take no for an answer, she says." Dess scoffed, as they rode up one of the rails in a barge. "Who would say no to you?"
The slow pace ground on Mohn. Instead of the underground air pulling his scarves behind him, and the crystal rail vibrating as he sped along, he listened to the machinery of the barge slowly hoist him toward the top of the columns. He cradled his right hand on his lap, already feeling the pain in greater amounts. Dess continued.
"Do you think other columns are as bad as the one that fell yesterday? Now that everyone is working on them, I hope none will fall. Is anyone able to do anything with the connections that were broken when the column fell? Can they be bridged?" He stopped moving and looked at Mohn. "Does anybody know how to build the crystal?"
"No." Mohn looked out the window the columns, in their endless uniform rows, passed by. "Some people are trying to figure out how, but nothing has been found yet. How hard can it be, really? Somebody learned how--there's no way homes and shops and rails developed naturally." He sighed. "If all else fails, everyone comes down to live with us at the bottom."
Dess looked worried. "Is the rot that bad?"
"Hopefully not. The ground crews are trained to do everything they can to stop it, even if they haven't had a need to for a long time. But...it is dangerous. We let it go the tiniest bit, and it brought down an entire column." Mohn recalled the endless sound of the column laying itself on the ground, drums and bells ringing together. "There are hundreds of columns we don't even use. Our society is in no danger of collapse."
"You'd save everybody, right Mohn?" Dess asked with a sly grin.
"I lost a hand saving one person," Mohn said. "Being a hero is fine, but it's better to have no need. That's why we're getting everyone away right now."
Dess continued with his youthful exuberance until the barge reached the top level. Mohn led Dess through the busy paths, stopped and hailed as a hero more than once. Through it all, the pain in his hand continued to grow. Once he passed by a group, and bumped the hand against a sudden-moving elbow. The pain shot up to his shoulder and made him woozy, forcing him to concentrate on forcing the pain back.
As he sat, he looked up at Dess' worried face, then realized the boy wore his runner gloves. "Why do you have those?"
Dess tried to hide the gloves. "I'm just getting used to wearing them, I promise."
The first column they were tasked to clear out was full of occupied living quarters. They began at the top, knocking on doors and telling everyone they saw to find another place by evening. No one was thrilled by the news, but no one argued. More than a few eyes locked onto Mohn's bandaged hand, recognizing him as the one who had outrun the falling column the day before. Once they had canvassed the top two levels, they went all the way to the bottom of the living quarters, a trek taking them more than an hour. Mohn's hand felt worse with every step, but he ignored it. At the lowest level of the column they did the same as the top, notifying everybody they could. As Mohn planned, word began to trickle toward the center levels from both directions, but he and Dess still made sure to tell everyone they could, slowly climbing the column.
They stopped when Dess complained of sore feet, and Mohn got him to help unwrap his hand. The boy gingerly unraveled the strips of cloth, making faces every time another facet of the wound was revealed.
"It stinks," Dess said, holding a hand over his mouth.
"It doesn't feel that good either." Mohn breathed in and out steadily, trying not to let the pain overwhelm him. "The medicine, quickly."
Dess spread the medicine on and around the wound with none of the steadiness the doctor possessed, but Mohn hadn't expected it. Still, the medicine dulled the pain to a nearly-unnoticeable amount. He rewrapped the hand and told Dess they had to keep going.
Hours later they had told everybody they could on the column, so they moved on to the next one said to have rot. The plasma bulbs were dimming around them as they moved, simulating a setting sun no one had seen in generations and heralding in a sleepier populace. Dess had slept late after the last day's excitement, but Mohn felt himself running out of steam. The next column was thankfully less-populated.
A number of people were unhappy to be roused from sleep by someone telling them they had to leave, but no one had the guts to argue with Mohn. A few tried to push Dess away, but to the boy's credit he stood his ground, and usually pointed out Mohn a short distance away. The column filled with activity as people began funneling out, dragging tired children.
After everyone had begun to exit, Mohn leaned against a railing to catch his breath. Dess, next to him and looking just as energetic as before, turned and looked out over the cavern. "Mohn..."
Mohn looked. He saw the telltale sparks of runners, all converging toward a specific column. "Come," Mohn said, and the boy followed him through the evacuating citizens. They picked up their speed once they were free of the crowd, Mohn only slowing so Dess would not be left behind.
More and more rails sang as they dropped runners onto the busy column. Mohn glanced over the edge of the path they ran along, but the bottom was far too deep for him to see anything. He so wished to leap onto the rail running alongside him; the pain in his hand kept him from jumping to his death.
A minute later he heard someone approach on the same rail. "Mohn!" he heard En yell before he turned. "That column's coming down sooner or later, get over there!" She came alongside him, using her brake hand to keep his speed. "Dess will have to catch up--there's a hospital!"
"Don't go onto the column," Mohn told Dess as En rode away. "It won't be safe for you."
"Or you!"
"I know how to handle myself. Direct people. Don't let anyone push you around. Trust me?"
Dess screwed up his face, but nodded. Mohn burst away without another word, his speed a poor facsimile to riding the rails. His hand mixed numb weight and sudden sparks of pain as he pumped his arms, watching the column begin to shed people. A hospital would be crowded, and spread among a number of levels. He picked up his speed. As he got closer, he thought he could hear a hum, only realizing the column itself made it when he stepped onto the bridge leading to it. It vibrated and sent the feeling into his teeth.
Beyond the entrance to the hospital, Mohn saw hundreds of bodies. He hurried forward, panting, and quickly put his shoulder under a patient's arm, helping her out. Her face was pale, and his hand stung when he pressed it against her body to keep her standing. As he exited the crystal lobby, he found more rail-runners, from homes all over the cavern, leading patients away in a chain. Mohn's cargo was taken from him, and he turned back inside, spotting dozens more needing help. More than one person spotted the bulky bandage on his hand, and pieced together the clues. Some tried to talk to him about his actions the day before, but he unceremoniously dumped them off to someone else. Mohn spent enough energy ignoring the pain in his hand; trivial blather failed to reach him.
En flagged him down at one point, telling him the levels under the lobby had barely begun to evacuate; he joined her and a group of others down the steps and into the calm blue of the hospital's basement. She worked harder than he had ever seen, never stopping her smooth motions unless there was nowhere else to go. She forged through the crowd with grim determination, lips pressed together and eyes narrow. She barely afforded him a glance.
The plasma globes flickered; the column's vibration picked up in volume. Before anybody else could respond, Mohn shouted over the silence. "Everyone must stay calm! Calm! Toward exits, no shove!" He moved forward to help someone with a patient and struck his hand on a door frame. The pain dropped him to his feet, and through the haze he realized it had been hours since Dess had helped him apply medicine. Snarling, unheard in the commotion and ambient sound of the column, he pushed himself to his feet.
He put the patient's free arm around his shoulders, trying not to succumb to dizziness. He recognized a face in the crowd. "Royah!" he shouted, catching the runner's attention. The man came close. "What's going on down there?"
"They're doing everything they can to give us more time, but..." he shook his head. "Quickly, now, quickly. Your hand?"
"It's no bother," Mohn said. "Go, help someone else." He lugged the patient up the stairs, entire body feeling the pressure and unease of the floor dancing under his feet. The blue flights of stairs turned hypnotic, and he almost moved past the lobby without noticing. In the process of handing the patient to someone else, the patient grabbed his bandaged hand for support. Though he removed it immediately, the pain brought Mohn to his knees once more.
Dess was at his side in an instant, helping him up. The boy maneuvered him away from the chaos, finding a quiet corner to let him rest. He started to unwrap Mohn's bandage, but Mohn pushed him away. "Go help get patients out of there. I just need a moment to myself."
Dess jumped up and ran inside, small form winding through the bigger bodies. Mohn breathed, trying not to focus on the pain, and let it dissipate. The column's shaking picked up, then sank down again. He got to his feet, knees shaking and hand a fountain of agony. He took a spot near the end of the line, directing people toward paths to escape the column. Each person away from the danger afforded him a breath of hope.
As the crowd of exiting people thinned, he moved inside the lobby again to help those unable to move under their own power. He found the upper levels nearly empty, but the lower ones still disgorging weak or disabled people at steady rates. At one point, he put a hand on En's shoulder as she passed by. The corners of her weary mouth turned up when she saw him, and she soon disappeared down the steps again.
He helped a man with a cast on his leg, and his eyes widened when he saw the area outside the hospital being emptied, everyone in sight making for the safety of neighboring columns. "Speed," he told the man, and they hobbled toward the closest path. Halfway there, the column stopped vibrating. A moment of hope ended when it shifted under their feet, and Mohn remembered the feeling just a day before, a minute before the column fell. He pulled, aware his options were fewer then they had been then.
"Focus," he whispered to the man, and they made each step mindfully, moving as fast as they could. The column shuddered once more, and Mohn found himself trying to keep from panicking. The man's breath came ragged, catching in his throat as the column shifted.
Ahead, beckoning them forward, a large group stood beyond the end of a bridge spanning the column they were trying to escape and its neighbor. Work crews from crystal homes stood ready to cut away the bridge so the falling column did as little damage as possible. A few people rushed forward to take the patient from Mohn, and to help Mohn as well. Once past a certain point, the work crews began hacking at the bridge. Crystal fell in shimmering waves from above them as the column shifted again.
Celia and Royah appeared to prop Mohn up. Mohn's hand burned, and he imagined the pain would engulf his entire arm. Royah noticed the pain and found a place for him to sit. "Is everyone out?" Mohn managed to say.
"Not everyone, no." Royah avoided Mohn's gaze.
The shattering sound of bridge being cut away ended, and a tremor jostled the nearly-empty column. It rotated on its weak base, and seemed to sway.
Gasps and screams rang out from everyone when it finally failed, slowly tipping. The shouts changed--people pointed and yelled--Mohn stood. A woman's form was seen in the open area outside the hospital. He pushed to the front of the crowd, and when En saw him, she blew him a kiss, standing tall as the column dropped out from under her.
Mohn reached as if to scoop her up.
A form rushed past him, and he put his damaged hand out too slowly. Dess, gloves charged with energy, tumbled down into the bottomless cavern toward the falling woman. Scream caught in his throat, Mohn watched the boy collide with En and bounce off the side of the column, disappearing into the low darkness.
Pain forgotten, Mohn saw the blue energy from Dess' gloves slowly fade away. At the edge of the cut bridge he crouched, gloved brake hand shimmering as he unconsciously pumped it full of power. His heart broke as the column followed the two down and sent the drums and bells of death through the cavern again, signaling another broken part of life.
As the sound of the column's falling died, the screams rose anew. Mohn looked up and found a long crystal shard spinning toward him and the hundreds of others around him, poised to shear through their platform.
As everyone else bowed he stood, raising his left hand. He released his pent-up breath, and laid his hand on the shard's surface, imagining himself putting the same hand on Dess' shoulder, promising him lessons should the world not crumble underneath them.
The shard dropped over the edge of the platform, missing by inches and ringing in a crystal dirge until it shattered at the bottom.
"How looks?"
"Needs a varnish, but not shattered."
They let him inside their grotto, door open only for a second. "Crystal Sir, why shine here?"
"Spire's foundation cracks," the Crystal Sir, as they called his kind, gestured under their feet with two fingers in a pistol. "Find another place."
The people living in the blue grotto exchanged dismayed looks. "Where else go?"
He shrugged. "There are plenty of places. Somewhere nearer the roof, nearer the floor. I'll be gone now."
"Shine, Crystal Sir!" they called as he left. Their grotto closed behind him. He released a pent-up breath, rearranged his scarves, and stepped out toward the edge of the balcony.
Lit from inside the crystal spires and walls, or without from plasma bulbs hanging randomly, their endless home glittered in a thousand directions. The Crystal Sir positioned his scarves behind him and leaped over a thousand-foot expanse, arms grabbing a cable-thin crystal rail and using it to slide down to another level and through a small crowd of people hailing him. The rail's natural curves and spirals brought him lower, shimmering blue translucence warping the images around him. The rail dipped under another balcony then swooped up, robbing him of his momentum, and he dropped off, landing carefully.
He forged through the crowd. He was on a market level now, and did little more than wave at people calling his title. He watched each step carefully, footsteps light, sometimes enabling the crystals in his palms to inspect the integrity. Satisfied, he ran toward a railing-less ledge and let himself drop. The empty chasm of crystal failed to bother him as he whipped out a hand and hung on to another thin crystal rail, passing through a farm of plasma bulbs, his brake hand pressed over his eyes to stop the bulbs from blinding him.
The railing led him deeper and deeper, away from where most lived. Gaining speed, he eventually reached a long, straight passage on the deepest level of the crystal world, eventually slowing as his glove ran along the smooth rail. Just as he was coming to a stop, a smooth area began under him. He went too fast to drop off normal, but stopped himself on the railing at the far end, placing both boots against it.
Aside from the crystal's natural light, there was little to see with. Stepping across the glimmering plain, passing numerous crystal columns at work supporting people kilometers above him, he eventually came to the large building, one of only twenty-five in the entire society not made from crystal. Constructed instead of scarce wood and what little bits of metal could be found from the surface, one of the homes of the Crystal Clan welcomed him.
Releasing another held breath, he removed his scarves, gloves, and boots, and went through the first hall into the common room, warm and lit with a small fire and packed with the others.
"Finished?" Kjell asked.
"All. Only a few argued; I told them it was their choice but they knew what could. The-" He stopped when a young boy ran into the room, arms out for him. "Aye, there's the little gem! Getting too big to lift!"
"Welcome home, Crystal Sir!" the boy said, as the man lifted his near-teenage body up before quickly putting him down. "Look!"
The boy showed off a pair of crystal-running gloves, charmed with the crystals set in his palms and able to sweep him along the rails. "I just finished. Good?"
"They look fine, Dess. You have good style. You'll be out on the low rails tomorrow?"
Dess nodded, mouth parted in a grin. "I've been looking forward for so long. Kjell still says I can't go too fast."
"Kjell's smart. You have to learn the rules before you can break the rules." The Crystal Sir stood and sat across from Kjell as Dess ran out. Finally relieved from the pressure, he let his shoulders slump and rested his head on the table. Kjell put a bowl of hot tuber soup by his hand.
"Mohn," the elderly woman said, wrapped in coats and scarves against the chill. Her right hand rested over the stump of her left.
"It's all coming apart, Kjell," Mohn said, looking up and grimly beginning his soup. "I feel like every day more spires show signs of stress."
"Don't let Dess hear. If he knew his idol thought so poorly of society I couldn't bear to see him. Which one this time?"
"Two," Mohn said, and Kjell leaned back. "C, D-1 and I-9. I-9 is worse, level three or maybe four, but D-1 just shows minor level one. It can be saved. I-9 will need a lot of work to make it safe."
"We'll go out first thing. We've just got done BY-7 a few hours ago. Saved half, at least." Kjell sipped her soup. "Hopefully we can get it back to full strength with a bit of thinking."
Mohn nodded. "Dess' gloves good enough?"
"Better than your first pair," she said. "Once he grows up and learns, he'll be a fine Sir. The-"
"Mohn!" The voice brought him out of his slouch. "Planning on telling me you got back?" The woman stepped over, exhibiting her long legs in tight pants shamelessly. She sat next to him with one knee under her chin. "How's my favorite Sir?"
"Just trying to get a meal in before Dess picks my brain about the low rails," he replied.
"You know I like your smell after you're done on the rails."
"Isn't your husband? Him," Mohn said, purposefully using the choppy vernacular of the people living far above them. "Why not?"
"Spending a bit too much time up there, aren't you?" The woman stood. "Talk to me when you find the rest of your words."
"See," Mohn said, raising a hand in the two-fingered goodbye wave. Once she'd left, he shook his head. "I think the worst day of her life was her wedding. Meant she didn't have an excuse."
"Don't gossip," Kjell said. "Finish up and go on, if Dess doesn't talk to you soon he's fit to burst. The second crew will be coming in soon and I don't want him bothering them as well."
Mohn got up and made his way out of the main room just as the second crew of repair workers entered, stamping the cold from their feet and clapping their hands together, laughing and talking. He entered the long hallways, eventually reaching the room bristling with pre-teen energy. One of the younger trainees fetched Dess, who came barreling out of the back once he heard.
"Listen up now," Mohn said once in a quiet room. "You have your gloves--I hear they're quite good--and you're going out for the first time tomorrow. You aren't invincible."
Dess scowled. "If you make a wrong move the crystal slices you to bits. Your mother and father get your shredded remains in a box. All that, of course, after you slowly bleed to death, painfully. I've seen it." Mohn leaned forward and hesitated, nearly pressing Dess into his chair. "It's one of the most terrible things you could ever see. I don't wish it on my worst enemy." He leaned back, relaxing. "Now. Questions?"
"What's the fastest you've ever gone on a rail?" Dess asked, the horror of the previous scene passing over him. "Were you afraid?"
"I couldn't tell you the speed. I could tell you the rail, but I won't, because I know you'll search it out as soon as you can. It was more than ten years ago. I know it's hard to think of me as anything near your age, but I was still a good deal older than you now. It was nearly straight down." Mohn sighed and crossed a leg over a knee. "There'd been some anger against the Crystal Clan then; people thought we were sabotaging the columns. I was being chased. They thought they could match me on the rails." A big smile stretched on his face. "A rail straight down, a thousand feet long, with extra power from my gloves."
Dess' mouth formed the word "wow."
"Left them picking blue dust out of their hair and spitting chopped-up curses."
"So were you scared?"
"Yes. The low rails are going to teach you to be scared, Dess. That's what they're for."
After an hour of the boy picking every cobwebbed corner of his mind, Mohn left Dess with the other children and went to the entryway to fetch his gloves for a smoothing. He turned to go to his room after grabbing them and found a woman in his way.
"I told you I wanted to talk with you," she said. "Going to just ignore me all night?"
"Go spend time with your husband, En," Mohn said, moving around her.
"Not like that," Enhinger said. "I found something today out on a rail in Quadrant D. I want you to see it."
"It can wait, can't it? I had to tell everybody on CI-9 to start relocating, and I need to put my feet up."
"It can't wait," En said. "If you hear about it later from someone else you'll be angry you didn't see it earlier." Mohn sighed and pulled on his gloves. "You go ahead and get on the rail. I don't mind being behind you."
Mohn rolled his eyes as he draped his scarves around him, pushing open the door to let in the frigid air at the bottom of their subterranean world. He ran and leapt onto the main rail to their D quadrant, speeding himself up by channeling power through the jewel in his palm into the crystal engine in his gloves.
After fifteen minutes of breakneck speed, En sped up behind him and told him where to disembark, taking the chance to put her hand around his bicep. He shook her off and slowed down until he could jump off safely onto the cold stone ground. En landed behind him with just as much grace.
"I was checking out DW-6," she said, indicating the nearby crystal column. "I thought I saw something a bit deeper in but couldn't get a good read, so I went around the back. Don't give me that face, this isn't just an excuse to get you all to myself. That's a bonus, but it isn't why we're out here." She led him around the circumference. "I figured it was just a fracture a little too deep in, or in a strange pattern. Imagine my surprise when-"
"Crystal rot." Mohn crouched and inspected the section of the column stained grey-black. He took off a glove and felt it. "Just this one?"
"I inspected everything in a wide radius," En said, arms crossed against the cold. "This was the only column with any evidence of it."
"It's a pretty small portion," Mohn said. He slipped his glove back on. "First cracks, now this. We're going to be working all night just to make sure it doesn't spread." He looked far over where they stood. "Thankfully this is an out-of-the-way column. Maybe we should just cut its connections."
"Did you ever think you'd see crystal rot?" En asked as Mohn thought. "When was the last time it was spotted . . . a hundred years?"
"More. Times ago."
"There you go with that upper speak again."
"Helps me think. Let's get back to the home. We need to send messages to the surrounding homes and get to work making sure this doesn't spread."
"I'll let Kjell know. You head up and see how many connections this column has."
They split up, and Mohn powered himself into the upper reaches of their society, where it was bright and warm and loud. He made his way back to the column after the rail led him away, and counted how many bridges led to it, how many rails spun off from it. Standing still, silently surveying, he was a strange sight among the people of the upper reaches of society, wrapped in scarves and with crystal-embedded gloves on both hands. Thankfully, it was a column without a high number of connections.
Crystal rot. He would have gladly slid around the homes and shops of most people, but needed to return to the home. He leaped to a far rail as if he was pushing himself up from a chair, latching on and flowing down. A number of teens jumped on behind him, whooping, but he quickly left them behind; they would never go deep.
Alone, glove speeding him along the rail as it dipped and soared around the trunk-like columns, he took in a deep breath and let it out until his lungs were empty. Gripping the rail tighter, he filled his glove with energy and picked up speed. The crystal columns became flashes of lightning, blowing by too fast to notice. The underground air tore through his hair and pulled his scarves out behind him, the rail nearly letting off sparks. If Kjell had seen him she would have torn him out and thrown his gloves into the fireplace. He pressed himself faster.
In just a few minutes he reached the home and slid to a stop. When he entered the home was a whirlwind. "How busy is it?" En asked when she saw him.
"Not very busy. So decided?"
"Crew now, runners to check." The woman glanced over her shoulder. "Dess thinks he'll be allowed to ride with us."
"I'll talk to him."
Mohn pushed through the number of people putting on boots, gloves, and scarves in the entryway, and found the boy in the main room. Dess ran up as soon as the man approached. "No," Mohn said as Dess started talking. "You aren't going with us and that's final."
"I can do it!" Dess said. The main room was packed with people getting ready. "I'd be on the rails tomorrow anyway!"
"And you think you're ready to speed over mile-long drops with just the strength of your hand keeping you safe?" Mohn snatched up Dess' hand and lifted the boy, crushing grip making him squeal. "You're going to be busy just like the rest of us, but not on the rails. If Kjell even knew you wanted to join us you'd be busted back a year so fast you'd probably greet a past self." He dropped Dess, who fell onto his bottom and held his hand to his chest in pain. Mohn bent and hoisted him to his feet. "Wipe those tears away, boy. I need you strong right now, do you understand me?"
Dess nodded, hands to his cheeks. "I don't want to scare you, but I'm not going to lie. Crystal rot is a very bad thing for all of us. We need everybody ready to do what's necessary to keep people safe. No one here has ever dealt with it first hand, so none of us know the right thing to do. Kjell has the most experience so we listen to her. Can you promise me that?" Dess nodded again. "Good. Go get ready."
"The other homes are all mobilizing," Kjell said, standing behind Mohn when he rose. "Everybody who can is going out to check columns. Dess and other trainees are going to warn people away from the column, but they need guardians." Kjell lifted her chin at him. "I know you'd rather be on the rails but they trust you up there. If you show up and order everyone out, they're more likely to obey. Plus, Dess will feel better around you."
"Agreed. Now?"
"In a minute. We're bringing the barge around once the place clears out a little bit."
After the work crews and rail-runners had dispersed, Mohn and another runner named Royah watched Dess and the other teens load into a car attached to one of the rails. Once the doors were closed, Royah nodded to Mohn, who leaped ahead of the barge. The barge started after him, and Royah jumped on behind. Soon the rail angled upward, beginning the slow climb to the upper reaches of the columns.
After several minutes, Mohn knew the rail would soon level off, so he pumped energy into his glove, outstripping the barge in an instant. He hit the peak of the rise and flew over it, arms out to his sides and legs tucked under him, rising and falling in an arc, free from the rail. As he fell, he hooked his left hand around the rail and brought himself to a slower pace as the barge came up behind. In another minute the barge was unloading on a crystal platform. Royah nudged him with an elbow. "Even now you have to be a showoff?"
"A bit of excitement before we get to work," Mohn said, looking at the teenagers, all regarding him with wide eyes and smiles. "It'll be on foot until we're done."
"All right kids, after us," Royah said. He looked at Mohn from the corner of his eye. "What are the crews up to?"
"Everything and anything they can to stop the rot from spreading, even if it means destroying the base of the column and replacing it with a man-made one. If we're lucky the rot is contained or even removed."
"And aren't?" Royah asked.
Mohn stopped and spun, facing the younger members of the crystal clan behind him. "Tell all, out. All. Now. No wait, no gather, no argue." He pointed at the column. "Nobody in. Any problems us. Go."
"What's on?" a man asked. "What's here?"
"Crystal rot was found on the base of this column," Royah explained. The man grimaced, forced to mentally remove words from the sentence to make it understandable.
"Crystal rot what?"
Mohn sighed and patted the man's shoulder with two fingers. "Can't you. Dangerous."
"My family's in!"
"They'll be leaving soon," Royah said. Mohn translated.
"Tell," Mohn added. "No in." He sighed again and rubbed his eyes. It felt very late. "Find away."
The man's face fell, and looked past Mohn to the column. He dropped his eyes to the floor and backed away, arms crossed and face worried.
Before long a crowd gathered around the edge of the near columns. Officials from other branches helped Mohn and the children keep people away, but there were still a great number remaining on the column. Mohn entered to convince them to leave, and spent the next hours cajoling, threatening, and pleading the people who called the column their home to find somewhere else, at least until the work was done.
At one point he heard the scrape of a glove riding a rail, and turned to find a young Crystal Madam from another home landing, eyes set on him. "Figured you, Mohn," she said, plating fists on her hips. "True?"
"True. Teams on." He relaxed his shoulders. "Has any else been found."
"Not yet," she said. "The teams from my home are fifty percent looking for rot and fifty percent planning on what to do to you if you're lying about the rot."
"It's no lie. There isn't a great deal and Kjell was confident they could contain it, but it's there."
"If Brakeless feels good about it, we don't have much to worry about, do we?" The woman turned back toward the rail she had arrived on. "You look tired, Mohn. Long day?"
"En's being serious."
"Maybe there's more to worry about than I thought. Look, why don't you take a sit down. I can help get people out of here."
"Thank you Celia, but no." Mohn adjusted his scarves. "We might not have a lot of time."
"We'd-" Celia perked her ear up, turning around again. Mohn heard the sounds of an angry crowd behind her. They both ran, going around the circumference of the column until they encountered a large group of people. Dess and two other teens from Mohn's home were at the center, jostled by the people around them.
"Now!" Mohn shouted. "Away!"
"Mohn!" Dess shouted. "They won't leave!"
"Who's to tell us leave?" a big man shouted, face red. "Crystal rot! Phah!"
"I!" Mohn roared. "Stay dangerous, leave safe!" He pushed through the crowd at the big man. "Hands away, friend, or the crystal won't be the only thing rotting."
The big man took a step back, confused by the full speech and threat he felt rather than heard. Then, hands doubling into fists, he gritted his teeth. The crowd moved away, and Celia shouted for people to make for the next column. Dess and the other teens ran off the way Mohn had come.
Mohn stripped off his gloves. "Your safety!" he said. "Like the crystal?" He channeled power into the gems set in his palms and they glowed bright blue; the energy had nowhere to go.
"Phah! Weaker!" The man took a step forward and the column vibrated. "What was that?"
"Go! Now!" Mohn said, and the man didn't argue as a deep crack, resonating up from the base to the stone roof over them, tolled through the subterranean society and turned Mohn's blood cold. The floor began to shift under his feet.
Screams shot up. The man Mohn had been about to fight had his arms out to his sides to keep from tipping over, running for the nearest column. Another crack, louder, nearly knocked Mohn over. He saw Dess leading a trail of people from around the column's curve, mouth a thin, bloodless line. Mohn ran toward them and urged greater speed. People pushed others out of the way to escape. Mohn helped a woman up and heard her frantically ask after her daughter's family, explaining where they lived. Dess grabbed her hand and pulled her forward, shooting a worried glance at Mohn as he did so. Mohn ran for the edge of the shaking column's platform and wrapped his brake hand around a rail, immediately leaping off its angled path and onto a lower platform.
The platform shifted under him, and the slick crystal floor sent his legs flying out. He got up, and as he ran he pulled his gloves back on. Shards rained from above, gouging the column, platform and everything else. It felt like he was running on sand. Cracks formed under him.
"Call!" he shouted. "Call for help!" He saw no one. He heard nothing but a thousand stones grinding against each other. His vision vibrated, and he felt the column moving more. He searched for anything with colors other than light blue.
Finally he found someone. A woman couched in a doorway and shaking, tears caught on her cheeks. Mohn ran forward and pulled her up, double checking his gloves. He tried to picture the fastest route but stopped when another crack freed the column from its earthy bonds. Mohn felt the column begin to slide first, and so the woman nearly fell when he pulled her forward. Quickly the floor angled under them, and he lost his footing, sliding toward empty air. Only a crystal railing stopped them. The woman shrieked. "Tight," Mohn said to her, and she wrapped her arms around his chest. "Trust," he said, gripping the railing with his free hand. He nodded toward a rail below them. "Tighter." The woman saw what he meant to do and nearly crushed the breath out of him. She closed her eyes as the column began tipping, a slow, unstoppable felling.
Mohn stepped off the railing when the time was right; the woman's scream was torn away.
His hand wrapped around the rail and his arm almost ripped out of his shoulder. He glanced up and measured the column's fall. He squeezed more energy into his palm and sped up. The rail angled him upward, directly into the column's path.
He took a breath and concentrated--mentally forced every drop of energy he could into the gem set in his palm, and the air tore at his scarves. His hand burned. He opened his eyes and saw the column still bearing down. He wasn't going fast enough, and there was only one way to go faster.
He flipped the woman to his other side, switching hands. His brake hand grabbed the rail and began to slow him. "Remove the glove!" he shouted, shocking the woman into action. She took the glove from his right hand, exposing the glowing gem in the center of his hand. He switched her back, grabbed the rail with his bare hand, and let the breath out. He started channeling again; lightning arced along the rail as their speed tripled from the undiluted force numbing his hand. He lost a scarf, and the speed brought them out of the column's path. Mohn closed his eyes to the searing pain. The column shattered the rail behind them and fell, smashing through rails and bridges and coming to rest along the ground a mile below, the sound of its death filling everyone's ears.
The rail brought him and his charge to a small alcove some distance away from the downed column; Mohn dropped off and fell to the floor as soon as he could. The woman rolled away.
The blue gem glimmered, crackling, in the center of a mass of blood and bone on his gloveless hand. He gripped the hand to his chest in a foolish attempt to make the pain pass, leaving smears of blood on his clothes and scarves. The woman said something to him, but he couldn't hear. The tinkling sound of falling crystal rose through the immense cavern, like murmurations to the ears.
Through the pain he realized a number of people had gathered; one of them pried his hand away from his chest. Others placed him under their arms and got him to his feet, he felt the sensation of falling, and saw the top of his toes skating off the crystal floor.
"You should have seen it, Mohn!" Dess said, hours later in their home. "I'd never seen anyone go so fast!"
"He didn't need to see it," Kjell said. "Please, Dess, he needs his rest, and you need to get to sleep. Tell the other trainees to sleep in after your work tonight."
Dess exited in his cheerily noisy way, leaving Mohn in his bed and a few adults standing around him.
After the boy's sound had receded down the hallway, Mohn looked at Kjell. "How many?"
The woman waited until somebody had closed the door. "At least a hundred. We went as fast as we could--and we got thousands of people out--but not fast enough. Dozens more where injured when it fell. Falling crystal, earthquakes." She sat in the chair next to the bed. "We lost three workers at the base, and four trainees that couldn't get off soon enough."
"Dess seems unfazed by all of this," Mohn noted.
"Somebody needs to be cheerful. He got to act the hero and see his hero act one."
Mohn looked at his heavily-bandaged hand. The pain was still enough to make him scream; he squeezed the bedsheets with his other hand. En sat next to him with her arms around his shoulders, and for once he didn't have the energy to shake her off.
Beryl, En's husband, seemed not to notice. "You haven't even been told the worst news."
"More crystal rot."
"I guess no one needed to. Yes, more's been found. A few columns here, a few columns there."
"Are they as deep as ours?"
"Some, we think." Beryl hung his head and rubbed his hands together. "We couldn't tell how bad it was. None of us had seen it before. We had no idea it had already spread to the center."
"It isn't your fault, Beryl," Kjell said, laying her hand on the man's forearm.
Mohn prodded En and nodded toward Beryl. The woman rose and went to her husband, putting her arms around his shoulders from behind and pecking his cheek with a kiss.
"There's no time to sulk," Kjell said, voice topping the emotions. "We're all going to be much busier in the next few days. Work crews will assist any way they can to refurbish columns, runners will take messages, and trainees will make sure people keep away from affected columns. I won't hear any arguing; there's plenty of space to spread out. We're taking up less than a tenth of the buildings built into the columns." She sighed, and laid her right hand over the stump of her left. "We have some strong medicine on the way for you, Mohn. One of the doctors from Center Home will come over tomorrow to see how bad the damage is."
He tried to flex his fingers and felt ripples of pain dance across his body. "You won't be riding the rails for a long time..." Kjell almost added more, then stood. "We'll let you get some rest."
"En, wait," Mohn said. Everyone else excited, and he watched as the woman blew a kiss at her husband.
"What is it, Mohn?" she purred, sitting in the chair Kjell had vacated. She crossed her legs.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" He locked her gaze. "If you had told Kjell, lives might have been saved. Instead you waited until I returned. We might have been able to get it fixed before too late."
"I didn't know what I was looking at," the woman said. She crossed her arms and leaned back. "I needed to make sure."
"You seemed sure enough when you showed me."
"You think I could tell how bad it was? Even you said it was just a small area. It went deeper than either of us thought."
He watched her squirm under his gaze. Finally, she rose and took a few steps away. She gave him a pouting face. When he didn't respond her expression melted away.
"I know what you're going to say." She turned and regarded him. "You're going to say I should have been better, smarter. Not everyone is a hero, Mohn. Some of us are just people. And then you'll say it wasn't really my fault, and I shouldn't blame myself. I know you wouldn't, because you're a hero. You're a hero to Dess, and to that woman you saved, and everyone who saw you save her. I'm not a hero, Mohn."
She left him to his pain.
"I was thinking of saving a woman's life," Mohn answered the doctor. "Surely you think my hand is worth her life, and mine?"
"You're a smart man, I hear," the doctor said, draining the blood from Mohn's hand. "I like to think you could have found a better way."
"There was no time for thought."
"How's the pain?"
"Getting better." The topical medicine the doctor had brought, stronger stuff, was numbing him to the wrist. The burden of pain was lifting. "How long will it last?"
"A few hours. Just apply more once it wears off." The doctor gently teased back folds of skin, inspecting the gruesome wound. "Looks like the bones weren't damaged much. More than can be said about the skin and muscle. Can you still channel energy?"
"I haven't tried."
"Go ahead."
Forcing himself to feel his dead hand, Mohn pushed energy through the gem in his right palm. Even with the medicine dulling his senses, it felt like his hand had been placed into a fire. The energy had nowhere to go and he started writhing. The doctor grabbed his arm and placed a crystal against his ruined palm, sucking the energy out. Mohn's hand became numb once more.
The doctor had to repeat himself before Mohn even realized he was speaking. "I said, as much as it might hurt, the fact you can still channel is good news. It's likely we'll be forced to reconstruct your hand if you ever want to ride the rails again, but it won't be for a while. There's a chance it could heal itself, but it would take months at least."
"Now, of all times," Mohn said.
"I know. These things tend to happen as such. Even if you can't be out in the field, I'm sure there are plenty who would ask you to step into a teaching role. My son even knows your name. Plus, I'm sure there are a few who would find the coincidence of you missing a right hand and Kjell missing a left ticklish."
Mohn shot the doctor a look.
"Not everyone, of course." He began to pack his things. "Unless you have any questions, I'd better get back. Central Home is in a frenzy thanks to yesterday." The doctor listened to the general pandemonium outside Mohn's room. "I'm sure you understand. I'll be off."
He opened the door to the hallway, finding Dess standing just outside. Mohn waved him in as the doctor excused himself. "How are you?" the boy asked.
"I feel all right," Mohn said, ignoring the lingering burn from channeling into the gem on his rewrapped hand. "Things could be worse."
"I'm glad you're all right." Dess sat on the chair beside Mohn's bed and swung his feet. "Kjell says I can't go on the low rails yet."
"We need everybody we can to help with the rot."
"But I've waited so long!"
"Yes." Mohn lifted his bandaged hand, turning it under the guise of inspecting it, so Dess could see all the damage. "The waiting is the worst part." He put his left hand on Dess' shoulder. "Here's a promise, boy. Unless our world crumbles beneath us, once this is all over I'll give you as many lessons as you want. You'll be the greatest rail-rider ever."
"I'd never be able to beat you!"
Mohn waggled his hand; Dess tried not to look at it. "Skills fade. Columns rot. Our world is ever-changing. You know how the books say we once lived above-ground? We didn't even know all these crystal columns were here."
"Yeah."
"Can you imagine someone living up with the sun being told not only was there an endless grove of homes and rails, but we would all be living there one day?"
"I guess it must have been weird."
"Surely. Maybe one day we'll be back in the sun."
"Very poetic of you, Mohn," Kjell said from the doorway, hands linked behind her back. "Dess, would you excuse us?"
"Yes ma'am," Dess said, exiting into the hall. Kjell took his place on the chair. "The doctor told me everything. I know you want to help, but you need to recuperate."
In response, Mohn swung the covers from his legs and put his feet on the ground, swaying slightly. "Say that again and I can't be held responsible for what I do." Kjell smiled. "I can help somehow. There's no time for me to lie around."
"Good. What you did yesterday will have spread far and wide by now, and we can use that to convince people certain columns aren't safe. Who would argue?" She leaned forward, putting her remaining hand on his knee. "Are you sure you can do this?"
"I'll need someone with me to help with bandages. You might as well saddle me with Dess; I can see you want to anyway."
"Can I help it if you know just how to handle him? Get ready and meet me in the common room, there are plenty of columns to clear out."
After slowly readying himself, pain breaking through the numbing agent now and again, Mohn stood staring at the brake glove normally on his left hand. Using his teeth, he pulled it on with some difficulty.
He, Kjell, and Dess met in the common room, and the woman explained where they were to go. "Just get them out. Your columns aren't in great danger, but they should be gone by day's end. Make sure they know which ones to avoid, and don't take no for an answer."
"Don't take no for an answer, she says." Dess scoffed, as they rode up one of the rails in a barge. "Who would say no to you?"
The slow pace ground on Mohn. Instead of the underground air pulling his scarves behind him, and the crystal rail vibrating as he sped along, he listened to the machinery of the barge slowly hoist him toward the top of the columns. He cradled his right hand on his lap, already feeling the pain in greater amounts. Dess continued.
"Do you think other columns are as bad as the one that fell yesterday? Now that everyone is working on them, I hope none will fall. Is anyone able to do anything with the connections that were broken when the column fell? Can they be bridged?" He stopped moving and looked at Mohn. "Does anybody know how to build the crystal?"
"No." Mohn looked out the window the columns, in their endless uniform rows, passed by. "Some people are trying to figure out how, but nothing has been found yet. How hard can it be, really? Somebody learned how--there's no way homes and shops and rails developed naturally." He sighed. "If all else fails, everyone comes down to live with us at the bottom."
Dess looked worried. "Is the rot that bad?"
"Hopefully not. The ground crews are trained to do everything they can to stop it, even if they haven't had a need to for a long time. But...it is dangerous. We let it go the tiniest bit, and it brought down an entire column." Mohn recalled the endless sound of the column laying itself on the ground, drums and bells ringing together. "There are hundreds of columns we don't even use. Our society is in no danger of collapse."
"You'd save everybody, right Mohn?" Dess asked with a sly grin.
"I lost a hand saving one person," Mohn said. "Being a hero is fine, but it's better to have no need. That's why we're getting everyone away right now."
Dess continued with his youthful exuberance until the barge reached the top level. Mohn led Dess through the busy paths, stopped and hailed as a hero more than once. Through it all, the pain in his hand continued to grow. Once he passed by a group, and bumped the hand against a sudden-moving elbow. The pain shot up to his shoulder and made him woozy, forcing him to concentrate on forcing the pain back.
As he sat, he looked up at Dess' worried face, then realized the boy wore his runner gloves. "Why do you have those?"
Dess tried to hide the gloves. "I'm just getting used to wearing them, I promise."
The first column they were tasked to clear out was full of occupied living quarters. They began at the top, knocking on doors and telling everyone they saw to find another place by evening. No one was thrilled by the news, but no one argued. More than a few eyes locked onto Mohn's bandaged hand, recognizing him as the one who had outrun the falling column the day before. Once they had canvassed the top two levels, they went all the way to the bottom of the living quarters, a trek taking them more than an hour. Mohn's hand felt worse with every step, but he ignored it. At the lowest level of the column they did the same as the top, notifying everybody they could. As Mohn planned, word began to trickle toward the center levels from both directions, but he and Dess still made sure to tell everyone they could, slowly climbing the column.
They stopped when Dess complained of sore feet, and Mohn got him to help unwrap his hand. The boy gingerly unraveled the strips of cloth, making faces every time another facet of the wound was revealed.
"It stinks," Dess said, holding a hand over his mouth.
"It doesn't feel that good either." Mohn breathed in and out steadily, trying not to let the pain overwhelm him. "The medicine, quickly."
Dess spread the medicine on and around the wound with none of the steadiness the doctor possessed, but Mohn hadn't expected it. Still, the medicine dulled the pain to a nearly-unnoticeable amount. He rewrapped the hand and told Dess they had to keep going.
Hours later they had told everybody they could on the column, so they moved on to the next one said to have rot. The plasma bulbs were dimming around them as they moved, simulating a setting sun no one had seen in generations and heralding in a sleepier populace. Dess had slept late after the last day's excitement, but Mohn felt himself running out of steam. The next column was thankfully less-populated.
A number of people were unhappy to be roused from sleep by someone telling them they had to leave, but no one had the guts to argue with Mohn. A few tried to push Dess away, but to the boy's credit he stood his ground, and usually pointed out Mohn a short distance away. The column filled with activity as people began funneling out, dragging tired children.
After everyone had begun to exit, Mohn leaned against a railing to catch his breath. Dess, next to him and looking just as energetic as before, turned and looked out over the cavern. "Mohn..."
Mohn looked. He saw the telltale sparks of runners, all converging toward a specific column. "Come," Mohn said, and the boy followed him through the evacuating citizens. They picked up their speed once they were free of the crowd, Mohn only slowing so Dess would not be left behind.
More and more rails sang as they dropped runners onto the busy column. Mohn glanced over the edge of the path they ran along, but the bottom was far too deep for him to see anything. He so wished to leap onto the rail running alongside him; the pain in his hand kept him from jumping to his death.
A minute later he heard someone approach on the same rail. "Mohn!" he heard En yell before he turned. "That column's coming down sooner or later, get over there!" She came alongside him, using her brake hand to keep his speed. "Dess will have to catch up--there's a hospital!"
"Don't go onto the column," Mohn told Dess as En rode away. "It won't be safe for you."
"Or you!"
"I know how to handle myself. Direct people. Don't let anyone push you around. Trust me?"
Dess screwed up his face, but nodded. Mohn burst away without another word, his speed a poor facsimile to riding the rails. His hand mixed numb weight and sudden sparks of pain as he pumped his arms, watching the column begin to shed people. A hospital would be crowded, and spread among a number of levels. He picked up his speed. As he got closer, he thought he could hear a hum, only realizing the column itself made it when he stepped onto the bridge leading to it. It vibrated and sent the feeling into his teeth.
Beyond the entrance to the hospital, Mohn saw hundreds of bodies. He hurried forward, panting, and quickly put his shoulder under a patient's arm, helping her out. Her face was pale, and his hand stung when he pressed it against her body to keep her standing. As he exited the crystal lobby, he found more rail-runners, from homes all over the cavern, leading patients away in a chain. Mohn's cargo was taken from him, and he turned back inside, spotting dozens more needing help. More than one person spotted the bulky bandage on his hand, and pieced together the clues. Some tried to talk to him about his actions the day before, but he unceremoniously dumped them off to someone else. Mohn spent enough energy ignoring the pain in his hand; trivial blather failed to reach him.
En flagged him down at one point, telling him the levels under the lobby had barely begun to evacuate; he joined her and a group of others down the steps and into the calm blue of the hospital's basement. She worked harder than he had ever seen, never stopping her smooth motions unless there was nowhere else to go. She forged through the crowd with grim determination, lips pressed together and eyes narrow. She barely afforded him a glance.
The plasma globes flickered; the column's vibration picked up in volume. Before anybody else could respond, Mohn shouted over the silence. "Everyone must stay calm! Calm! Toward exits, no shove!" He moved forward to help someone with a patient and struck his hand on a door frame. The pain dropped him to his feet, and through the haze he realized it had been hours since Dess had helped him apply medicine. Snarling, unheard in the commotion and ambient sound of the column, he pushed himself to his feet.
He put the patient's free arm around his shoulders, trying not to succumb to dizziness. He recognized a face in the crowd. "Royah!" he shouted, catching the runner's attention. The man came close. "What's going on down there?"
"They're doing everything they can to give us more time, but..." he shook his head. "Quickly, now, quickly. Your hand?"
"It's no bother," Mohn said. "Go, help someone else." He lugged the patient up the stairs, entire body feeling the pressure and unease of the floor dancing under his feet. The blue flights of stairs turned hypnotic, and he almost moved past the lobby without noticing. In the process of handing the patient to someone else, the patient grabbed his bandaged hand for support. Though he removed it immediately, the pain brought Mohn to his knees once more.
Dess was at his side in an instant, helping him up. The boy maneuvered him away from the chaos, finding a quiet corner to let him rest. He started to unwrap Mohn's bandage, but Mohn pushed him away. "Go help get patients out of there. I just need a moment to myself."
Dess jumped up and ran inside, small form winding through the bigger bodies. Mohn breathed, trying not to focus on the pain, and let it dissipate. The column's shaking picked up, then sank down again. He got to his feet, knees shaking and hand a fountain of agony. He took a spot near the end of the line, directing people toward paths to escape the column. Each person away from the danger afforded him a breath of hope.
As the crowd of exiting people thinned, he moved inside the lobby again to help those unable to move under their own power. He found the upper levels nearly empty, but the lower ones still disgorging weak or disabled people at steady rates. At one point, he put a hand on En's shoulder as she passed by. The corners of her weary mouth turned up when she saw him, and she soon disappeared down the steps again.
He helped a man with a cast on his leg, and his eyes widened when he saw the area outside the hospital being emptied, everyone in sight making for the safety of neighboring columns. "Speed," he told the man, and they hobbled toward the closest path. Halfway there, the column stopped vibrating. A moment of hope ended when it shifted under their feet, and Mohn remembered the feeling just a day before, a minute before the column fell. He pulled, aware his options were fewer then they had been then.
"Focus," he whispered to the man, and they made each step mindfully, moving as fast as they could. The column shuddered once more, and Mohn found himself trying to keep from panicking. The man's breath came ragged, catching in his throat as the column shifted.
Ahead, beckoning them forward, a large group stood beyond the end of a bridge spanning the column they were trying to escape and its neighbor. Work crews from crystal homes stood ready to cut away the bridge so the falling column did as little damage as possible. A few people rushed forward to take the patient from Mohn, and to help Mohn as well. Once past a certain point, the work crews began hacking at the bridge. Crystal fell in shimmering waves from above them as the column shifted again.
Celia and Royah appeared to prop Mohn up. Mohn's hand burned, and he imagined the pain would engulf his entire arm. Royah noticed the pain and found a place for him to sit. "Is everyone out?" Mohn managed to say.
"Not everyone, no." Royah avoided Mohn's gaze.
The shattering sound of bridge being cut away ended, and a tremor jostled the nearly-empty column. It rotated on its weak base, and seemed to sway.
Gasps and screams rang out from everyone when it finally failed, slowly tipping. The shouts changed--people pointed and yelled--Mohn stood. A woman's form was seen in the open area outside the hospital. He pushed to the front of the crowd, and when En saw him, she blew him a kiss, standing tall as the column dropped out from under her.
Mohn reached as if to scoop her up.
A form rushed past him, and he put his damaged hand out too slowly. Dess, gloves charged with energy, tumbled down into the bottomless cavern toward the falling woman. Scream caught in his throat, Mohn watched the boy collide with En and bounce off the side of the column, disappearing into the low darkness.
Pain forgotten, Mohn saw the blue energy from Dess' gloves slowly fade away. At the edge of the cut bridge he crouched, gloved brake hand shimmering as he unconsciously pumped it full of power. His heart broke as the column followed the two down and sent the drums and bells of death through the cavern again, signaling another broken part of life.
As the sound of the column's falling died, the screams rose anew. Mohn looked up and found a long crystal shard spinning toward him and the hundreds of others around him, poised to shear through their platform.
As everyone else bowed he stood, raising his left hand. He released his pent-up breath, and laid his hand on the shard's surface, imagining himself putting the same hand on Dess' shoulder, promising him lessons should the world not crumble underneath them.
The shard dropped over the edge of the platform, missing by inches and ringing in a crystal dirge until it shattered at the bottom.