Chapter 18 · The Ash Ledger - Chapter 18: That Shelter's a Trap

Mara found the cuffs on the third landing.

Standard-issue, city guard, loop bent where someone fought. The leather still smelled like her brother's boot oil—that stupid pine tar mix he swore kept the metal quiet. She'd told him a hundred times it just made him smell like a forest fire.

She stuffed them in her coat. Downstairs, three hundred people packed shoulder to shoulder, waiting for the all-clear that wasn't coming.

"Commander." One of her scouts, Voss, jogged up the stairs two at a time. Soot on his face, message tube in his hand. "Orders just came through. You're recalled. North gate, now."

Mara didn't look up. "Who sent it?"

"High command. Sealed."

"Open it."

Voss hesitated. "It's addressed to—"

"I said open it."

He cracked the wax. Scanned the slip inside. His face went flat.

"What's it say?"

"Pull back. Leave the shelter. They're… they're calling the bombardment."

Mara's hand closed around the cuffs in her pocket. "When?"

"Eighteen minutes."

She looked past him, down the stairwell. Families. Kids. Old men who couldn't run anymore. The city had shoved them all down here and told them it was safe.

"Commander, we have to move."

"They knew," Mara said.

"What?"