Chapter 21 · The Ash Ledger - Chapter 21: The Black Tower

The ground wasn't shaking. Rowan's bones were.

He could feel it through his boots, through his jaw, a low hum that built until his teeth buzzed. The alarm bells were still screaming somewhere behind him, and Soren was shouting something, but all Rowan could see was the black column rising beyond the wall.

Not smoke. Not dust. Something solid. Something deliberate.

The tower climbed out of the siege line like a spear punching through cloth. Dark stone, no windows, each edge sharp enough to cut the sky. It didn't explode upward. It grew. Slow, methodical, every block locking into place with a sound like bone breaking.