Contents
Chapter 44
Overview
Orso sails alone into the Dandolo canal and uses the imperiat to kill the foundry cooling scriving, triggering a catastrophic collapse that flattens much of Tevanne and disables its weapons. Sancia and Berenice witness the devastation from the bay and realize both Tevanne and Crasedes endure. They flee with refugees, accepting that a larger war is coming and they must fight it.
Summary
Orso pilots a small shallop across the bay toward the Dandolo canal, savoring life even as pain and fever rack him. As shriekers and espringals target his craft, he raises the imperiat’s power, forcing incoming munitions to remember their weight and crash harmlessly into the water. He advances up the canal toward the foundries, aiming for a decisive strike.
Tevanne senses scrivings going dead along the coast and then up the canal, realizes Orso’s trajectory, and shifts the city’s fire toward the Dandolo campo. Overhead, Crasedes, exhausted and racing the coming dawn, notices all weapons retargeting the same canal. Seeing Orso with a golden device, Crasedes flees the area in terror.
Reaching the foundries, Orso locates the key cooling scriving that stabilizes the Dandolo foundry lexicon. Knowing severing it will cascade through every lexicon on the campo, he thinks of Berenice and their work to build a better world, then triggers the imperiat.
Out on the bay, Sancia’s caravel is rocked by a blinding flash, a titanic crack, and a roaring wind. When the glare fades, half of Tevanne is flattened and the coastal batteries are silent—Orso’s strike has destroyed the Dandolo campo and disabled the city’s weaponry. Sancia acknowledges Orso succeeded.
As Polina steers the refugees toward Giva, Clef warns that Tevanne’s intelligence has escaped and that Crasedes likely survived. Faced with the collapse of the city yet the survival of its greatest threats, Sancia and Berenice accept that a far larger war is beginning and commit to fighting it.
Who Appears
- Orso IgnacioSails alone into the Dandolo canal and uses the imperiat to collapse the foundry lexicons, sacrificing himself to disable Tevanne’s weapons.
- Sancia GradoAboard a fleeing caravel, witnesses the city’s destruction, confirms Orso’s success, and resolves to fight the coming war.
- Berenice GrimaldiGrieves Orso, processes the devastation, and with Sancia accepts that Tevanne and Crasedes survive and war is imminent.
- TevanneSenses scrivings dying, redirects city fire toward the canal, survives the foundry collapse, and escapes as a looming adversary.
- Crasedes MagnusBattling city weapons, spots Orso and the imperiat, realizes the danger, and flees before the foundry cataclysm.
- ClefWarns Sancia and Berenice that Tevanne has escaped and that Crasedes likely lives; declares a broader war is starting.
- PolinaCommands the caravel, sets course for Giva, and urges preparation for what comes next.