Mercer Asterion's Arc

Chapter 10 of 10

They finished the chocolate milk on Rae's bench and walked out to the edge of town. The dog trotted ahead. Mouse carried the bread bundle. Mercer carried the cheese bowl in the crook of his cybernetic arm, hidden under the cloak. The tomb sat past the last wagon track, low against a slope of ivy and broken stone. Its columns leaned. Its door hung heavy on old hinges. Mouse pushed it open with her shoulder. Inside was cooler than Mercer remembered. Light fell through a crack in the roof and struck the granite sarcophagus in the middle of the room. The lid had shifted years ago and never been set right. Leaves had gathered in the gap. Ivy climbed one side. Against the far wall lay a patchwork pallet, folded blankets, a flat pillow. Mouse's, clearly. She didn't say so. "Table," Mouse said, nodding at the sarcophagus. Mercer brushed the leaves off the lid. He set the cheese bowl down. Mouse untied the linen and laid out four loaves, each shaped a little wrong. They sat on opposite sides of the stone and ate with their hands. The dog settled by the door with a heel of crust. Mercer chewed slowly and looked around. He hadn't really seen the room before. Now he did. Two ways in. No windows. Thick walls. A dry corner where damp hadn't reached. He reached into his satchel and pulled out the jump module. He set it on the granite beside the bread. "That's the thing," Mouse said. Not a question. "Part of it." He turned it in his hand. The casing was cold. The seams still held. "I have this. I still need one piece I can't make from what I brought. And the platform's in the lean-to." "The glowy floor." "Yes." Mouse tore a loaf in half. "Bring it here." Mercer set the module down. "If someone finds that lean-to before I do, I don't get home. It shouldn't sit out there another night." "Then we move it after dark," Mouse said. "Two of us. Cart if we can borrow one. Blanket over the top." He looked at her across the sarcophagus. She was fifteen and eating bread on a coffin and planning a theft of his own property back from a shack. "Tonight," he said. "Tonight." She wiped her hands on her skirt. "I know who lends a cart and doesn't ask. Costs a copper." "Pay them two." Mouse nodded. She pulled a grape from the bowl and popped it. "Then we still need your missing piece." "One thing at a time." He wrapped the module in cloth and slid it back into the satchel. The tomb was quiet. The dog snored. For the first time since the crash, Mercer had a workshop, a plan for the platform, and someone across the table who knew what the plan meant. The capacitor was still nowhere. But tonight, everything he needed would be under one roof.