Chapter 48: Eleven Roads

The courier was twelve breaths away. Four to cross the service shaft. Three to climb the brick. Five to reach the lane before the Ashwood vehicle cleared the north gate. Mo could hear its engine gathering speed. The second leaf carried Qingyue's work through a design he had only half understood. It was the sole road he had found toward what she had done after the jade took him, and toward the people who had sealed him beneath Wang's school. Vale already controlled sixty-three photographs, nine rubbings, four copied notebooks, and whatever truth had survived Origin Gate. If the courier reached Ashwood, that road could close. The engine note shifted as the vehicle turned north. Behind Mo, the monitor above the fourth bay gave one flat tone. Chen Ming's screen followed. Xiaotian pitched forward inside the copper ring, caught himself on one hand, and failed to draw his next breath.…