Chapter 37: Chains and Contract
The creature had already dragged itself about thirty feet from the rubble by the time Beorn reached the exterior ground. It moved using its front legs, pulling forward while the rear section trailed behind with limited response. From this close, the wounds were clear.
The left side plating had been sheared away, exposing tissue beneath. The exposed line ran long and uneven, pale and dark with fresh wetness. The grievous wound explained the uneven movement.
Beorn focused on its head.
The head responded to volume. When a militia man’s boot scraped behind it, the head snapped toward the noise. When someone spoke on the left flank, it turned and tracked the voice precisely.
But the eyes did something else. They moved independently, tracking above and between the men at inconsistent directions, as if following inputs that did not align with the environment. Whatever it was detecting, it was not present in the exterior ground outside Ashmark.
Beorn had seen that behavior earlier on the parapet. He had not identified a cause yet.
Aestrith stood beside him with her arms crossed, her coat back on. Her posture was straight, but not fully recovered. Her face was still pale, and her movements lacked strength.
"Are you really going to do this," she said.
"Of course," Beorn said. "The garrison training grounds are enclosed and large enough to contain it."
She looked at him as if she was looking at a madman.
"That space is built for formation drills."
"I’m installing wall bolts into the interior stone and running chains to immobilize," Beorn said. "It’s severely injured as it is. It won’t be able to leave."
She shifted her attention back to the militia around the creature, trying to figure out a way to transport the creature inside the city.
"And after you get it locked up?"
"Then we research it," Beorn said.
She paused, considering if it was worth to continue the discussion.
The creature’s head turned sharply toward the sound of a chain being laid out fifteen feet to its right. It reacted to the metal contacting stone before the man holding it had even repositioned his stance.
"You have some strange priorities," she finally said.
"Aren’t you curious? What this thing has been doing, what it is looking for." Beorn said.
She looked at him. He did not look back. His attention remained on the head and its behavior.
She chose not to press further.
The capture required dozen of minutes and the full attention of twelve men.
The rear approach proved most effective. The injured legs reduced the creature’s response on that side.
On the second attempt, one man misjudged his position and moved into the range of the intact right-side plating. It caught his forearm cleanly, cutting through the sleeve and drawing blood through the ground.
He withdrew immediately and signaled his second to take position. The injury was not severe. He applied pressure and observed from a safer distance.
The first chain was to be secured to a wall bolt ring, then attached to the creature’s rear section. The second chain came from the opposite side.
It took three men to pull it tight while the fourth drove the bolt into place. The creature resisted using its front legs, pushing forcefully against the ground.
After a short period, its strength output faltered and it stilled.
Then its head turned toward the eastern wall, reacting as if to something that no one else had perceived.
Beorn turned his attention back to the breach.
The hole in the northeastern wall stood fully exposed in the morning light. The rubble at its base continued to fall down in small parts.
The break revealed the internal structure of the wall. There was dressed stone on the exterior, but behind it, loosely packed rubble fill. The mortar binding the interior sections was dry and degraded, offering minimal cohesion.
That wall had been present for generations, but the Badlands had been applying pressure continuously.
The exposed break made hidden flaws visible. A construction joint appeared as a discoloration line running horizontally through the courses, extending beyond the breach into intact sections.
He was still observing the wall when Cerdic arrived.
Cerdic came with two senior guild members. All three had moved quickly from the city and were slightly out of breath.
Cerdic stopped at the breach and evaluated it immediately. His attention went first to the break faces.
He moved left along the wall, pressing his thumb into mortar joints and testing their resistance. Then he returned to the breach and evaluated the rubble field briefly. He did not linger. The cause mattered less than the scope.
He looked at Beorn.
"This is quite a morning," he said.
"Indeed," Beorn said. "I trust you understand why I called you here?"
Cerdic examined the breach again, then traced the wall line to the right toward the corner.
"The crack runs the full length. I’ve tracked that fracture from the exterior for years."
His focus shifted fully to the work ahead.
"You’re not simply patching the breach."
"No," Beorn said.
Cerdic checked the left side as well, confirming consistency across the wall exterior. The two guild men had already begun their own assessments without instruction.
He turned back.
"We will start at the breach and expand outward."
"Correct. Address the highest degradation on the northeastern section first. Then proceed to the secondary ones."
"The material we discussed."
He paused briefly.
"I understand you want us to use it."
"Yes, spare no expenses," Beorn said.
Cerdic acknowledged that without reaction.
"The rubble from the collapse can be partially reused. The interior fill is not worth processing, but the faced stone from upper courses can be broken down and incorporated into the mix. That reduces material demand."
"Agreed," Beorn said.
He shifted focus to the exposed base.
"The foundation needs revision."
Cerdic looked at him.
"The dressed stone sits on rubble and earth," Beorn said. "The new section should rest on a proper foundation before any pour."
Cerdic paused. He examined the exposed foundation again.
Then he looked at Beorn with a more serious expression. He understood it then this was not a simply project to repair the wall.
He did not comment on it directly.
"It increases the time required for each section."
"I know."
"The foundation pour needs to cure before load-bearing courses are added."
He worked through the time expectation.
"Minimum three days before we build upward."
"Then we operate on a three-day delay before above-grade work," Beorn said.
Cerdic turned to his senior man and spoke in trade shorthand.
The man moved to the foundation and crouched, checking the soil and support conditions. He responded in the same concise tone.
"I want written terms before work begins," Cerdic said. "Have it be an expansion of the previous contract."
He looked along the wall again.
"We need a mixing station close to the breach. This material cannot be transported far once curing begins."
"There’s a courtyard inside the gate," Beorn said.
Cerdic nodded.
He reviewed the breach once more, then the eastern wall. His expression shifted slightly. The scope was larger than expected, but acceptable.
He turned to his men.
"Survey the face from the corner to the gate," he said.
They moved immediately.
Aestrith stood near the base of the interior wall steps, watching the residential district beyond the southern roofline.
A small group of people had gathered along the main road to watch the aftermath. From that distance, the breach was visible. The rubble was visible. The restrained creature was visible.
Beorn did not approach them. He did not look away.
Cerdic’s voice carried from thirty feet down the wall as he discussed foundation implications and scaffolding sequence with his man.
Without turning, he raised his voice.
"We’ll deliver the terms this afternoon," he said. "Crew on site at first light tomorrow."