Chapter 14: The Wash Stairs

"Run!" I screamed. "Go!"

The dye house roof came down behind us with a crash that shook the cobbles.

Sparks rained over the lane.

I had a child in each arm and my back was on fire, and I did not stop.

"Wash stairs!" Corvin shouted from the front. "Left at the vat!"

The lane opened onto a stone landing above the Blackwater.

The river was black and fast under the smoke.

Broad steps ran down to the water, where the washerwomen of Moonwatch beat their linen every morning.

Across the river, on the Iron Hollow bank, torches were moving.

Corvin's host had seen the fire.

"Boats!" a rider's voice carried over the water. "Bring every boat!"

The first rowboats were already putting out from the far shore.

They would take too long.

The fire was behind us, and the water was in front, and the stairs were narrow enough for only four people at a time.

"We swim," Maud said.

"The pups can't."

"Then we carry them."

She said it flatly, and that settled it.

I looked at the water.

It was cold and deep, and I had grown up on the other side of it.

I took off my boots and my belt and tied a bundle of children's coats to my back.

"Everyone who can swim takes a small one," I shouted. "Everyone who can't holds a rope. Strong ones in the front!"

The old women of Dawn Watch hiked their skirts up to their knees.

The grandfathers took toddlers on their shoulders.

A woman with red hands from the dye vats tied three scarves into a sling and slung a baby against her chest.

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