Chapter 17: Fire on the River

Rosalind was down the stairs in Dorian's shirt before she understood she was running.

The flour store was a long stone shed built against the back of the mill, and its roof was already on fire.

Smoke rolled out under the eaves.

The yard was full of wolves in blankets, stumbling out of the barn with buckets in their hands.

"Chain to the river!" Perrin shouted. "Line up, line up!"

Maud stood on the porch with her braid down her back and a wet cloth over her face.

"The store's got the whole winter's flour in it," she shouted. "And the boy's in the loft!"

"What boy?"

"The one who said no to Dorian. He sleeps in the loft over the grain."

Rosalind's stomach dropped.

Dorian came out of the mill behind her in nothing but his trousers.

He looked at the fire and then at her.

"Stay here," he said.

"No."

"Rosalind."

"I'm not asking you to obey me," she said. "I'm telling you I'm going in."

He didn't argue.

He ran for the shed, and she ran at his side.

The door was already hot to the touch.

Dorian kicked it open and the smoke came out in a black wall.

He pulled the collar of the shirt up over her nose.

"Get low," he said.

They crawled in on their hands and knees, with the floor burning their palms.

The heat was a solid thing.

Somewhere ahead a child was coughing.

"This way!"

She found the ladder by touch.

Dorian went up first, and she heard him kick through the loft hatch.

A moment later his voice came down, cracked and urgent.

"I've got him. He's breathing. The ladder's gone, Rosalind. The ladder's on fire."

She looked up.

Flames were running along the rungs.

A burning beam sagged in the roof above Dorian's head.

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