Part 1 · Chapters
The Clue No One Believed
Long before he had strength, he had learned to step forward.
Truth rarely enters through the front door. It often hides in forgotten pipes, in corners no one will bend down to inspect, and in the eyes of a child who is not allowed to ask questions.
The guards would not let a boy from the Ash District into the central tower.
So Xiao Jin entered through a smoke duct.
He knew all the places in Flame City that upper-city people ignored: coal shafts, maintenance passages, wastewater channels, and the old pipes beneath the tower's foundations, just wide enough for a child to crawl through. At the midnight change of guards, he climbed along the pipe walls to the scene of the theft.
The tower's center was disturbingly empty.
Where the Heart of Fire had floated, only a ring of charred chains remained. Ice crystals littered the floor, and the guards had marked signs of a struggle on the walls. Xiao Jin put out his lantern and lit his own tiny flame.
Ordinary fire could illuminate only the surface. His little flame brought another trail out of the darkness.
Black footprints clung to the stone wall, running from the Heart of Fire's pedestal to the doorless north wall. Xiao Jin touched them. Black mist surged from the stone and formed several long, slender creatures with no eyes.
They lunged toward the flame.
Xiao Jin retreated and put out his fire. The creatures lost their bearings. He lit it again on the other side, luring them into the scattered sealing chains. He kept moving, like a tiny star drawing an entire darkness after it, until he led the mist into the empty casing the Heart of Fire had left behind. The remnants of the seal snapped shut, locking the monsters inside.
There was indeed a secret passage behind the north wall.
Xiao Jin followed it downward. The exit led directly to the ancient battlefield outside the city. Deep grooves scored the ground where something heavy had been dragged. The black mist trailed on toward the forbidden lands.
“That's far enough.”
Lie Ang stood at the exit, his long crimson-flamed blade barring the way.
“You knew there was a secret passage here?” Xiao Jin asked.
“I found it by following you.”
“Then you've seen it now. The Frost people didn't attack through the front door. The black mist did this.”
Lie Ang studied the traces still lingering on the wall. For the first time, real doubt crossed his face. But outside the city, army drums thundered. Orders for tens of thousands of people would not halt at once because of footprints seen by one boy.
“Leave the evidence with me. Go back to the Ash District,” he said.
“And then?”
“I'll investigate.”
“Tomorrow you're taking the advance force to the border.”
“Those are the council's orders.”
Xiao Jin tightened his grip on the broken staff. “You've already decided who's guilty. You don't even want to know the truth.”
Lie Ang's blade flared. “Step outside the city gate, and you'll be treated as obstructing military operations. Contact the Frost people, and you may even be branded a traitor.”
“And if staying means watching everyone in the Ash District freeze to death?”
They faced each other across the blade's light. The boy who had once looked up to a hero did not retreat. The hero who had once believed only in orders did not immediately swing his weapon.
At last, Lie Ang moved the blade half an inch aside.
“I haven't given you permission to leave,” he said.
“I know.”
Xiao Jin slipped past him sideways and stepped onto the ancient battlefield. The snowstorm swallowed his slight figure at once.
A moment later, a discarded wooden crate nearby opened. Xiao Hui climbed out with a tool bag on his back.
Lie Ang pressed a hand to his forehead. “Where did you come from?”
Xiao Hui did not answer. He dashed into the storm.
Hearing footsteps, Xiao Jin turned. When he saw who it was, he was almost too angry to speak. “Go back!”
“No.”
“People die out here.”
Breathless, Xiao Hui still ran up beside him. “That's why I can't let you go alone.”
Xiao Jin remembered what he had said beneath the old water tower. He looked at Xiao Hui for a long time. Finally, he tore a corner from his coat and wrapped it around Xiao Hui's cold-reddened hands.
Two children from the Ash District walked side by side into the darkness. Behind them, Flame City's main army was still assembling. Ahead lay a truth no one believed.