Bram sat back against the heavy pine drug cabinet, his left hand cradling the five-pound blued steel metal tube against his knee. He reached into the deep inner pocket of his uniform coat with his thumb and forefinger. He pulled out a second object wrapped in an oiled rag. The heavy bronze Gate delegate seal that Magistrate Halden Pell had surrendered under duress in the Tram kitchen that morning.
He unwrapped the rag and laid the bronze key beside the iron metal tube on the floorboards.
The two keys represented the entire working power of the Gate Ward. The bronze seal was the civilian half of the lock, containing the thirty-two clockwork teeth that represented the collective transit charter of the province’s merchants, wagon drivers, and couriers. The blued iron metal tube was the state half, containing the spark contacts and air-powered bypass pins that disengaged the high-pressure steam barriers and the central sky shield charge banks.
Neither key could function without the other. The founders of Rookvale had designed the seven anchors with paired seals to ensure that no single official—and no rogue labor union—could alter the sky shield without the full, checked consent of both the city court and the people. For twelve years, Chancellor Morn had circumvented that law by seizing the delegate seals and locking their rightful holders in office cells.
