With the safe line running at half speed, Austin had time for maintenance. He oiled each conveyor bearing with three drops, no more and no less, then checked the water log.
Pug wandered down the stairs to inspect the work. He licked Austin’s apron, received a scratch behind six ears, and then caught a scent in the old exploratory tunnel.
All three heads turned.
A dry scratching came from the dark.
Pug charged before Austin could stop him.
“No running into unmapped tunnels! You’ll trip an unrendered trigger plate!”
Austin grabbed his wrench and followed. Seventy yards in, he found three enormous pangolins curled into armored balls. Pug was nudging them downhill like toys.
The Iron Pavilion had bred the beasts to find ore. When Kang’s survey team withdrew, the animals had been left behind with no food or handlers.
Austin lowered his wrench.
“Pug, those are not balls.”
Pug’s middle head gave the largest one another push. It squeaked.
“Apparently, they are squeaky balls.”
Austin pulled up his display:
Austin offered the lead animal a warm hand and a roasted piece of furnace slag. One black eye appeared between its scales. After a long sniff, the beast uncurled and took the food.
Back on Floor 1, Xiaoyao stared as three fifth-rank spirit beasts followed Pug into the workshop.
“Those are worth fifty thousand spirit stones each!”
“Then somebody should not have abandoned them.”
Austin measured their shoulders and chests for padded harnesses. He made the straps broad so they would not cut into the skin. Xiaoyao named the workers Digger One and Digger Two. The widest pangolin stole a second snack and became Chonker.
Kang arrived while the first harness was being fitted.
“They belong to the Pavilion,” he said, then saw the rope burns on one’s neck. His face tightened. “Which means their care was our responsibility.”
Austin held out a harness buckle. “Help me fix that.”
Kang did.
Under the supply contract, the pangolins would haul ore carts on level routes. They would not dig near the ley line. Their loads were limited, and their rest times went on the shift board.
Chonker leaned against Austin and purred.
Xiaoyao watched the director of a royal mining cartel adjust a chin strap on a fifth-rank beast.
“The Master turns even enemies into useful partners,” he said softly.
Austin pointed to a pile of loose straps.
“Less prophecy. More measuring.”