As the platform tilted, a sudden, dangerous magnetic-pull surge leaped from the Crown’s red-hot crown-ring into the overhead copper line. The twisting force telltale on the museum table sparked wildly, the needle slamming against the glass cover with a sharp crack. The copper wire in Pella’s hands began to heat up, stinging her calloused palms with a sharp, prickling current.
“Drop the wire, Pella!” Eren Tal roared, raising his mallet. “The Crown is discharging its backup charge banks! The current is feeding backward through your uncoupling line! The gallery nook will be live in thirty seconds!”
Pella felt the current surging into her wrists. But inside her mind, something far more dangerous was happening. The uncoupling was so close to completion that she could feel the entire river spirit opening to her will. A vast, intoxicating, legendary power that whispered she could seize the flood single-handed, shatter Sorell’s platform with a thought, and proclaim herself the sovereign savior of Lathmere. It was the exact same poison that had destroyed Davin Sorell.
By minute 61 and 40 seconds on the Courtesy Arch clockwork dial, with 29 minutes left before forced recall, the physical reality of the pulse in the contact wire was clear as cold mountain runoff carrying drifting birch catkins swirled against the Roman foundation course. It sent a low rumble of cobbles across the wind-drowned clapper bell. It was stationed at Museum Gallery Workstation. Eren Tal checked the blackened gallery window doorstep with a bucket of wet river sand…
