Wei’s soldiers reached the courtyard through the next gate opening and secured the stairs. They carried no ladders or tools for the city stores. They went straight to the gun positions, stopping short of the crews until Yan had signaled.
Yan took the lantern to the relay dais. The bronze base had a small marker carved beside its handle. The woman engineer stood a few steps away with the older engineer, who had agreed to show the old sequence. His name was Bor. He pointed to the mark without touching the device.
“The mark is a listening post,” Bor said. “The dais carries a short call to each crew marker. It was made for orders, not for carrying a whole conversation.”
“What sequence does it need?” Yan asked.
Bor showed him three symbols on the stone: a line, a closed ring, and a dot. “Set the lantern to the line first. The ring closes the path. The dot is the call.”
Yan laid the bronze base against the dais. The marker on the lantern had a worn edge where hands had turned it many times. He matched the first symbol, then the second. The blue light flickered but did not settle.
