The envoy’s core had sent a brief record when its detonation ward armed. The record caught the core being pulled free. Until the lead lid closed, the core also sent a pulse into the upper sky every three seconds. When the lead lid closed, the signal stopped. Within six seconds, the Heavenly Vault marked the envoy missing. Six seconds after that, the arrays above all three continents came alive.
People in Cangzhou, Sandfall and the southern harbors looked up. Purple bands were spreading across the blue. Golden marks three miles wide lit up where the bands met. A low hum set the windows shaking. Wild animals came out of the trees and ran across open fields.
Pei Jing rose from Dragon-Back Ridge to the edge of the purple clouds. Wind pulled his gray robe tight against his ribs. He found a shelf of floating ice and set his feet on it.
The sound shook his chest. He drew on thirty high-grade stones to keep his soul steady while he listened.
The harvest array usually hid its calls in the weather. Now he could hear each one.
The northern spire answered first. The others followed a fraction of a second later. The eastern one was slowest. Silt had built up around the part of its array that took power from the river. He wrote down how late each reply came and how long it took the defensive lightning to answer a change.
