The pawl slipped another tooth while Iven was on the ladder.
Above him, the chain jerked through the drum. The hammer head dropped a handspan and struck its guide. A crack ran through the air, followed by a long metallic groan. On the forge floor, Senna shouted for her crew to clear the fall line.
Iven reached the platform and found the pawl pressed against the edge of a tooth instead of seated between two. The temporary sleeve he had made was still in place. The frame beneath the drum had shifted, turning the whole assembly away from it.
“Don’t release the brake,” he called to Lio.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“I’m making sure.”
He set a plate brace against the pawl housing and pushed it toward the drum. The tooth caught. A ratchet hold kept it from slipping while Lio secured the physical brake with a chain. The hammer settled, but the leaning guide frame continued to move in small, unpleasant increments.
Below, Rovan’s engineer opened the locked case containing the replacement bearing. She was a compact woman with an iron-gray braid and a tool belt crowded with measuring instruments. She examined the frame, then called up to Iven.
