The first sign of the rupture was a line of steam rising from the street where no vent had been built.
Iven saw it as the cart returned from the Eastwater Steps station. The road descended into Caldrin between brick workshops and a row of narrow houses. Ahead, a white plume pushed through the joints in the deck. A woman carrying a basket stopped, looked at it, and began moving people away from the spot before anyone had told her to.
“That’s the south heat branch,” Mara said.
The deck lifted. A bolt shot from one plate and struck the wall above the woman’s head. She dropped the basket and ran.
Iven jumped from the cart before it stopped. “Back from the road!”
Dov pulled the reins hard. Orla caught the jar containing the cartridge residue and secured it in her bag. The other carts behind them halted one after another, drivers shouting warnings down the line.
The deck plate rose another inch. Hot water and steam burst through the seam. A man in a workshop doorway stepped forward with a bucket, then retreated when the water struck the stone and boiled against it.
Mara caught the woman’s arm. “Who knows the shutoff?”
