The ravine ended at a steel wall.
It was a blast door, thirty feet high, set into the side of a granite cliff. It groaned open as the Striders approached, revealing a tunnel lit by flickering oil lamps.
"Move," the voice from the speaker ordered.
Kael and Elric walked into the dark.
Inside, the fog was replaced by the smell of unwashed bodies, rust, and desperate stew. Iron-Hollow wasn't a castle. It was a grave that people were living in.
Tents were pitched along the walls of the massive mine shaft. Men and women in mismatched armor—some Spire plate, some scavenger leather—watched them pass with hollow eyes. There were no children.
"This is the resistance?" Elric whispered, eyeing a knight who was sharpening a sword that was more rust than steel. "They look half-dead."
"They're starving," Kael noted. He saw the way they looked at his cloak, at Elric's boots. They were calculating the value of the salvage.
A group of soldiers met them at the end of the tunnel. They wore black armbands over their Spire crests.
"Search them," the sergeant ordered. A big man with a scar running through his beard.
They took Kael's iron sword. They took Elric's pack. They tried to take Kael's ring, but he closed his fist.
"Take the hand, take the arm," Kael warned low.
The sergeant looked at Kael's eyes. He saw something there that made him pause.
"Leave the ring," the sergeant grunted. "Check the other one."
"He's clean," a soldier said, patting Elric down. "Just books and rocks."
"Spies," the sergeant spat. "Spire thinks they can send two beggars to confirm our location?"
"We aren't spies," Kael said. "We came to see the Commander."
"Everyone wants to see the Commander," the sergeant said. "He's busy keeping us alive. You'll wait in the pit."
They were dragged to a side tunnel and shoved into a cell carved from the rock. Iron bars slammed shut.
"great," Elric said, sliding down the wall. "Captured by the very people we came to save."
Kael stood by the bars, watching the camp. He watched the patrols. He watched the way they maintained their weapons despite the rust.
"They have discipline," Kael said. "They aren't bandits. They're soldiers waiting for a war."
He looked at his hand. The Star-metal ring felt heavy.
"They just need a reason to fight."