Jossel had stopped answering Griswald. He saved his voice for Bera, whose cot stood beyond the east post with its waist belt still fastened. Whenever the cage shifted, she lifted one finger to show she was watching.
A runner from the west market had brought word that the lamp house was gone. Its families had reached Solla's kitchen or the inland arch before the building lifted. Cava sent two of her workers toward the exposed market edge; she had no one left to loan Griswald for the cage. No one at Clinic Five knew what had taken the house.
The account crew held the rope from the cage's rear rail. Todd could hear their boots slip in the grit each time the trapped wall cord pulled beneath the front runner. Rillhold's oldest stake stood behind him, held by Ruvan's red belt and a recovery jaw with one sound tooth. Cava had left every surviving cord attached. Cutting one to free a cage could drop a wall whose occupants had never seen Jossel.
