The black shard pulled Todd's right arm into the wall while the prisoner's ankle chain dragged the rest of him toward the floor.
Another ceiling hook dropped between them. Todd caught its shaft across his shoulder, lost a strip of green skin, and forced it sideways until the point lodged in a crack.
The woman under him kicked at the floor loop. "You climbed into a collapsing prison without rope, tools, or any idea how to get back out."
"The floor swallowed the part that actually worked."
Three hours ago, the shard had been dust under General Mattison's chisel. The Cross Link Blade remained inside its stone shell after King Griswald vanished. Nana had wanted one loose piece tested before workers tried moving the whole thing out of the damaged judgment quarter.
Mattison had kept twelve masons behind the old judgment gate. Nana had pushed them farther back and tied the climbing cord around Todd's waist with her red metal hand.
"You get ten feet, and I pull if the stone sneezes."
