Selen hopped into the air, then to a roof, then scouted. She landed again with a slight stumble and flared her wings wide. "Teams are using ice to seal a few vents, and killing things along the way."

"We should be doing caster support."

"No, Vonn," said Tazo.

Vonn grumbled as the brigade of Woven kept coming, and he walked the line of pumps to make sure they were all humming smoothly. "At least we're providing raw power to make this process go easier."

Tazo just watched the pumps, comparing their heat and cold to a spell in her other hand.

At last, a messenger came over to say, "That does it! We can't find any more vents with those smoke trails, and if any are left they're probably overstrained. The magic guys are thinking the dungeon got too clever by making its rock tougher to shift, since now it'll have trouble opening any new vents for a while."

Vonn was cold and hungry. "Can we go now?"

They got permission to pack up and go to Birb's place. The restaurant was still in military canteen mode for the most part, but the living soldiers weren't there at the moment. Birb's father greeted them with the simple spicy root stew and beans he'd been focusing on for simplicity. "I guess this fight's been great practice for your flying boats, but I'm glad my girl's not in combat."

Birb said, "Selen's told me stories about her family during the war."

"Secondhand ones," Selen said.

Vonn said, "Heard from the north and west villages lately?"

Birb's father told him, "Also secondhand. They've been hit with the monsters too, but the dungeon has focused its attention on protecting the core. I hope we'll be back to normal soon."

A group of soldiers came in soon after, so Vonn and the others cleared out. They went back to the workshop, on call for any danger, but they were worn out from basically watching other people all morning.

The people being productive were Ashfall and the apprentices and the Baron's Engineer. They were working on making tools for later. Parts for several identical milling machines in progress were laid out on a work table. Vonn nodded in approval, scanning each one with his Engineer's intuition and pointing out a crack in one gear.

"Iron's on hold again, though. Go easy on the materials. As an exercise, see if you can scramble the parts you made and reassemble them to still fit. That's a test of consistent quality."

#

Vonn tried to make himself useful in the absence of much raw material being delivered. With Selen around as his guest, they and Tazo were able to talk for a while about mechanical control systems and smelters.

Ashfall overheard, in between sharpening swords. "Master Urika has been working on how to raise production. He's got a problem because he's not a Lord and hasn't got the usual boosts to production in his territory. Unless he took a level in that this year, maybe. Or gave up being an Engineer."

"I hope he hasn't given it up," Vonn said. "But that means that to pull his weight with other Barons, he needs to take full advantage of what powers he has. Maybe he'll get something like my Chief Engineer feat."

The Elf commander sent another messenger to ask for maintenance on the airboat. That turned out to mean that the engine had seized up and the two operators had managed to break the crude jets. Birb sighed but led the way out, saying, "Good practice for everyone."

The boat had gotten towed to near the village outskirts. The commander and the others in his little heated pavilion seemed to be in good spirits. Several would-be mechanics and a curious boy from the south villages crowded in to see how it all worked.

Selen flew up to the boat and began lowering it while Birb and Vonn talked about maintenance procedures they were still inventing. Tazo's wear-and-tear ability worked fine, but the heat had expanded the piston head enough to jam it. Tazo explained to the onlookers about materials expanding and contracting with heat. This particular unit had been made slightly too large. It'd have to be taken back to the shop, opened, shaved down, and re-sealed.

All the while, Vonn feared monster attack. But it seemed the soldiers were handling whatever fight the dungeon still had left. He asked the soldiers, "What now, besides fixing the engine?"

One said, "Lord Taraleo is busy hunting down any more vents that open up. It's gotten harder to find them with no easy way to throw more smoke bombs, but the dungeon's obviously having trouble making them now. Our orders are to send you Engineers back home."

Vonn looked to the western horizon. "The dungeon ends, 'Not with a bang, but with a whimper.'"

Selen said, "If we're lucky. Come on; let's get our part done."

The village kid who'd been hanging around piped up. "Um, can I watch?"

The soldiers looked irritated, but Selen assured them, "We'll get him out of your way."

#

There was still a job to do, repairing the airboat engine and making sure everyone on the team understood the process. But the army seemed to have the big problem under control now. Everyone was on edge, waiting, all the rest of the day. The core wasn't destroyed yet.

By evening, Polestar and Kotta showed up ragged, dirty and bandaged. They guilt-tripped all the spellcasters into preparing buckets of hot water to wash with, and handing over half their dinners. Ashfall in particular fussed over the stallion's unhealed wounds.

"What happened?" asked Vonn.

Selen said, "Boss fight?"

"A test from Winter's Dragon," Kotta agreed, slumped over a workbench. "But it's done now. Probably. All that's left to do is let the core choke a little more, then kill it."

Vonn and company listened to their story. "You're lucky to be alive," Selen said.

Kotta said, "I can't get killed now. There's too much to do."