The fourth desk bit through a strip of brewery tin and kept chewing after Palla pulled her hand away.
The strip had come from a keg label. One end remained between her fingers while the other vanished below the Meren plate. Each turn of the hidden wheel shortened it by the width of a nail.
Davi lowered his rifle toward the gap. "Commander Vey ordered two local witnesses. His order said nothing about either witness feeding a hand into this machine for proof."
"You agreed to watch me learn which part eats witnesses."
The second witness leaned over the desk with flour still ground into the seams of her coat. Her brewery tag read FENN JOR above FERMENTATION FLOOR. Palla remembered her under the west wall, using a keg lever as if six human sized hands were another bad shift.
Fenn pinched the remaining tin. "That label belongs to a barrel holding the third cellar roof, so I want both pieces returned."
