They climbed on. The weather remained stable, interrupted by occasional gusts of wind that came and went without warning. They made the climb challenging but exciting. Nobody complained. The cliff offered numerous handholds and narrow ledges, and Nomi fell into an exhausted rhythm.

THEY HEARD IT before they saw it.

They were climbing with quiet concentration. Nomi had already spotted the rent in the cliff face directly above Ramin—Rhiana had climbed past it, and Noon hung a dozen steps along the cliff—and when the low growl sounded, that was the first place she looked.

There was nothing to see. But the sound came again, like a rumbling stomach. She glanced around, wondering whether thunder was rolling in from the distance.

When she looked up again, Rhiana was gesturing to Noon and Ramin. She put her finger to her lips, leaned back and took a small crossbow from her belt.

“What is it?” Beko whispered below her.

“Hole in the cliff.”

“Cave?”

Nomi shrugged. “It's coming from there. I think Rhiana—”

The noise came again, this time a definite growl.

Nomi heard Beko climbing, pulling himself up the cliff face to reach her level. She looked up at Ramin where he hung suspended a few steps below the wound in the rock face. He was motionless and silent, head bent back so that he could look up, one hand grasping the long, curved knife he had taken from his belt.

Rhiana was above and to the right of the hole, trusting her ropes completely as she leaned back into space. She held the crossbow in her left hand, its aim sure and unwavering.

“Ramin!” Nomi whispered. “Move back down.”

Ramin shook his head slowly, gently, and Nomi wondered what he could see or sense up there.

Beko drew level with her. “Take this,” he said, offering her a knife similar to the one Ramin bore.

“I don't—”

Beko scowled at her and drew his own sword, careful not to scrape it against the stone.

They waited, Ramin just below the hole, Rhiana and Noon above and to the right, Nomi and Beko lower down and to the left, and listened to the growls growing in volume and frequency. Nomi splayed one hand against the rock, feeling for any sign of movement.

And then something came out of the hole on the cliff. A long snout, covered with scales and spiked with thick black hairs, sniffling and twitching at the air. It was at least as long as Ramin was tall, Nomi guessed, and the two clawed hands that appeared around the edges of the hole were the size of her head.

Nobody fired, nobody spoke; everyone became as still as stone.