Rhiana tore her gaze from Ramin's butchered corpse at last and looked directly down at the Voyager. Does she blame me? Nomi wondered. Is this all my fault? First Konrad, now Ramin. Do I attract death simply because I once gave it away?

“It's dead,” she said.

“What the piss is it?” Noon said. His voice was strained, muscles still tensed from holding on to the slashed rope.

“Never seen anything like it,” Beko said. “Like a bat with scales.”

“Eight legs,” Rhiana said. “If it had taken flight, we'd have been finished. We have to cut him down.”

“Stay here,” Beko said, leaning closer to Nomi to whisper the words. He made his way slowly up beside Nomi and then across the cliff face above her, pausing as he arrived close enough to Ramin to touch the dead Serian's body.

Rhiana tugged the dead thing back from the edge of its hole, making sure it could not tumble out and take Nomi and Beko with it.

“This doesn't feel right,” Beko said.

Rhiana lowered herself from the hole, found a footing and carefully descended the few steps to Beko. “There's no choice,” she said softly. Nomi was shocked to see that the Serian was crying.

Nomi turned away. She did not want to see their grief. She did not want to see them cut Ramin free, though she heard Beko's grunt as the corpse fell away, and she caught movement from the corner of her eye as he tumbled down, down the way they had come. Most of all, she wanted to look away from the second death her voyage had caused.

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

CLIMBING THE CHIMNEY was easy. It was a massive fault in the cliff face, varying in width from a few steps to dozens. Its walls were rough and textured, providing many handholds and footrests, and for a long time Ramus and Lulah did not need to use the equipment they had scavenged from the campsite. The rope was heavy across Ramus's shoulder, the gear clanking where he had strung it around his waist on a leather belt. His hands burned, his feet ached, but he was ecstatic with their progress. It also helped, he believed, that climbing the chimney meant they could not see the whole expanse of the cliff around them. It was a long way up and down, but their views were often blocked by protruding rocks. The scale of the Divide was shattering, but here they could concentrate.

There were places where water ran down from far above, and they drank and filled their water skins. It tasted pure and fresh. Lulah found a species of insect grub that lived in shallow cracks in the rock walls, and though they looked disgusting they tasted sweet and nutty, and they both filled their pockets with the things. Ramus could tell that the grubs were full of energy.