Yenni, too, was unhappy with how things had ended between them. She held no ill will toward Carmenna, and had never quite shaken off her guilt at breaking her promise to not fall for Weysh, though the arrogance of her promise seemed ludicrous now. She was glad the other woman wanted to talk. But she remembered the clock tower chiming seven a while ago—it had to be close to the eighth hour now.

She wrote a quick note to Weysh that she would be meeting Carmenna and would find her way home. Then she painted on her runes, including focus—no matter what these Creshens thought, she would not be caught unawares again. Then she grabbed her spring-spear and set out.

“I know it’s a bit off the beaten path, but all the best places are.”

Yenni had taken the tram into the city with Carmenna, and now they were skulking through the Creshen Southern Quarter, which was an interesting place, to say the least. It was much quieter than anywhere she’d been in Cresh, not nearly as crowded. It felt shadowed somehow. There were gas lamps lining the streets as opposed to magic lanterns, and the homes and shops were largely dark, no warm light glowing from within. Yenni had to hurry to keep up with Carmenna’s long-legged strides.

Carmenna took her up a set of dark steps, between cold, empty houses that seemed long abandoned. The way they squeezed in on her reminded her uncomfortably of the alley where the Creshen thugs had robbed her.

“What is this place? It seems like there is nothing here,” said Yenni.

Carmenna only laughed. “That’s what everyone says, but you’ll see. We’re almost there.”

The stairs opened to a flat, grassy landing that cut off abruptly. A drop to the canal lay ahead, while empty, staring houses loomed behind. What, by all the Mothers and Fathers was going on? There truly was nothing there, certainly no place to eat. Yenni whirled to face Carmenna.

“What—”

“Sleep by source, wake no time soon.”

38

The world jerked and swayed around Yenni, pulling her from sleep. Was she dreaming, or did she hear muffled screams? Her shoulders and hips hurt and she could tell she was lying on something hard but supple, like a hammock but also not like a hammock. Fighting through the fog of sleep, she opened her eyes.

She was outside, that much she knew. Humid night air clung to her skin, but her tired, disoriented brain could make little sense of the strange landscape surrounding her. Dark, forested mountains loomed in the distance, but there were also little patches of forest on thick, plateaued pillars all around her with wooden bridges, many of them broken or rotted away, connecting them like some massive spider web.

Clunky footsteps approached, shaking whatever she was lying on. A shadow blocked out the moonlight.