Yenni ripped the cloth from her mouth, untied her legs, and stood, wobbling on the shaky bridge. When she reached Carmenna the other woman had tears running down her face. Yenni yanked her gag free. “I’m sorry!” she cried. “He threatened me! He said—”

“Be quiet.” Yenni said it softly, but Carmenna must have heard the tirade underneath as she hung her head, silent. Yenni removed Carmenna’s ties, then surveyed the surroundings as Carmenna stood, rubbing her wrists. Their bridge stretched between two of the huge plateaus, both of them, impossibly, with grand trees growing out of the rock. The trees were sparse enough that she could see through them with the help of her focus rune, and it was clear that on either plateau there was no other connecting bridge.

“We have to get out of here before Noriago returns,” said Carmenna.

“Noriago?” cried Yenni. “That was Noriago? But he was apprehended!”

Carmenna sniffled. “He wasn’t. It was a ruse. He told me to mention that he had been apprehended around one of his classmates and the rumor would spread, and Weysh would let his guard down.”

“Mothers and Fathers!” Yenni shouted in Yirba.

“What?”

“Ah!” she said, angrily waving Carmenna away. How were they to get free? Dread pooled in her stomach as she surveyed their situation. The only way out was down, a long way down to sharp rocks that thrust up like stakes. The edges of the gorge seemed impossibly far. “Do you know of a spell that can make us fly?” Yenni asked, because that was what it would take to reach them.

“No,” Carmenna whispered. “It would take a Magus’s skill to get across. I was hoping you had a rune.”

“Even if I did, my satchel with my paint is gone, as well as my spear.” She rounded suddenly on Carmenna, her frustration reaching a crescendo. “Why would you do this?!”

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! He knows where my family lives. He said if I didn’t do as he said he would he would fly straight to my home and set it ablaze with my brothers inside, long before I could alert the peacekeepers. And I thought even gagged, you could escape with your runes. I planned to go straight to the peacekeepers once he let me go, but he must have guessed and he kidnapped me too. I—” She cut off at Yenni’s upheld hand.

“None of that matters. We must now find our way out of this gorge.” And they would have to do it on their own, because the one who could have rescued her could no longer track her scent.