The pain woke her as much as the voice, pain like a blade buried low in her back.

“Gwenna.”

She shifted, cried out, then felt a strong hand clamp down on her mouth. When she tried to thrust it away, the pain lanced out into her wrist, shoulder, leg.

“It’s Talal. Don’t shout. The Urghul are right on top of us.”

Talal. So she wasn’t dead. That was a good thing. She tried to nod and the pain spiked up through her neck. She subsided against the mud and reconsidered. Maybe alive wasn’t such a good thing after all.

“Did we . . .” she began, then started coughing, the spasm wracking her so viciously that she passed out all over again.

When she came to once more, she could see more clearly. She was inside somewhere, planks overhead blotting the sun. She could hear water. When she turned her head a fraction she realized she was lying in the ’Kent-kissing water. Talal was cradling her head, eyes wide with concern.

“You blew the bridge,” he murmured. “It worked.”

“Well, thank Hull for that,” she said, her tongue fat and swollen in her mouth.

The leach grimaced. “There’s more. Balendin got across. And a lot of Urghul. They’re attacking the western island now.”

Gwenna forced herself up on one elbow. The pain gouged at her in a dozen places, but she ground her teeth and closed her eyes until it subsided.

“Where are we?”

“Under one of the docks,” he replied. “On the south shore of the eastern island.”

“Thanks for coming after me.”

He gave her a rueful smile. “I didn’t. We thought you were dead.”

“We?”

“Valyn and I.”

She stared, trying to think past the pain and confusion. Talal was there, and Valyn, probably Laith, too, all of them in Andt-Kyl.

“What are you doing here?”

Talal opened his mouth to explain, then shook his head. “There’s no time. I swam over because Balendin’s using the captives, using their terror to hold up the center bridge.”

Gwenna took a moment to absorb that. “All right,” she said, levering herself into a seated position. “How do we stop him?”

The leach glanced down at her leg. “You’re pretty beat up, Gwenna. That ankle’s broken, and I pulled a jagged length of wood out of your back before you woke up. Another inch to the left, and you’d be dead.”

She tested the flesh of her lower back weakly, finding a hastily wrapped field dressing. When she pressed down on the cloth, she almost passed out all over again.

“Just tell me the plan,” she growled.

Talal shook his head helplessly. “Kill the captives. Balendin has himself shielded, but if I can get to them, if I can kill even half, I doubt he’ll have the power to hold up the bridge.”

“Kill half of them?” Gwenna asked, shaking her head weakly. “How are you planning to do that?”