“Or they could make better time along the rim and come down from above,” said Elen.

The haunt laughed. Simo muttered words under his breath.

Luviara eyed the cliff face that rose above them. “Could they?”

“It’s climbable, so sure, they could, depending on how determined they are to murder an exalted highness and whether they have a theurgist with them.” The last part of the comment was a guess on Elen’s part.

“Unlikely,” muttered Luviara. Elen could only hope the interlocutor was correct.

Jirvy pulled off his indigo scarf, deftly unknotted it, and reknotted it with the other side of the scarf showing: this a bland yellow-brown-green fabric that gave his head some camouflage. “Your Highness, I’ll set up a perimeter watch.”

The haunt grinned in a way that made him look like a hungry man who’d just been told there’s a grand feast waiting. “I’ll come with you, Jirvy.”

“Your Highness, that’s not wise,” objected Simo.

“I do believe it is, since I have it on the best authority that I am an adept of the bow and the spear. By which authority I mean my own. Do you doubt my prowess?”

Simo hesitated, unwilling to send the prince into danger and yet unable to question his skills.

“You’ll act as decoys. They won’t see me or Jirvy.” The haunt’s expression grew serious, even grim. “If I cannot defend those who serve me, then why should they serve me? Xilsi, set yourself up among the rocks, in case any get past us.”

Jirvy flashed a glance at Xilsi, with a twitch like a sneer of triumph that he was chosen to attend the prince, while she was left behind. He and the haunt scrambled up the back of the ledge and made their way back by climbing above the path. Where the rock face curved away, they vanished from sight. Xilsi found an overhang where she could crouch, bow in hand, with an open line of sight to where the path reached the ledge.

Elen turned to Kem. “Are you ready?”

He looked her straight in the eye. “I’ll do what I must, as a warden, and to save the prince.”

“As if you don’t relish the challenge,” she added with a quirk of her lips, but he just shrugged, rejecting her overture. No matter. She was patient.

She added, “I’ll take the upper rope and fix it at the pier. You’ll follow with the securing ropes.”

He shook his head in his usual know-it-all fashion. “I should go first. It’s not that you’re not strong—you can walk for days without faltering—but I’m stronger in the upper body. I’ve been training with Joef on the boulders, and taking winter cherry to bulk up my muscles.”