She’d already set down her pack and taken off her boots. The air was cold on her feet, a risk since cold feet got stiff and clumsy, but the distance wasn’t far. She had the benefit of two ropes, one for her feet and one overhead to hold on to. She looped the safety rope so it would drag along the upper rope in case she lost her grip, and set the two ropes to unspool behind her as she crossed.

The wind running down the canyon pushed at her back as she grimly edged forward. The tough fiber of the rope ground into the soles of her feet as she rocked unsteadily, ignoring the flashes of pain. Her hand on the upper rope gripped as she swayed. It was so far down.

Don’t look.

A shout rang out in the distance, back along the path. Elen’s right foot slipped, dangling over the air, and part of her weight dragged on the safety loop. Teeth gritted, hands gripped so tight they ached, she struggled to regain her calm, her looseness.

“Relax!” shouted Kem. “Breathe! In, slow. Out, slow. Slide one step, right foot, left foot. There you go. I’ll count down. Twenty. Nineteen.”

Eighteen. Seventeen.

The wind snarled in her hair, rumbled at the loose ropes, pushed and pushed and pushed so unforgivingly. The wind wanted her to fall. The air was malevolent. But she held on to Kem’s voice. He was using the exact same brightly neutral tone he’d learned from her, that blessed child.

“Thirteen. Twelve.”

More shouts were followed by a shriek, but there was nothing she could do for those she’d left behind. She had to cross. Ten. Nine.

Another shout, this one turning into a falling scream, but it was all taking place behind her back, so she couldn’t see.

She mustn’t look back.

Ipis whooped with triumph. Simo shouted, “Head down!”

Elen ducked her head. An arrow wobbled past, close enough that she might have grabbed it, had she good enough balance. Damn! She caught sight of the river below. So far below. A spurt of nausea destabilized her.

“Don’t look!” called Kem. “Eyes on your hands. Four. Three.”

A gust of wind shuddered her hard. Both her feet slipped off the rope. She hung by her fingers, most of her weight dangling in the safety loop. Kicking back, she desperately tried to get her feet back on the rope, but she couldn’t catch it.

A strong hand grasped her right arm. Kem swung her back to the rope, she got purchase, and with a heave and a “Ho!” she dropped onto the ledge, kneeling, panting.

“Don’t think I don’t know why you did it like that,” he scolded. “Like you were testing me to make sure I secured the rope. I wouldn’t have let you fall.”

“I know.”

“Here, get this rope strung through.”