He took the other rope. She didn’t have enough breath to speak, but she could pull her rope through its double ring. Working together, they got the rope structure into place, with its two upper and two lower ropes pulled taut and secured.

The ledge had a little cave cut into it, where a person could tuck in tight out of the rain. The space was half-filled with an object rolled up inside an oiled canvas. Kem uncovered it as Elen caught her breath. She stared, aghast, back across the gap at the stark unfolding of a skirmish.

Xilsi stood, back against the rock face, bowstring drawn as she sighted on the empty path. From the pier, Elen could see farther back along the path. To her surprise, while she’d crossed, Fulmo had moved away from the others and placed himself on the path like a roadblock, so hunched in on himself that he seemed more like a boulder than a living creature. Beyond him, the path curved out of sight around a bend before curving back into Elen’s view.

Several hundred paces from the rope bridge’s ledge, the pursuers had stalled, forced to take shelter to avoid arrows loosed from on high. It took her a bit to find Jirvy, where he was wedged into a rocky gap above. Two of the pursuers were climbing toward him. An arrow struck one in the shoulder, bringing the climber to a halt. From the rear of the column, archers took aim, but their arrows broke against rock on either side of the warden.

Kem moved past her with the bundle. He wasn’t stuck staring. He was doing his job.

But she couldn’t stop looking. Where was the haunt?

She caught movement at the rim of the south wall. Another group of pursuers were gathering up there, seeking a way to climb down to the ledge. From up on the rim they had a clear shot at the ropes. A vivid image of Kem falling to his death with an arrow stuck in his chest flashed in her mind.

“Wait! Kem! I’ll go.”

“Shut up, I’m faster.” His curtness caught her so off guard that he got past her while she was still blinking.

Horribly, he was correct. Having to watch him go churned up every feeling of helplessness she’d ever scoured from her heart after she and Ao had escaped their childhood servitude. It made her twitch as shadows of the past bubbled up in her mind. Because she’d left her gear and her weapons, even her bow, on the ledge, she couldn’t guard him. She just had to stand, sick in her heart and scared—and how she hated being scared without having a single thing she could do except watch.