“I’ll fix this.” She rooted through her supply of spare bones. She didn’t have any perfect replacements, which was why she hadn’t replaced them before their journey, but so long as she could get herself and Zera off this cliff... Opening another pack, she located her climbing gear.
“You can’t climb out there. That’s an idiotic idea.”
“You used to like my ideas.”
“Of course. Back when your ideas were ‘let’s save the world,’ not ‘let’s take unnecessary risks’ or ‘let’s violate the laws of nature for personal reasons.’ I question your judgment these days.”
Fair enough,Kreya thought.So do I.She pulled on her climbing harness and then clipped the tether to a metal beam above the entrance hatch. “Get your flight talismans ready.”
“Sad as I am to admit it, they don’t have enough oomph to fly the two of usandthe crawlerandour supplies to safety.” She scooted closer to the door as Kreya opened it.
“Noted.” Wind hit Kreya’s face, and she braced herself. Holding on to the side of the crawler, she stuck her foot out until her toes touched one of the crawler’s legs. Taking a deep breath, she shifted her weight and pushed off the crawler’s body. She clung to the leg.
Zera was still squawking her objections, but Kreya couldn’t hear her over the wind, which was a plus. She affixed another clip to the leg. Bracing herself between the cliff face and the crawler, she positioned herself so she was standing on two legs at once, with her back against the cliff. Her muscles shrieked in protest against the awkward position, but it was the only way to reach the underside of the crawler.
Her heart thudded fast and hard, and she was aware of the amount of nothingness beneath her.Don’t think about it,she ordered herself.Focus on the task.
She studied the bones. One of them, as she’d expected from the lack of motion, was shattered. She could replace that. But the larger problem was the bone thathadn’tfailed, the mountain goat femur that was responsible for steadiness... and the sole reason they hadn’t fallen yet.
It had fractures running through it.
Her heart thumped faster.
One problem at a time,she told herself. If she let herself imagine everything she knew could go wrong, she’d be too paralyzed to do anything. Right now, she had to fix the bone that controlled motion.Get to the top, and worry about the next catastrophe then.
“Be ready!” Kreya called to Zera.
Zera called back, “What’s wrong?”
Focused on the task, she ignored Zera. Her thigh muscles began to shake with the strain of holding her position, but she stayed steady. First, she dislodged the broken bone. She let it fall, tumbling through empty air, as she swept out the remaining shards. She fit the replacement bone into its slot. She drew a knife from her belt and shaved it down so it fit snugly in position. Quickly, she carved the markings that would allow her to access its power. It was a bone from an old sheep, which wasn’t ideal due to the age, but it should last... fifteen minutes? Twenty? Less?
She checked her work once more, making sure the bone was secure, and then glanced down. Very, very far down. Between the mountains, the valley was drowned in swirling mist. She’d never been down there, even at the height of her adventuringdays. There was nothing at the base of the mountains of Vos but death.
That seemed doubly true from this position.
She spoke the word to animate the bone, and the crawler shuddered beneath her touch.
Her muscles screaming at her, Kreya climbed back up inside. She shut the door and stole a second to lean against it, catching her breath. Everything ached, and she knew she’d pay for it later.
“You did it!” Zera cheered.
Kreya didn’t answer as the crawler restarted its climb across the cliff face. She scanned their supplies. They’d need the essentials. Her coat, of course. A canteen of fresh water. Knives, for both defense and carving. Quickly, she added the key items to her pack and secured two of the knives to her belt. “Gather what you can carry. If we don’t make it, we’ll need to fly out of here.”
“You said no flight, remember? Because secrecy.”
Shehadsaid that, but it was better than falling. “I can’t replace the steadiness bone while we’re on the cliff—the crawler will lose its grip if I remove it. If we’re lucky, it’ll last until we’re on flat ground, and I can fix it. If we’re not lucky, we need an escape plan.”
“Still the same Kreya, always with a plan.”
“Wanting to avoid dying is not a personality quirk.”
The crawler lurched across the rock, and Kreya tensed as it faltered. But then it shuddered again and kept going. Zera handed her a flight talisman, and Kreya examined it. The markings had been inlaid with a matte silverlike metal that Kreya didn’t recognize, which probably meant it cost more than a small village. “The activation word is ‘renari.’”
“How far will these fly us?” Kreya asked.
Zera hesitated.
Kreya narrowed her eyes. “I’m not one of your customers. Tell me the truth.”
