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"Yes."

"I was admiring the complete absence of survival instinct."

"I have an excellent survival instinct."

We started inland once Dannian's team finished securing their packs, leaving the dock behind until the sound of water against wood disappeared beneath the jungle. The route was technically a trail but calling it one seemed generous.

Earlier survey teams had marked the path with narrow blue tags tied high on tree trunks, but the jungle had spent the intervening months attempting to reclaim everything else. Ferns covered our boots, vines hung low enough to catch packs and new roots had pushed through sections that had once been flattened earth.

Halver returned twice during the first hour. The first time he emerged silently enough beside Alex that he nearly walked into a tree. I enjoyed that more than I should have. Corian crouched beside him while Halver indicated the route ahead with a low movement of his head, then disappeared again.

The route climbed gradually as we moved toward the center of the island. The ground became firmer between the water channels, though we still crossed several shallow streams where clear blue water moved over dark stone. Everything I had learned about the Water Rift existed around me now instead of inside books. Glasswing moths rested beneath leaves with translucent wings folded over their bodies. Long strands of silver moss contracted when Alex brushed one with his sleeve, pulling tight against the tree before slowly relaxing again.

I wanted to stop constantly.

Dannian did stop constantly, which made me feel vindicated.

Unfortunately Corian eventually threatened to assign a time limit to every sample collection if the research team didn't stop turning a four-hour walk into an eight-hour one.

Dannian called him authoritarian.

Corian told him sunset remained unmoved by political opinion.

I liked watching someone else argue with him.

We were perhaps halfway to the camp when Halver returned again. This time he didn't come all the way to us. He appeared through the ferns twenty paces ahead and stopped, head lowered, ears angled forward.

Corian's hand rose.

Everyone halted.

The humor disappeared from the group so quickly it reminded me that, however easy the morning had become, we were still inside a Rift.

Nykos went still, head tilted toward something none of the rest of us could hear.

"What?" His eyes flicked to Halver, then back to the group. "He says he can smell Kelvarin close by."

The telepathy came in useful, sometimes.

I opened my awareness carefully. At first the surrounding jungle crowded everything. Birds, insects, roots, tiny bodies moving beneath leaves.

Then I found them. My attention narrowed immediately.

They were close. Less than fifty paces through the ferns, all three heartbeats racing hard enough that I could distinguish them from the calmer patterns around them. One struggled, stopped, then struggled again. Pain flared through muscle and skin. Another was exhausted and shaking. The third had electrical damage burning through nerves along one forelimb and into the chest.

Everything else disappeared.

"They're hurt."

Corian looked toward me. "What?"

"Three. Small. That way."

Halver's head turned toward the same patch of jungle.

One of the trapped creatures struggled again.

Pain tore through it.