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Above them, the thread of light weaves an uncertain line into the distance, then disappears.

Dawsyn sighs. “To the end,” she says, though she is not filled with conviction, nor determination. No. It is the last vestiges of survival that cling to her now, propelling her forward. Idleness is her enemy, as it has always been.

It is close,she thinks to herself.Around the next bend.And yet, her legs do not allow her to stand.

“Come, malishka,” Ryon says, wincing as he stands beside her. “This is no place to give up.” He proffers a hand.

Dawsyn shakes her head at the ground, pulling rattling breaths through her teeth. How utterly stubborn they must all be, to return to the path. “First,” Dawsyn says, “someone pull this fucking arrow from my shoulder.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

“If you’ve cured them, why do they drop like stones round each bend?” Alvira snarls.

The iskra witch stands before her, nervously eyeing the mare that Alvira holds by the reigns. The horses don’t seem to be taking well to the dark. Either that or they’ve sensed something most sinister in this god-forsaken pit. It spooks them. If left a moment unleashed, they sprint down the Chasm. They have already lost two of them.

As for the Ledge runaways, they’ve lost plenty more. Fifteen, by her count. “I thought you’d found a way to drive out that madness,” Alvira snaps when Yennes doesn’t respond. She wouldn’t be surprised to learn the witch was mad herself. It was likely what made her so pliable.

“I have. But magic is finite,” her eyes turn distant as she says it. “I cannot not spare enough to cure them allandfold you back to Terrsaw.”

Alvira groans. Already this trip grows tiresome, and they’ve barely travelled a day. “How many still have the…infection?”

“I do not know,” Yennes admits. “But it is not only the sickness that fells them. They are weak. They have gone without food–”

“Daft fucking lunatic,” Alvira mutters. “What use would it have been, walking these people to death?”

Yennes merely remains silent. Smart of her.

“The food stores will see them to Terrsaw,” Alvira says firmly. “They will live if they don’t kill themselves along the way.”

“They will die if the voices are not driven out,” Yennes says. “And if I must fold with you, then I cannot expend it on curing them. Already, my power is depleted.”

Alvira makes a sound of frustration and turns her head to those who litter the Chasm floor. Dirty little creatures. All of them. Covered head to toe in badly stitched hide and fur, faces blackened with filth. And thesmell…

Alvira sighs. She would rather cut off her nose than stay in this corner of hell a moment longer. But should this party return to Terrsaw without the numbers she needs, Alvira feels certain the new Glacian King will cut off far more.

“Cure them,” she commands, ever the leader, the first to sacrifice. “We need them alive.”

Yennes nods and Alvira detects relief in the way the witch’s chest sags.

“But if you warn them,” Alvira says, “if you utter a singular treasonous word against me, I’ll consider our arrangement voided. Do you understand?”

Again, the witch nods but says nothing. She disappears quickly into the mess of humans.

Alvira, however, turns back to her mare. She mounts it after several moments of gritting her teeth and willing her strength not to fail. Her backside falls into the saddle and a lancing pain shoots up her back. She is too old to be riding. Too old to be forging through Chasms. Alvira pushes herself upright. “Ruby,” she calls in no particular direction. “Someone bring her to me.Now.”

She hears the voices of the guards volleying the message and moments later, Ruby arrives on foot.

Alvira suppresses a sneer. She is loath to see the woman back in Terrsaw armour. But the stripes of her authority as captain are at the very least missing.

“Your Majesty,” Ruby greets.

The captain stripes may have vanished, but noticeably still present is the bold glint in her eye. A shame the dungeons had not snuffed it.

“I am to travel on ahead with an assemblage of guards,” Alvira says. “The iskra witch will not fold me away after all.”

Ruby frowns, then nods obediently.

“You will ensure the rest of these…peopleare brought to Terrsaw alive. Force the iskra witch to heal and cure at knife point if you must. They are no good to us dead.”