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I shouldn’t be so comforted by his response, but the thought of meaning that much to Wren — it soothes the tightness in my chest, and I put the bowl to my mouth gratefully.

Rannoch and Wren have finished whatever back and forth they had, and Kaden turns from me to face them.

“I’ll teach you my tongue, Wren, if you’d like. ”

She’s just taken a sip from her own bowl and chokes on the liquid at his words; Kaden’s eyes widen almost imperceptibly at her response before he full out grins at her. “You said you wanted to learn another language …”

“Yes. Of course. The broth was hot. I’d appreciate that, Kaden.” She is strangely breathless. The teeth against my ribs are back.

Still grinning, he hums under his breath as he moves away from me to tend the fire.

It draws my eyes up, and then up and up and up.

There’s enough light left in the dying sky to still shadow the world around us, and though the land is rapidly fading from dim to dark, I can still see enough to catch my lungs in something close to panic.

“The sky?—”

Wren and Rannoch nod in understanding; Kaden is more puzzled.

“What?” he asks, glancing our way with a confused smile on his face.

“It’s so…so big,” I say numbly, and his brow furrows.

“It’s the sky?” He’s not judging or disdainful, just curious, and Rannoch shrugs.

“It’s more open than we’re used to,” he tries to explain. “Everything in our village is always in the shade of the mountains, in the curve of our walls. And we don’t leave. Well, not many. The Hunters go beyond the bones, but even that is rare. This much space is new for us.”

“There are mountains…” Kaden says, motioning to the sides, but they are lower, and more distant. They’re softer than the jagged, obsidian peaks of our home, curved and curling.

The three of us from the village exchange looks. It’s difficult to explain to someone who hasn’t grown up with the comfort of being surrounded, wrapped in the land and the city like a blanket.

“The ground is strange too,” I muse, pressing a hand into it. It gives way slightly under my fingers, the grass thick and smooth, not sharp and sparse.

“It’s called a wetland,” Wren interjects, pushing her own hands into the soil, a glimmer of a smile on her face.

“There’s water just under the surface, Kaden says.

The entire way along here. The land grows in colors I’ve never seen, Tahrik!

Wait until morning light; your eyes will hurt from it all!

” I like to see her happy, but the feel of the ground beneath me doesn’t give me the same comfort; tiny flickers of anxiety run along my skin.

Something she says pushes at my brain, but I can’t figure it out. Too much is unknown.

“What’s a Corpse Bridge? That sounds fairly ominous!

” I try to inject some levity into my words.

It seems like Rannoch and Wren trust the Trader to some degree, but the Trade ended so badly, and there is so much that we don’t know.

The more information I can get, the sooner we can form a plan, and more flies are caught with honey than vinegar.

So until I find my footing, I need to smile.

“And why can’t we stay here? Where are we traveling?

How did we find you? How long was I out?

” The questions, once started, pour from me, unable to be stoppered.

Kaden stares into the fire for enough time that I’m about to repeat myself, when he answers me.

“This is our second full day here, setting into the third. But it needs to be our last. Rannoch and Wren haven’t said much about your time in the tunnels.

Just that it was…for too long.” He swallows hard, eyes darting quickly to Wren and then back to the fire, taking a deep breath before continuing.

“To o long by half and then some. We’re close to three weeks of time since I left your village, the second day in the Slaughter Month now. ”

“Ten days then, give or take.” Shivers run through me. The rains start in the Month of the Earth; Wren sees it, as she always does, and smiles gently at me.

“It’s alright, Tahrik. Kaden says it doesn’t storm in the same way here. The rain is safe when it falls.”

When it falls, when it falls . Suddenly the buried memory of our last few moments in the village stabs me like a knife, and I fold over in pain. Surprisingly, it’s Rannoch who offers comfort. “Breathe. Breathe,” he murmurs, gripping my shoulder in joyless commiseration.

“Our people!” I choke out, and he sighs.

“I know. Put it away for now if you can. We’ll figure it out.”

“We have to go back! Sun and Earth!” Flashes of light burst in and out of existence behind my closed eyes, and I feel dizzy.

“Breathe, Tahrik. I know. ”

Kaden’s voice is heavy with sympathy. “They told me of the tragedy. The avalanche and earthquake. But also that the tunnels collapsed behind you, and you couldn’t retrace your steps.

You’re lucky you made it through at all; I don’t know how you managed.

The caverns beneath the canyonlands are unnavigable.

Enough have tried and failed that no one ever attempts it anymore.

The ways crumble and shift too quickly to map it; to even think of it is a death sentence.

” There is, if not accusation in his tone, at least biting curiosity that he is unable to hide.

“You are lucky, beyond lucky. Blessed by the Sea and Sky, by the Gods old and new. But they exacted a price for their gift, I’d say.

You came from the caves barely living, dead on your feet.

We’re far enough north on the Bridge that it makes no sense to go south right now to the path that leads back to your village, if the way is even open after the rockslides. ”

Poking the fire, he grabs another log and throws it on, almost as though he’s trying to distract himself. “Anyway. It makes more sense to take you to my home first; we’re close enough that the journey shouldn’t be too hard. We can heal you up there, and then decide how to proceed.”

Nodding reluctantly, I agree. “I suppose.” If we’re that near, it will give us a chance to get packs, rations, water, perhaps even mounts. And then we can go back. I won’t risk Wren’s health on a wasted desire to return more quickly, no matter how large the sky looms overhead.

“From what Wren and Rannoch have said, these coming months aren’t the time to go in any case. You don’t have the reserves to make it through, especially now, given your current state. So we have until the Month of the Maiden to make our choices.”

“The Maiden ?” The words bursts from me, appalled. “No. No . That’s too long. If we load up with supplies, once we’re recovered, we could…if we take enough, we could help! The people…our homes…”

Rannoch and Wren exchange an inscrutable look, and suddenly I realize what has been tugging at my attention, what has been creeping on my skin. The way she has held their gazes, the way she’s moved without hesitation. The land grows in colors I’ve never seen…

“Wren…?” Shock sends a tremor through her name.

She looks at me and sighs, and because we are each half of the other, I know she knows what I’m asking. “Rannoch already knew, Rik.” Her use of Davvy’s nickname for me twists in my stomach.

“He…you told him?” Something close to betrayal laces my words, and I have to swallow back the sound.

“No, Miller,” he replies for her, voice tight, eyes narrow. “I knew. I’ve known for years. You’re not the only one with eyes, you know.”

And I hear what he’s saying, but more, I hear what he means, and I realize that what we have is an uneasy truce, not an alliance.

“And Kaden?”

“Ah, well. Kaden was told in a moment of panic and sworn to secrecy on blood. And complied with the…let’s call it a request…

quickly and without complaining, may I add.

When Wren was frantically fluttering between two unconscious men and threw caution to the wind in favor of care.

” He is teasing, gentle with his response, but clearly seeing something on my face I meant to keep hidden, changes the topic.

“All your other questions are answered together, Tahrik. The Corpse Bridge is a long stretch of land connecting the Lower Kingdom with mine. One side is the Canyonlands, what Wren says you call the Belows. The other side is bordered with bogs so wet and deep they suck any traveler down in a single step, trapped beneath the surface forever. There’s no way through them, for man or beast. The bogs lead to the ocean.

The name — Corpse Bridge — it’s a relic from the Great Wars.

So many died here, caught between the Kingdoms, that every step was nothing but bodies and blood.

And the history still lives in this land; some things can’t be washed away.

It’s not a safe place for anyone.” He pauses, clearly trying to choose his words carefully now.

“I’m not trying to discount your experiences — any of you — but there are dangers here you can’t imagine.

” Voice pitched low, Kaden glances around, shoulders tight.

“You’re from a place where you look inward for threats.

Or to the Gods. Here — we need our eyes up and looking out.

We don’t live in the same isolation. There are daggers in the night. ”

Rannoch shifts uneasily, hand dropping to the blade at his waist, and subtly steps closer to Wren. “Closer to the fire, Keeper, if you please.” It’s half a command, half an entreaty, and though she casts him a wry look, she stands gracefully and moves toward the roaring blaze.