Lyra dove.
The cliff's edge shattered under her boots as she dropped to her knees, arm outstretched into open air. "Kaal!"
Her fingers curled around nothing.
She swore. Loudly. Furiously.
Wind screamed up the cliffside, flinging mist and grit into her eyes. Nothing below but jagged rock and silence.
Then, faint, strained, "Still… here."
Lyra exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
She leaned forward, cautiously, scanning the drop.
Twenty feet down, a narrow ledge clung to the mountain. Kaal was on it, one arm twisted into a clutch of roots, cloak fluttering in the wind like a flag of surrender.
"Well," she muttered, pulling rope from her pack, "you don't do anything halfway, do you?"
Behind her, the ledge where they'd stood moments before was empty.
The shadow-figure was gone.
But Lyra could still feel it, like a pressure behind her eyes, a weight on her skin.
Later. First things first.
She looped the rope around a spike of stone, tested it with a grunt, then began her descent. Her fingers ached from the cold, but her movements were sharp, practiced. One mistake, and she'd be down there with him, without the ledge to stop her fall.
Kaal looked up when she reached him. His face was bloodied, scraped raw by stone and fear.
"You came," he rasped.
Lyra cocked her head. "You thought I'd climb halfway up a mountain and let you splatter just to avoid paperwork?"
He blinked. "Kind of?"
She grinned. "Fair."
She hauled him up, arm over her shoulder, muscles burning as she forced them both upright. "You owe me," she panted. "Big time."
He didn't argue.
They climbed.
It took longer than she liked to climb back up, but they made it. Her arms shook as she pulled them over the edge and collapsed beside him on the rocky trail. For a few moments, neither of them moved.
Above, the clouds were darker now. Rolling.
Lyra sat up first, eyes scanning the trail. Still no sign of the thing that had been watching them.
That thing. That something.
It had moved like mist and shadow, soundless, instant.
And it had looked at them.
Not like prey.
Like a question. Like it was more confused about them.
She shook it off and turned to Kaal. He was sitting up now, breathing shallowly, one arm cradling his ribs.
"Broken?" she asked, nodding at his side.
"Probably," he admitted. "Hurts to think."
"Good. Means you're alive."
She stood and scanned the trail. The blood-slick rocks, the silent trees, the distant ruins still visible through the mist.
Whatever had been stalking them was gone. For now.
"We need shelter," she said. "You're in no shape to keep walking."
Kaal looked like he wanted to argue, but pain made his point for him. He nodded once.
They moved slowly, Kaal leaning heavily on her. A mile or so down the trail, they found a shallow cave beneath an outcrop of stone, barely enough space for the two of them, but dry and hidden.
Lyra settled Kaal against the back wall, using her coat to cushion the stone.
Then she pulled out a small packet of herbs and water from her pack, muttering as she mixed a poultice.
Kaal watched her. "You've done this before."
She shot him a dry look. "You don't grow up in a guild full of backstabbers and not learn basic first aid."
"I thought assassins were more about leaving wounds than treating them."
"Assassins live longer when they know both. Hold still. And if you scream, I swear I'll throw you back down."
She pressed the poultice to his ribs.
She worked quickly, efficiently. He hissed but didn't flinch.
"I saw it," he said finally.
She glanced at him. "What?"
"That thing. On the ridge. It didn't move like anything I know."
"Nothing here is anything you know but same," she said. "It was fast. Too fast. And it didn't make a sound."
"Or leave a trace."
"Whatever it is… it's following us."
He nodded slowly. "Why?"
"How would I know? Maybe it's curious. Maybe it's hungry. Maybe it's just bored."
Kaal exhaled. "Comforting."
She leaned back against the stone, closing her eyes for a moment. Her limbs ached. Her thoughts wouldn't quiet.
Then: "You were lucky."
"I fell off a cliff."
"And you landed on a ledge. That's lucky."
Kaal gave a faint smile. "I'll add that to my gratitude journal."
Silence again.
Then Lyra said, more quietly, "You're not allowed to die yet."
He turned his head. "Oh?"
"Because if you die, I don't get my pardon. And I'm not dragging your royal corpse through these mountains for closure."
Kaal's voice was soft. "Understood."
She didn't look at him.
The cave was dark. The fire they didn't light felt like a hole in the world.
But they were alive.
And tomorrow, they'd keep going.
Even if something was still watching.