Page 161 of Zenith Tower

Hale caught his coat before his injured side struck the ground. The brace hit stone behind his boots hard enough to send the impact through the boards at the foot of the bridge.

The alarm disappeared with the tunnel.

Cold night opened around us.

For the first time since entering the Tower, there was no stone above my head. Clouds moved across a narrow moon,and the air smelled of wet leaves instead of minerals. I dragged in a breath deep enough to hurt.

“Across,” Hale said.

The bridge stretched into the dark, its boards silvered by the Tower’s light. Black water lay far below. I had crossed toward the Tower watching only my next step. Now the far end looked impossibly distant.

Hale took Kieran’s left side. I moved beneath Caspian’s arm again, careful not to press his ribs. Delphine went ahead of us.

Her first step onto the bridge stopped her.

I remembered her initials cut into the tunnel wall. She had crossed this bridge once before, days after the west door closed behind her, moving toward the Tower with no choice about where she was being taken. No one had allowed her to turn back.

“Delphine.”

She looked back.

“Keep going.”

Her mouth trembled. Then she faced the far side and stepped onto the next board.

We crossed as quickly as the injured men could manage. The boards shifted beneath our combined weight. Wind came over the water and flattened my dress against my legs.

Halfway across, light appeared behind us.

A narrow silver line opened beneath the iron brace at the tunnel mouth.

“They’re raising it,” Kieran said.

Hale tightened his hold. “Don’t turn around.”

Kieran did anyway. His foot caught the edge of a board.

Kieran’s pain tore through my wrist when Hale caught him beneath the arms. Caspian shifted his weight away from me to keep us both upright, and Caspian’s line tightened with the effort.

For one terrible beat, none of us moved.

The bridge swayed beneath our feet. Kieran’s breath came fast against Hale’s shoulder. Caspian’s fingers dug into my upper arm.

“I have you,” Hale said.

Kieran nodded once.

We moved again.

The silver line behind us widened. I heard the brace lift another fraction, iron dragging through its housing.

Delphine reached the far end first.

She stepped from the final board onto solid ground and turned immediately, her repaired hand extended toward us. Hale passed Kieran to her long enough to clear the last uneven join. I helped Caspian down beside them.

The trees swallowed most of the Tower’s light. A cart waited beneath their cover, set back from the path with dark cloth tied over its lamps. The horse shifted when it saw us, harness leather creaking in the quiet.

Two women stood beside it.