Page 162 of Zenith Tower

One had already started toward us.

“Rev?”

She reached me at a run and stopped only long enough to look at my face. Then her arms closed around me.

She smelled of flour, woodsmoke, and the lavender soap her grandmother kept beside the kitchen sink. The scent belonged to a life before hearings and locked rooms. My knees nearly gave under it.

Iron scraped inside the tunnel behind us.

Rev released me. “Cart. Now.”

She took Caspian’s uninjured side before he could object. He allowed it, which told me more about his pain than his face had.

Cosima had not moved.

She stood near the covered lamps with one hand at her throat, staring at Delphine.

Delphine stared back.

Cosima held out her hand. “Can you climb?”

Delphine took it. “Yes.”

Rev helped Caspian beneath the rear canvas. Hale followed with Kieran, one hand braced behind his injured shoulder. Delphine climbed in beside them. I was the last to leave the ground.

Metal struck stone behind us. The brace had reached the top of its housing.

Cosima took the reins. Rev knelt beside Caspian while I held a strip of linen around his ribs.

The horse pulled us into the trees.

Shapes appeared at the tunnel mouth as the cart reached the first turn. No shout followed. Either the stewards had not seen us beneath the trees or the dark cloth over the lamps had done its work.

I watched the Tower through a gap in the canvas until the trunks closed over it.

Rev pulled the linen firm around Caspian’s ribs and tied it off. “This will keep you from twisting. It will not fix a cracked rib. If breathing gets harder, tell me immediately.”

His face had gone white, but his breathing deepened once the linen held him steady.

She wedged a folded blanket beneath Kieran’s injured arm and showed Hale how to keep the shoulder from shifting when the cart turned.

At the first bend, Cosima slowed the horse long enough for Rev to take the reins. Cosima climbed beneath the rear canvas and settled beside Delphine.

For a moment, they only looked at each other.

“Do you know me?” Cosima asked.

Delphine’s fingers tightened over the front of her coat. “In pieces. Enough to know you.”

Cosima inhaled sharply. “I thought you were dead.”

“That was what they told everyone.”

Cosima held out both hands without moving closer.

Delphine looked at them, then stepped into her arms.

Cosima embraced her carefully. Delphine pressed her face against Cosima’s neck and held on while the cart rocked beneath them.