somewhere above them. Together they looked up to try to see where the rope had come from.

The dark silhouette of a head and shoulders looked back down at them, contrasted against the blue sky. The figure shouted something, but the distance between them muffled the sound into an unintelligible murmur.

Nathaniel stood up.

“Wait,” Annyka said.

She reached down and untied a leather strap that ran around Ashidi’s waist. Her dagger and sheath fell off onto the stony shore, and Annyka passed them up to him.

He took it from her, and tied the strap around his own waist.

“Be careful,” she said as he adjusted the sheath so it hung neatly by his hip. “We don’t know if we can trust whoever’s up there.”

“I’ll be fine,&rdquo...

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