a hand against the hidden lump of the amulet and grimaced. Lizaveta’s aid had not come without price. That escape was lost to him.
Dev raised his head. Kiran had one glimpse of the meditative calm on his face before Dev was gone, climbing away from the ledge with languid, flowing grace. He moved up the cliff as freely as if the ground waited mere inches away instead of a hundred feet below. The utter confidence in every line of his body eased the churning of Kiran’s stomach.
Dev’s pace slowed as the angle of the cliff increased. He shifted only a single hand or foot at a time, with precise, unhurried control. Kiran still couldn’t understand how Dev could cling to such a sheer surface, let alone ascend it. But Dev twisted, and reached, and stepped, all with that same sinuous grace. Kiran began to relax as Dev neared the red seam.
For the first time, Dev hesitated. He leaned back, the muscles standing out like ropes under the brown skin of his back and arms. Reached a hand out, then withdrew it. Stretched upward, and slid his fingers over the rock, as if searching for a hold.
Kiran clenched a sweaty hand around a piton. He remembered the fiery ache in his forearms and hands after mere minutes of ascent. How long could Dev cling to such tiny imperfections in the cliff face? How long before even the most well-trained muscles must give way?
Dev held still for an agonizing interval. At last he straightened his arms and sank down into a twisted crouch. He rocked once, twice...and sprang upward, his body fully extended in the air. Kiran’s breath froze in his chest. Clearly he’d been right, before. Dev was insane.
At the apex of his jump, Dev’s reaching fingertips locked with unerring accuracy on the crystalline lip of the red layer. His arms flexed, taking his weight—and one hand lost its grip. Dev’s body jerked. He swung from his remaining hand, clawing at the rock with his feet.
Kiran’s heart leapt into his throat. He scrambled to his knees. He had only to release his barriers... He raised a hand; then dropped it, and sank back. Sick certainty cramped his gut. He couldn’t face the unceasing hell that awaited, should Ruslan reclaim him. Kiran covered his face with his hands. Alisa would never have condoned a man’s death, for any reason. Yet another way in which he’d failed her, though not the worst.
He’d dreaded the sound of Dev’s scream, but the loudest sound remained that of his own thudding heart. Kiran peeked through his fingers.
Dev hung from the edge of the red seam in a contortion of limbs. One foot was wedged high over his head, the other leg doubled up beneath the hand he’d jammed between the rock layers. With his free hand, he was busily working a piton into the crack.
Kiran sagged against the cliff. The relief that swept over him did nothing to erase the shame that still seared his heart.
Dev grabbed the slender hammer hanging from its knotted sling around his waist. The high-pitched ring of metal on metal shivered through the air. Another agonizing pause followed as Dev snatched up a second sling tied to his harness, threaded the free end through the piton ring, and tied a one-handed knot. Sweat sheened his back as he worked. Kiran dug his nails into his palms, and willed Dev’s grip to hold.
Dev swung one foot down, then the other. The sling drew taut as his weight settled onto the piton. The piton held.
Dev threw his head back and laughed. The sheer joy in the sound made Kiran’s breath catch. He dropped his head to his knees, heat pricking his eyes. Our nature is the same, Ruslan had shouted. Kiran had spat at his feet and denied it. And yet in the moment of truth, he’d proved Ruslan right.
***
(Dev)
I climbed back down to Kiran with my blood still buzzing like I’d drunk an entire cask of firewine. I felt light on my feet as a full-fledged Tainter. Almost, I believed I could step off the cliff and float free in the air the way I’d used to. Gods, I hadn’t felt this good in years.
“Got us a decent stone,” I announced. Kinslayer hadn’t disappointed. Several thumb-sized lumps of red crystal waited in my belt pouch. One to peek Pello’s wards, and the rest I could sell for a tidy little sum once back in Ninavel. The more coin I had before trying