Page 74 of Zenith Court

Her knees folded almost at once. Caspian caught most of her weight. Hale steadied her at the ribs, and I braced her from behind. We waited until her boots stopped sliding and her breath eased.

“Again?” Hale asked.

She nodded.

This time she stayed upright.

Tormund had crossed to the nearest guard. She knelt, checked the man’s breathing, and rolled him onto his side with competent hands. He flinched from her touch, then looked at her with no recognition of rank in his face.

She accepted that without speaking.

“Are you coming?” Astra asked.

Tormund looked toward the stair, then at the injured guards around the basin. “Not yet.”

Astra watched Tormund kneel beside the nearest guard, then nodded.

We gathered what the climb required. Delphine kept two captured blades and left the rest across the channel. Hale tightened the bandage on her arm. Caspian wrapped his palms with strips from his torn cuff. I recovered my short blade and discovered that my injured hand could hold it but not close all the way around the hilt.

Astra watched each small preparation. Without the chord, she had to turn her head to find us. Every time she did, someone was there.

Tormund pointed toward the stair. “Third landing. Water-side passage. There is an old physician’s room with a bolt inside the door.”

Delphine studied her. “And another exit?”

“A window above the outer channel. The latch is bent.”

“You know that from experience?” I asked.

Tormund looked at me for the first time. “From maintenance reports.”

It was not a joke. That made it funnier, but I kept the laugh to myself.

The first landing was slick with runoff. Caspian climbed at Astra’s left and Hale at her right, their pace matched to hers. Delphine went ahead to read the next turn. I followed one step behind with my good hand near Astra’s back.

At the first curve, loose stone shifted under her heel. “My hand at your back?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I set it between her shoulder blades. The contact gave me no flash of green-gold certainty, but she eased against my palm before taking the next step.

We stopped twice before the second landing. The first time, Astra’s knees began to shake, and we waited until they steadied. The second, Delphine heard a rush of feet above us and held everyone against the inner wall until it passed. Caspian never released Astra’s hand. Hale kept his forearm beneath hers and watched her color in the stairwell light.

The noise above grew louder as we climbed. Bells had begun somewhere in the upper Court, not in unison and not for ceremony. Doors opened. Names crossed the stairwell. People sounded frightened, relieved, and fully awake.

Astra’s boot slipped once. Caspian and Hale tightened their grips while my palm held firm against her back.

At the third landing, Delphine found the water-side passage. Hale tested the physician’s-room door while she listened toward the upper stair.

“I’ll find Aldric and send bandages,” she said. She waited until the rest of us were inside, then turned back toward the noise of the Court.

I slid the bolt with my good hand.

46

Astra

Rain tapped the physician’s-room window when I woke. Three men were pretending not to watch me breathe.