The two roads had already separated by the time Nova finished marking the stones. What had looked like a single crossing moments earlier was once again a gap between two shelves, with nothing beneath it except broken foundations and the dark channel where the hooked growth had hunted during the night.
He crouched beside Haren's tracing and drew three lines in the margin. The first showed the grooves facing one another, the second the rise of the far shelf, and the third the moment both edges had touched. Beside each line he placed a small charcoal mark corresponding to the position of the suspended ridge.
Lunaris watched from a dry patch of stone, his ears following every scratch of charcoal. The Auri stood farther back with its injured wing held close. Neither had slept much, and Nova was beginning to feel the effects of their night beneath the lookout himself.
"I know," he told them. "I've been staring at rocks since sunrise. Not exactly the adventure I promised."
