Today's excerpt is from chapter 16 of Ink Adept, where Munayair's chelka has been tampered with, putting her life at risk.
There was a sudden clatter from behind them, and a scream. They turned in time to see Bast disappearing over the edge of the cliff. Munayair’s mind went blank and she screamed as well. A moment later they were all crouched on the edge, looking down. Luckily the cliff wasn’t very tall there, only about twenty spans. Bast looked up at them, scraped up and wild-eyed, but uninjured. “She pushed me!” he cried, jabbing a finger.
Anjita rolled her eyes, supporting herself on a nearby tree trunk. “Don’t blame your clumsiness on me, Goodman Boatman.”
Mehan began calling directions on how best to climb up using the tangled vines. With a gasp of relief, Munayair sat back among the muddy roots. She stroked the wax on Tel’s forehead and focused on controlling her thundering heartbeat. Halfway through the breathing exercise, she realized something was wrong. That’s odd, she thought with a frown. Squinting at his face, she raised him closer to the light of the moons. The glyphs, which had once read Solve Puzzle, had been smeared until they now seemed to be saying Find Safety. Bast was struggling over the edge of the cliff, with Mehan hauling at his armpits.
“What is it, Naya?” Anjita asked.
“Something’s wrong with Tel’s glyphs,” she muttered. “I think they’ve been deliberately smeared. No wonder he led us wrong. But who would do that—and why? No one else has touched him except—” She froze, staring at the chelka in her hand, not daring to raise her eyes. The only person other than herself who had touched Tel was Anjita herself.
But Anjita would never betray me … she thought.
Bast’s eyes shifted. “Munayair!” His shout echoed as he leaped. His momentum knocked her back and sent him sprawling among the knobbly vines. A spear arced through the air where she had been sitting. It crashed through the undergrowth and stuck, quivering, into a tree trunk.
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