Five of them went down.
Almond, Lily, Rudra, and Ainen, because nobody had seriously expected it to be anyone else. And Maya, because Farsight Loom was the only reason anyone on the Sundered Shelf knew there was a bottom to reach at all.
"I want it on record that I volunteered," Maya said, at the edge of the canyon. "Nobody picked me. I picked me."
"Noted," Rudra said.
"Because if I die down there, I want Marcus to know it was my idea, so he can't blame himself."
"He'll blame himself anyway," Lily said.
"I know. But he'll have to work harder at it."
Big D saw them off himself. He did not make a speech. He simply gripped each of their forearms in turn, the old way, and said the same thing to all five.
"Come back up."
Then they stepped off the edge.
The canyon was deeper than anything had a right to be.
