"I don't know."
This time, Leon believed him.
Mara said, "Your arm?"
"The knife wasn't only mine by the end of the argument."
That fit better.
Toma looked at the cloth binding, then at Pell's face. "You run fast."
Pell gave him a brief, unpleasant smile. "I practice whenever people make me."
The thing outside moved again then, close enough to remind them all that there were still larger problems available if they wanted them.
No one spoke until the sound faded.
When it did, Leon said, "You said dawn would be bad here."
Pell nodded at once. "Yes."
"Why?"
He shifted, suddenly more serious.
"Because this shelter looks good at night and wrong in daylight," he said. "From outside, I mean. You can't see the opening well from below once it gets dark, but when the light comes in from the east it cuts straight across the front. Anyone on the lower stone can spot it. And the channel beneath this ridge opens clean once the shadows move."
Mara frowned. "Channel?"
Pell pointed with his chin toward the entrance. "There's a split under the rock shelf. You don't see it from in here, but things move through it. Small things at night. Bigger things after first light when the lower route warms."
Toma looked toward the opening. "You're sure?"
Pell gave him a tired look. "No, I guessed all of that for fun while being chased."
Leon believed that answer more than half the others.
Mara stayed quiet for a few moments, thinking. Then she said, "If you knew this place was bad at dawn, why come back to it?"
Pell answered without hesitation. "Because bad shelter with people in it beats open stone with things following me."
That was honest too.
Leon found that he liked Pell less every minute and understood him better at the same time. It was not a comforting combination.
The silence settled again, though not as tightly as before. Pell had changed the room simply by being in it. His fear was active, his mind was fast, and his mouth did not know how to stop filling empty space. Against the hard, measured quiet of Mara and Toma, he felt like another kind of danger entirely.
After a while, Toma said, "If we move at dawn, we need a route."
Pell nodded. "I have one."
Mara looked at him. "Of course you do."
"I do," he repeated. "And before you ask, no, it isn't a good route. It's just better than waiting here."
Leon said, "Show me."
Pell blinked once, then almost smiled.
Not because he was pleased. Because he had heard the wording.
Not tell me. Show me.
Practical. No performance. No challenge.
Pell leaned forward and drew a rough map in the dust with one finger.
"Coast is here," he whispered. "Ridge line here. This shelter's under the lip. You can move north along the black shelves for a while, but they narrow and push you out over open stone. Bad choice if anything's already watching. Better is east, through the split line. Ugly footing, more cover, one bad crossing. After that, the ground rises enough that the crawlers slow."
Toma followed the map carefully. Mara did too. Leon watched Pell more than the lines.
He knew the route. That much was clear.
But there was something else in the way he drew it. A tiny hesitation at one bend. A slight redirection around one lower path as if leaving something out without fully lying.
Leon waited until Pell had finished, then pointed to the bend. "What's there?"
Pell's finger stopped.
"Nothing useful," he said.
"That wasn't the question."
Mara's eyes moved from Leon to Pell again.
Pell looked mildly offended now. "Do you do this to everyone?"
"Only when they earn it."
For a moment, Pell said nothing.
Then he sighed softly and tapped the bend. "Bodies."
No one spoke.
He continued, quieter now. "More than one. Old enough to smell before you see them. I don't know what killed them, and I don't want to move past them in the dark or the first thin light. That route might still work later, but not when everything's changing over."
That changed the map.
Not dramatically, but enough.
It also changed Pell in Leon's eyes. The boy lied fast, yes, but not always to gain advantage. Sometimes to keep a room from becoming worse too early.
Leon understood that habit more than he liked.
Mara looked at the dust map one last time. "We move at first light."
Toma nodded once.
Pell rested his head back against the stone and closed his eyes for a moment. "Good. Because at first light this place turns into a killing lane."
No one argued with him.
Outside, the Shore remained quiet in the patient way that made sleep impossible.