The roof worker's service hatch opened onto a crawlspace that reeked of lamp soot, wet straw and old sweat.
Didi dropped through first with her rapier pinned tight against her hip, and Wren tumbled after her with a yelp.
"Sorry, sorry, the ladder's shorter than he said," he whispered, rubbing his knee.
"Then let's hope the ladder was his only lie."
The talisman at her collar crackled, and Hajin's voice leaked out far too loud for any crawlspace.
"Are you in? Tell me you're in, Juna keeps pacing and it's freaking me out—"
"I don't pace," Juna grumbled somewhere behind him.
"You're pacing in a circle, that's the worst kind!"
Didi pinched the talisman's cord between two fingers, "We're inside, and you are shouting at a spy."
"This is my whisper, okay, this is literally my whisper," he hissed, "just get the bonds off before Captain Brann Keld turns those workers against us, and if it goes bad, you pull out, deal?"
