Kit follows them up last, figuring if someone has to catch Myr if he slips, it's better him than Sina. But going last means that Sina's despairing cry reaches him before he has the chance to see what inspired it. Dread sinks its claws in anyway; he has a feeling he already knows.

And he does--yet somehow, it's so much worse.

"Ancestors..." The children below them are confined to cages like they're little more than animals. Some move; some don't. It's hard to tell if the little bodies are still from sickness or exhaustion, or something far worse. Kit shudders, red rage threatening to black out his vision for a moment; whatever monsters did this to these kids, he'll embed his axe deep in their skulls, he'll split them in two like a fucking ripe melon--

"Okay," he starts, forcing his voice to steadiness, and turns to both Sina and Myr, "we've got to get them out. I can deal with the guard." 'Deal with.'