Meya stopped Jori's next knock before it pulled Dema's chest belt any tighter.
She trapped the gray cord between her roof knife and the island stone. The braid flattened. Dema's upper body still hung toward the third house, but the black line stopped cutting into the belts across her abdomen.
"Another ladder count will pull my chest line through that house."
"Then Jori gets the stop signal we used as children."
Meya scraped the knife spine once along the cord and pinched Jori's knot flat. One scrape had meant stop climbing after their mother went to bed. Jori usually answered by kicking the wall anyway.
The cord went slack.
One soft tap returned through the stone.
Meya kept her hand on the knot until her nails hurt.
Ruvan's public recall rope tugged from Orra's hide. First warning before second bell.
Dema shifted the hooked cutter into her free hand.
