She released.
The arrow shot upward like a streak of liquid gold, slicing through the dim cavern air with a whistle that echoed off every surface of the thousand-foot shaft. It climbed and climbed and climbed, defying every law of physics that applied to projectiles fired by exhausted women in volcanic tunnels, and struck the rim at the very top with a metallic crack that rang through the stone like a bell.
The moment it hit, Draken-Vorah runes ignited along the arrow's entire length, blazing gold from tip to tail.
A thick rope of braided gold light unfurled from the arrow's base, dropping the full thousand feet in a single, smooth descent, the end landing at Serena's boots with a soft thud that had no business being that anticlimactic after a thousand-foot fall.
Gavriel blinked at it. "That is aggressively helpful."
