Chapter 18 Isi #2
“Which way?” Derren asked when we’d finished. I could tell he was trying to bring back some normalcy, but even he looked strained.
“I think we should go this way.” Bryson waved to a trail I’d missed, a narrow, overgrown thing that led deeper into the jungle.
“Looks good.” I hoped I sounded more confident than I felt.
As we started walking, the jungle compressed around us.
Thick vines hung like curtains, forcing us to duck and weave.
Broad leaves the size of boulders slapped at our faces and arms, leaving sticky residue that attracted biting insects.
The path grew narrower with each step, branches along the sides snagging our clothes and hair.
When I glanced back, the path had disappeared, already reclaimed by the jungle. Or closed off to remove any chance of going back.
“Does anyone else feel like we’re being herded?” Lexie muttered, ducking under a low branch that seemed to have moved since Derren passed beneath it.
Admitting it wouldn’t help morale, and our morale was thin enough already.
“What if we never find the end?” Derren asked.
No one answered.
We walked for hours through the suffocating green maze. My leather tunic stuck to my torso. Thorns caught at my sleeves and pants. And the numerous bee stings itched and throbbed.
My arm felt better, but that seemed like an insignificant thing after what had happened.
The heavy scent of damp earth and sweat clung to us, mingling with the sour tang of crushed leaves.
“This jungle’s playing tricks with us,” Derren said.
Lexie grunted. “It never ends. We’re going to walk until we drop and then…”
I was grateful she didn’t finish. It was hard enough to keep pushing myself, to keep walking and not to drop to my knees and fall forward. Only the thought of the jungle quickly growing over me kept me moving.
And the creature that killed Fara.
Directly behind me, Maddox’s steady breathing rang out. He was acting too controlled, too careful, when he’d always held a hint of recklessness. This was the sound of someone holding onto their temper by the thinnest of threads.
If he had a knife, he’d put it between my shoulder blades without hesitation.
The thought sent ice down my spine, but I couldn’t shake it loose. The way he looked at me now, the cold calculation in his eyes… This was the look of someone planning violence.
A few short weeks ago, I’d been a princess. Most would consider my life luxurious, and it wasn’t as if I was being forced to drink the poisoned wine. Now I was trying to lead a group of desperate people through a deadly jungle while watching my back for threats from one of us.
Finally, the crushing vegetation began to thin. Light filtered through the canopy, making the world feel cleaner. Brighter. More natural.
We stumbled out into a clearing and came to a stop, staring at the wonder ahead.
A huge cavern stretched for cliks. And not far in front of us, a chasm plunged down to a rushing river spiked through with jagged rocks. A very deep drop.
Structures glowed with soft, warm light through a thin mist on the opposite side. Buildings, definitely. Not ruins. These had the organized look of a settlement.
Or the end of the Rite of Bonds.
Bryson pointed. “I think that’s where we need to go.”
“I agree,” Kerralyn said, her sharp mind already working. “I read something about glowing buildings. It could be the end of the trial.”
“Might as well be on the sun,” Derren said, but wonder filled his voice. “There’s no way we’re jumping across that gap to reach it.”
I walked to the edge, my boots sending pebbles skittering ahead of me, into the void. The silence swallowed them. No sound of them hitting bottom, no echo to give me a sense of the depth.
Dropping, I lay on my stomach, ignoring the way the others tensed, and peered over the edge.
“There.” I pointed down and to the right, my voice tight with both excitement and terror. “There’s a way across.”
Far below, maybe a third of the way down the ragged cliff face, a rope bridge spanned the chasm. From this distance, it looked impossibly fragile, little more than a thread stretched across the abyss. But it was there. A way to the other side.
“We have to get down there.” I pushed to my feet and brushed dirt and sticks from the front of my leather tunic.
“There must be another way.” Kerralyn stared at me like I’d suggested we sprout wings and fly. “Isi, that’s a cliff. I’m no mountain climber.”
“I think it can be done.” I’d studied the rock face again, marking potential hand- and footholds. It would be treacherous. Terrifying, actually. But possible. “Look. There are narrow ledges jutting out. Rocks we can hold onto. We can use the vines dangling along the face where we have to.”
The plan sounded insane. I knew it even as I spoke.
“Anyone have other suggestions?” I asked. “I suppose we could go back through the jungle that we suspect herded us here. Try to find another way around a chasm that appears to stretch for cliks in either direction.”
Maddox stepped up beside me, standing close enough I could smell the honey still clinging to his clothing, mixed in with his sweat and the taint of his ongoing anger.
“You first.” His lips curled into an expression that was anything but a smile.
“Since you’re eager to lead us into one danger after another. ”
“Alright, I will.”
I strode back to the edge and took a long time deciding where to start, before sitting and levering myself down onto a narrow spit of rock jutting out from the surface.
Clinging to a vine plunging down, down, down, I stretched my leg out, carefully placing the tip of my boot on a rock secure enough in the cliff face to hold my weight.
The others followed, sullen Maddox close behind me, of course, and Derren cracking a joke about no fancy dancing, maybe trying to make up for the lack of Jaxon.
Lexie and Kerralyn came next, Lexie’s shrill laugh echoing through the vast cavern before she cut it off with a jerk.
As always, Bryson took the rear, his gaze meeting mine before he nodded.
I wouldn’t have made it this far without his support.
Every handhold turned into a gamble and every step a potential death sentence. Moisture from the mist rising from the chasm slicked the rocks, and some crumbled the moment I stepped onto them, leaving me hanging. Trembling. And scrambling to find a place to put my feet before I dropped.
I tested each hold carefully before committing my full weight. My fingers cramped from gripping the rough stone, then bled from the cuts I received from sharp rocks.
The others made their way down behind me in tense silence broken only by sharp intakes of breath when someone’s foot slipped or a handhold gave way.
Maddox barely took his sharp gaze off me. He remained close enough that I could smell him, close enough that if he fell, he’d be able to take me with him.
The thought kept spiking through my mind. I expected him to suddenly cackle and push me. Let me fall and claim it was an accident. It wouldn’t matter if it was or not when I lay broken and bleeding out on the cavern floor.
“Watch out here,” I called as I reached a sharp slice in the cliff face that pocketed into darkness and had to be at least my height across. I spied decent footholds on the other side.
A vine thick as my wrist dangled in the middle, the only option to pass from where I stood to the other side. The plant looked sturdy enough, but in this place, it was just as apt to bite me as support my weight.
I studied the gap, then Kerralyn’s shaking hands. This crossing would break her.
“Kerralyn.” I kept my voice calm. “Look at me, not the drop. You’re going to do exactly what I do. When I say jump, you hold onto the vine and do it. When I say wait, you freeze. Can you do that?”
She nodded, some of the panic leaving her eyes.
I made eye contact with the others. “Same thing for everyone. I go first, find the safe path. You follow my exact route. No improvising.”
Maddox scoffed. “And if you’re wrong?”
“Then you learn from my mistake.” I met his stare. “This is what leaders do.”
Turning back to the gap, I gauged the distance I’d need to cross, sucking in a few breaths to build up my courage.
“Take care,” Maddox said softly. “Wouldn’t want an accident, now would we?”
Ignoring him, I gripped the vine, testing its stability with my full weight before committing to the swing. The rough fiber bit into my skin, but it held.
My heart plunged down as I swung, airborne for forever or a second. I found purchase with my boots on a narrow ledge barely wide enough for my toes on the other side.
As I moved downward, the rope bridge looked sturdier and much more reachable now, the others keeping pace. Kerralyn nearly lost her grip halfway across the gap, but with my guidance, she made it, and sent me a proud grin after. Bryson’s weight made the vine creak, but it held.
Every few feet presented a new challenge. Loose rocks. No handholds at all. And gaps that had to be jumped across, though nothing like the huge slice we’d already passed. My shoulders burned. My fingers bled. And my legs trembled so hard they could barely support my weight.
When I finally reached the bridge, I shook with exhaustion and adrenaline. Sweat ran down my face and made my leathers stick to me in uncomfortable places. If I made it through this, I was going to sit in a bath and soak for days.
We crowded together on a small spit of rock jutting out from the wall, staring at the bridge spanning the gap ahead.
Taut, weathered rope had been used for a railing, and cracked wooden planks bound together with vines and ropes spanned the bottom to step on.
It looked even less substantial now than it had from above.
“It’s, um…” Derren frowned and glanced up the cliff as if he was contemplating climbing back to the top to find another way across.
Lexie wiggled her shoulders and flexed her arms to loosen them up before rubbing her hands together. She gave me a sharp nod.
“Alright.” Bryson walked closer and studied the structure.
“Several planks are missing, so we’ll want to take care in those areas.
” He stooped down to look at it from a different level.
“I see some broken vines and ropes between a few of the planks, so you might want to avoid those altogether. They could…give way. Hold on to the rope railing at all times and with both hands.” He latched onto it and shook it, making the bridge tremble and a whop-whop-whop sound echo across the cavern.
“This isn’t terrifying at all,” Lexie said, nervous laughter coming through in her voice.
I was so exhausted, I wasn’t sure I could properly feel fear any longer.
“I’ll go first.” I eased around Bryson.
“Why you?” Maddox barked.
I met his gaze. “If it collapses, you’ll know to go another way.”
“And you’ll…”
My shrug made the bee stings on my neck burn. “If the bridge doesn’t collapse, you’ll know it’s safe to cross.”
Turning my back on him, I tested the first plank with a gradual increase in weight before bouncing to gauge the strength in general. It felt secure enough, though the whole structure swayed sickeningly.
“We should go one at a time,” Kerralyn said brightly. “No need to make it bear all our weight at once.”
“Wise.” Bryson patted her shoulder.
She beamed up at him and snugged the straps of her bag across her back.
“Don’t look down,” I said.
Lexie snickered. “But I love heights.”
“Really?” Derren asked. “That’s new to me.”
“Today. I love them today!” If she kept talking, I had a feeling she was going to dissolve into hysterical laughter. Or cry.
“Don’t think about what you’re doing,” I said. “Focus on one step after another. In no time, we’ll all be standing on the other side.”
Finished with the trial? I hoped so.
Tightening both hands on the rope railings, I stepped onto the second plank. It creaked but held my weight.
As I moved across, the bridge groaned and swayed.
Back and forth. Back and forth. It felt flimsier than it looked, and it sure looked puny.
My belly jolted up into my throat, but I forced it down and made myself move forward.
One step. Another, with my boots skidding on the planks slick with moisture.
Dragging my eyes away from the horrendous drop below.
“Watch out for the eighth board,” I called back. “It’s punky and might give way.” I scanned the area I still had to cross. “And the one with flecks of white has a long crack. It might not hold much weight.”
The bridge sank behind me, and I didn’t have to look back to know who had decided to closely follow.
“Hey, we were going to go one at a time,” Lexie called out shrilly. “Maddox, come back!”
Thuds rang out as he caught up, getting close enough I could not only smell his sour breath but feel the heat of it on my neck.
His added weight made the bridge sway and creak, the ancient ropes groaning in protest.
“Do you have to?” I hissed.
“Oh, yes, I do. Can’t let you do this alone, now can I?”
The malice in his voice gouged through me.
I kept going. The sooner I made it to the other side, the sooner I could put distance between us.
Halfway across, I placed my right foot on what looked like a solid plank.
Instead, my boot punched straight through, the board splitting in half.
Sections of it dropped, falling, spiraling toward the river.
The sickening cracks as they hit the wall on their way down echoed through the cavern, making my heart leap.
My sweaty hands slipped on the rope railing as my leg dropped into empty air. I shifted sideways, trying to throw my body against the sturdier rail, my fingers scrambling for purchase.
The rope burned through my palms as I tried to catch myself.
Gravity always had been stronger than desperation.
I plunged through the gap.
Falling.