Chapter 6 #2
“No, you won’t! I have you, just don’t let go, Aesira. You understand?” He firmly held me up and felt even more secure than the rope. I believed him.
“I won’t let go.”
“Good. I’m going to lower you down to my shoulders.”
His shoulders? He was going to carry me up? I didn’t want to take him down with me.
The assassin above leaned over and yelled, “I’ll take your hand when you’re in reach!”
Slowly, he lowered me until I hooked my thighs around his shoulders and pressed my ankles to his sides. “I’m too heavy, Viper, I—”
“Shut up,” he snapped. “You’re not too heavy for me. We’re going up now. Are you ready?”
“Yeah.”
Even with my added weight, he moved up the rope with the stealth of a cat.
The assassin at the top took my hand and jerked me up over the edge.
“Damn, new blood, I thought I was about to witness your death,” the man behind the mask said.
The name on his collar was Indigo. “It wouldn’t be the first time an apprentice has fallen off the wall.
Happens every few years. The rain was bad luck for your first time. ”
I practically fell into his chest and wanted to hug him but forced myself not to. He held onto my shoulders to steady me, though. “Are you good?”
I nodded. “I think so.”
Vander swung his legs over and landed gracefully on the wet stone beside me. “She’s not falling on my watch.”
“Viper.” Indigo released me and clasped wrists and bumped chests with Vander. “I didn’t think you were getting an apprentice this year.”
“Commander Locke said otherwise.”
“Hopefully you have better luck with this one.”
Were his other apprentices failures? Maybe that’s why he didn’t want me. It made him look bad to have another weak apprentice.
Even through his mask Vander’s glare was icy. That hit a nerve.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Indigo muttered and reached over the edge to pull the rope up.
Too disoriented to worry about it, I leaned back against the cool, drenched stone of the turret and took in several deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart.
The dizziness subsided quickly, and the rain came to a misty drizzle.
Of course the downpour would stop once we were on solid ground, not when we were dangling sixty feet from death.
I slid down the wall and pressed my forehead to my knees. I should have eaten something before we left.
“We’re burning daylight.” Vander’s voice would be soothing if he wasn’t ordering me to repeat what I had just barely survived. I lifted my chin and looked at his waiting hand. Was he out of his mind?
“Now? I almost fell.”
“But you didn’t.”
“If I was afraid of heights before, it’s intensified a thousand-fold. I’m not going.” I hugged myself, pressed my back into the wall and shook my head. I was getting off this wall some other way. Stairs hopefully. There had to be stairs somewhere.
He squatted, putting his eyes level with mine. That same warning I got whenever he was this close tingled the back of my mind. Predator. Dangerous... Enchanting. There was something about him that pulled me in, like marveling at the beauty of the stars. “Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot.”
“You think?” I repeated with more harshness than I intended.
“I want us to get along. We’re going to spend a lot of time together.”
“Then maybe you should apologize for how you’ve treated me since we met.”
He tugged his mask down. “I stepped in to help you when no one else was going to before you got in the arena with Morrow. I am also sharing my room with you, and I will do everything in my power to keep you alive over the next year.”
“Only because you have to.”
A crease formed between his brows, and he practically bared his teeth like a wild animal. “Get up. We’re going.”
“I’m not going down that rope.” I could have died.
If I was going to die, I wanted it to be for a reason, like saving someone’s life, not slipping.
I wasn’t like him and everyone here. I didn’t blindly follow orders.
What was the worst he could do? They already took me away from everyone and everything I knew for the rest of my life.
His jaw was so tense, if it were a bow it would snap under the pressure. After his chest heaved up and down a handful of times, he said, “I’m sorry.”
That was unexpected. “For what?”
“I apologize for my behavior towards you. Is that good enough for you, apprentice?”
“Call me ‘Aesira’ and I’ll think about it.”
He gritted his teeth; I could almost hear them grinding. He mumbled something about the goddess cursing him, and then said, “Aesira Havarsdotter, if you don’t stand up on your own, I will drag you to the wall, and I’ll tie you up in that damn rope and lower you to the ground.”
He would too. I saw it in his eyes. “Fine. I’ll get up.” To find the stairs.
“I know you heard what I said to Commander Locke, but I told you before it’s not you. I wasn’t expecting to be a trainer this year. I had other plans, but I will train you to the best of my ability. My methods might seem harsh at times, but it’s for your own good.”
He still would have preferred someone else, but it didn’t seem like a good time to bring it up. “You’re going to push me out of every comfort zone I have, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, Aesira, I am.”
I groaned but more for dramatics.
“We’re going down the rope. I said I won’t let you fall.
I promised to have your back. We are about to enter vampire hunting ground, and there we will meet one.
We have to trust each other if we are going to survive this world.
A rope climb is easy work compared to killing vampires.
” He held open his gloved palm, waiting for me to take it. “Do you trust me?”
I didn’t want to. I wanted to pull further into myself.
.. but I did trust him for this. He caught me rather than let me fall.
He had carried me up the rope like I was no added weight at all.
He was a legendary assassin, and if I wanted anyone fighting at my side, fighting to keep me safe, it was him.
I supposed I should be more grateful he was the one taking me on this journey where death waited around every corner.
I clasped his palm, and he pulled me to stand. He tugged his mask back into place.
“It’s my... grip.” I almost said “hand”, but I didn’t want him to know about the scars. They lead to questions. Dangerous questions. “I need to work on it.”
“And so we will. Now.” He tossed the rope at his feet over the edge and disappeared over the side. I pressed my hands to the top of the stone and peered over. Wind whipped upward, howling like a wolf. I leaned back and glanced at Indigo. “Is there another way down?”
“Yeah, but you go the way your trainer tells you to go.”
“I’m waiting,” Vander’s voice carried over the wall’s edge. I peered down at him again, and he tapped his shoulder. “Let’s go. You’ll sit on my shoulders again.”
Indigo laughed. “Viper would probably shove me off before giving me a ride. You better tell him thank you, new blood.”
I pressed my lips together, steeling my nerves, and carefully climbed onto the thick edge of the wall in a crouch. I couldn’t believe I was doing this a second time.
“I’ll lower you,” Indigo said. I hooked my left hand around his and grabbed hold of the rope with my other. When I was safely on Vander’s shoulders, Indigo released me.
Vander tilted his chin up and his blue eyes met mine, “Still trust me?” He squeezed my ankles to his sides with his elbows.
“I trust you for this.” My heart beat quicker than usual, but I wasn’t as scared anymore. “I’m ready.”
My boots hit the ground, and with my feet on the earth once again, I could finally breathe normally. I tilted my chin up and said, “Thank you, Viper. I really do appreciate the help.”
He rolled his neck side to side then hand-signaled something to Indigo at the top. A moment later, the rope started to pull up.
“What’s wrong with your left hand?” Vander asked.
His question felt like a lash to the back of my knees. “Nothing. Why do you ask?” My voice came out breathy and higher pitched.
We started walking side by side, heading through the wood. The trees weren’t as close here as they were near my house. “You heavily favor your right hand. I saw it even when you were fighting Morrow.”
“It’s just weaker.” I hated lying, but I had to for this. Although I did trust him climbing a rope, I couldn’t trust him with my darkest secret. I could never tell anyone outside my family what happened the night Grandma Thora died. “Where are we going?”
“To Nocturnus.”
I stopped, feet rooting to the soft green grass. “But that’s the vampires’ land.”
He glanced back and his eyes flashed. “It is.” He took off into a sprint. “Let’s see how you run.”
Speed was one thing I knew I excelled at and, despite my hesitations, I pushed myself to catch him.