Chapter 42
Chapter forty-two
Titan’s Span
We woke early, hoping to make it over the mountains in a single day. After a quick breakfast and tending to the horses, we set off. The trail rose steadily and twisted into a mountain pass with peaks rising high on either side of us.
The ancient road may have been wide long ago, but disrepair and erosion had narrowed it and made it so rocky in spots that we had to dismount and lead the horses on foot.
At points, the trail even cut into the mountainside, and soon we were walking along the edge of a steep slope.
The cost of a misstep would be a long tumble down a rocky incline and a broken ankle at the very least.
But possibly the most disturbing thing was how exposed we were on the edge of the mountain. Gone were the trees that had provided cover. Any prying eyes in the area would plainly see us moving along the trail. My thieving instincts hummed with unease.
Although it still felt foreign to me, I had gotten better at suppressing my Ember, and so I’d begun to do it all the time, checking for null fields only every so often. Thus far, I’d felt nothing.
After several hours of steady incline, the trail began to level out. We had reached the top of a mountain pass.
“What’s that?” Elena asked, one hand shading her eyes from the sun and the other pointing ahead, where two stone spires rose in the distance.
“That looks like Titan’s Span, the bridge Jask told us about,” I said. “Let’s hope it’s in good enough shape to cross, or we’ll have to turn back.” It was still a ways off, but from here it looked solid.
“Only one way to find out,” Darion said.
“Hey, I think there might be somebody following us,” Elena said, looking back at the trail.
Sure enough, far down the trail, several dozen figures were heading toward us at great speed. When I let my Ember flow the tiniest bit, I was nearly bowled over by the intense thrumming of the Sentinels’ null field. A shot of adrenaline coursed through my veins like fire.
“Sentinels!”
“Dust! We’ve got to risk riding the horses,” Darion said.
He mounted Snowflake, and Elena hopped up behind me on Buttercup. We spurred them into a gallop, heading for Titan’s Span as fast as we dared, given the terrain. The path was rough. The horses danced around divots and rocks as we held on for our lives.
Suddenly the thrumming stopped. “Null field’s down!” I shouted to Darion, which could mean only one thing: someone was about to use their Ember.
I turned to look at our pursuers. A golden shimmer surrounded one of them. Before my eyes, the figure transformed into a hideous beast.
It was Syra.
She had found us.
She raced along the trail on all fours, taking giant leaps, moving at a speed that rivaled our horses. Her legs were a blur, easily navigating the difficult terrain. If it weren’t so horrific, it would have been an amazing sight to behold.
“Syra’s here!” I shouted. “She’s gaining on us.”
Darion peeked back. “She can’t keep that up for long,” he shouted over the clomping of hooves. “We’ve just got to outrun her.”
The bridge was approaching fast. It spanned a canyon nearly two hundred feet across and was nearly twenty feet wide.
On each side stood a stone tower. The bridge itself was a giant arch that had miraculously survived for ages.
The closer we got, the more precarious it looked, dotted with holes where stones had once been.
It honestly looked like a strong wind could knock it down.
With the sheer number of missing stones, there was no way we could ride the horses across it.
I pulled up on my bridle, bringing Buttercup to a halt at the south edge of the bridge, and Darion followed suit.
We jumped off our horses and took our first steps onto Titan’s Span with the utmost care.
Holes peppered the ground, each easily large enough for a person to fall through.
I snuck a peek through an opening and immediately wished I hadn’t.
The valley floor lay hundreds of feet below.
We had made it about a quarter of the way across when Syra reached the edge.
I cursed the fact that I had used all my fire vials during our flight out of the cellars.
Without pausing, she leapt into the air, flew over us, and landed right in front of us, blocking our path.
The entire bridge rumbled from the force of her landing.
The horses bolted, racing to the south side of the bridge.
Darion and Elena drew their swords, and I pulled out my daggers, facing down this horrid beast. Even transformed, grotesque burn marks covered her body. Part of her cheek was missing, revealing her bared teeth. She roared, and hot, foul-smelling breath and spittle flew at us.
Darion shimmered and Elena stood at the ready. My heart dropped into my stomach as I watched the people I loved prepare to battle for our lives.
Darion extended his Chronothene to me. With time frozen around us, we charged toward Syra.
Darion was half a step ahead of me with his sword pointed forward, ready for a killing thrust. He lunged, aiming straight for the beast’s heart.
But the moment his sword made contact, it shattered like glass.
The shock of it hit Darion like a punch.
All at once, time sped up.
Darion smacked into the beast and bounced off of her, his sword destroyed. With a swipe of her arm, Syra struck Darion. He went flying toward the north side of the bridge.
My momentum carried me directly into Syra, my dagger bouncing off her hide like it was a toy.
She struck me in the chest, knocking all the air out of my lungs and sending me flying.
As I flew, I fought desperately for breath.
Was this it? Was this how I died? I crashed hard on the bridge’s stone surface near the north end, just a few feet from where Darion lay.
I gasped for air, but none came. I tried to rise. My body didn’t respond. I had never felt so useless.
Elena shimmered. Even from here, I could smell the ozone and citrus. She charged toward the beast, brandishing her sword.
My brain screamed at me to move, to protect Elena, but all I could do was watch.
Elena’s attack was the strongest. Her sword still rattled off Syra’s hide, but the force of Elena smashing into the side sent the beast flying toward the edge of the bridge.
Teetering off the side, Syra grasped at stones, finding purchase at the last moment.
Elena charged again, but the beast was ready this time and smacked her like a rag doll, sending her flying away from us, toward the south side of the bridge. A beast and a chasm separated us.
Rage, terror, and heartbreak ripped through me like wildfire. The air came rushing back into my lungs in a single massive gasp. I forced myself to move because Elena’s life depended on it. I jumped to my feet. The beast saw me and started charging.
But beyond Syra, near the south side, Elena was pounding on the bridge with her bare fists.
Each blow sent a massive vibration through the structure.
She was trying to collapse the structure.
But I realized with horror that she was still too far from the southern tower—too far for her to get to safety if the bridge fell.
Syra turned toward Elena, let out a terrifying howl, and started running toward her.
Elena struck the bridge again, and the entire structure began to crumble. She was sacrificing herself for us. She wasn’t allowed to do that. That was my job. I had made a vow.
“Elena! No!” I cried.
“Run!” she yelled.
I could feel the stones rumbling beneath my feet. Some were falling away into the abyss.
Darion got to his feet next to me. He could barely stand. He quickly glanced at Elena, then at me. He didn’t look afraid. He looked resolved. He mouthed goodbye to me as a golden light shimmered around him, then disappeared.
An instant later, he and Elena appeared on solid ground past the south edge of the bridge. Darion crumpled to the ground in a heap. He had pulled Elena off the bridge in the blink of an eye. He had saved her life.
The entire bridge shifted downward, so I turned to run. The north side was impossibly far away. I sprinted as fast as I could. As the stones began to fall, I made one final leap.
I reached out.
The bridge crumbled beneath me.
I hit the side of the cliff, desperately grabbing for any handhold.
I slid a long way before my arms wrapped around a tangled root that had been unearthed as the stones around it crumbled.
I turned my head to see the entire structure falling into the chasm.
After standing for ages, Titan’s Span was no more.
Tumbling downward amid the rubble was the woman-beast Syra, her howl muffled by the awesome, terrible sound of the collapse. She bellowed the entire way down, and then her cries stopped abruptly as she hit the jagged rocks hundreds of feet below, huge stones and debris falling on top of her.
For a fleeting moment, the world was deathly silent.
I clung to the side of the cliff, breathing hard, trying to gather my wits.
“Cas?” Elena’s voice called out, echoing off the cliffs. “Cas!”
“I’m here!” I yelled back. I twisted around to see her standing on the southern cliff above what used to be the start of the bridge.
“Cas, thank all the gods!” Elena cried out joyfully. “I didn’t know if you’d made it. Can you climb up?”
I looked upward. The edge was only about thirty feet away. There were plenty of handholds above me, though I didn’t know if they were stable. “I think so.” I paused, desperately afraid to ask the next question. But I had to know. “Is Darion okay?”
“I can’t wake him up.”
Deep breath. Try not to panic, Cas.
“Keep trying,” I called out to Elena. “I’m going to try to climb.”
“I will.”
Slowly, gingerly, I tested each foothold and handhold. Some were stable. Many were not. I had multiple false starts on my way up. I had finally just found a viable path when I was hit quite suddenly with the full force of the thrumming.
“Elena!” I cried. “The null field is back! Watch out for the Sentinels.”
Chanting rose from somewhere above me, cold and inhuman. The sound of boots on stone echoed through the valley. My heart stopped. The Sentinels were already here.
Elena screamed—a sound from my nightmares.
I twisted my head but could see nothing.
And then she went quiet. I could barely contain my terror as I raced to the top of the cliff, scarcely caring if a handhold or foothold gave way.
I reached the top at the northern edge of the chasm.
Jagged stones poked out where the bridge used to be.
I peered toward the south edge.
Elena and Darion were gone.