Chapter 18
It was go time. I took a steadying breath.
We knocked out the window, unable to bring it in so it fell down, down… I didn’t even hear it crash. It left a pit in my stomach.
My idea for getting out through the window diagonally wasn’t as successful as I thought, and I had to wiggle and kick in order to make it out.
Once I did, I slid out ungracefully and fell, the rope snapping around me hard as I hit the end where Jaron was holding tight.
I gripped the rope with both hands, my heart in my throat, refusing to look down.
Dangling hundreds of feet in the air wasn’t doing anything for my confidence.
I swung my legs, trying to get momentum. I just needed to swing around to the platform outside the front of the house that connected to the interlacing walkways and buildings that made up the manor.
It wasn’t enough.
“I need more rope.” I called quietly.
Wincing when I dropped further, I kicked my legs harder. With Tatiana and Jaron helping me from above, I gained more momentum. Finally, I reached the end of the rope. The length was too short. I didn’t even get to the edge of the building that I needed to reach around. I called for more rope.
Still not enough. When I called again, Jaron poked his head out of the window and shook it at me. “There’s no more length.”
Gritting my teeth, I swung hard and tried to reach around to the other side with the weighted rope I had in my hands.
It barely reached around to the platform.
I stopped swinging and hung there. I knew what I had to do, but I didn’t want to.
I was scared. So, so scared. I wished that Arrazyl was here, flying up to me and telling me it wasn’t true, that he wouldn’t kill us.
But wishes did nothing but disappoint people.
I looked up and met the eyes of Jaron and Tatiana as they stuck their heads out the window, looking down at me.
“Untie the rope from the beam.” I said it firmly, not showing them the tremor that was going through my entire being.
Both their eyes seemed to bulge out of their heads.
“Absolutely not, there would be no assurance that the rope wouldn’t slip out of my grasp and send you plummeting,” Jaron said, sounding horrified.
“Jaron,” I said calmly, “I’m going to die anyway if this doesn’t work. I have to try.”
“No!” Tatiana said. “We’ll find another way.”
“We’ve discussed this. There isn’t time to find another way.” They were both shaking their heads vehemently. “This is my decision. Please, it will work. It’s just the amount of rope I need.”
I quaked when I saw the defeat on Jaron’s face, knowing he was giving in to me. Still, he tried again. “It’s not worth it. We can make something else work. We’ll pull you back up and we can all brainstorm something else.”
I wanted that so badly. “Your lives mean too much to me not to give this a try. I’m not asking you to completely release it, you and Tatiana can anchor the very end.”
They exchanged glances and disappeared inside. Several moments—too many moments hanging suspended above nothing—passed, and Jaron finally popped his head back out.
“The odds of the rope slipping through our hands even if we have it wrapped around us, depending on how long you take to gain momentum, are about thirty-two percent. I don’t want to gamble your life with those odds.”
“Sounds like good odds to me. Let’s do this before someone sees me.”
We locked eyes for a long moment. “We’ll hold on to you,” he vowed.
I nodded once, not trusting the clog in my throat to say that I loved him. If he heard any tremor, he wouldn’t do it.
The rope gave.
I sucked a breath in through my teeth as my stomach bottomed out. But then I was lowered, slowly and carefully.
“This is as much rope as you’re going to get,” Jaron called from above. He sounded strained. I needed to hurry.
I began to swing, my heart in my throat, afraid the movement would wrench the rope from their hands. But it held fast. One more swing. Two more. I got closer, just enough—
Swinging the weighted rope in my hand, I aimed for the metal pole. I’d made it far enough along the side of the building that all I had to do was latch it around the pole in front of the door. If I didn’t...
I plummeted away from my destination. Nausea swirled in my stomach and I became dizzy.
The rope connected, the weight on the end wedging into the base of the metal artwork. I held on for dear life.
Pain lanced through my arm into my shoulder as I snapped to a stop, my hands burning in agony as I slid down the rope from the jerk.
I ignored the pain, adrenaline aiding me as I pulled myself up until I was at the lip of the landing.
I pulled myself over, biting my tongue to keep the cry of pain from my hands feeling like they were shredding on the wood as I pulled myself up.
Finally, I was standing on the landing in front of the door.
I crouched, being completely still and observing the surrounding area.
Nothing stirred. Moving as quietly as possible, I unhooked the bar and slid it out of its place.
Jaron barreled through, wrapping me in his arms and clinging to me. His body lurched. Was that a sob? Tatiana was not as quiet with hers and she cried as she clung to my back, her face pressed against my hair.
“It’s ok. I’m ok.” I patted Jaron’s back with one raw hand and reached behind me to pat Tatiana with the other. “We really need to go.” Now the fear that we would get caught was first place in my mind.
They finally released me. When Jaron handed me my bag I realized that blood was dripping from blisters on my hands. I quickly hid them. I would deal with them later.
We made our way across the archway and down the steps. We jogged down flight after flight of steep steps. At one point we scrambled into a building to hide from the busy stewards, crouching low and hoping they weren’t headed inside.
When we began traveling again and got to the final level of the vorazka, Jaron stopped and trotted back a few steps. He took a knife out of his pocket and started digging into the cliff wall.
“What is he doing?” Tatiana whispered as we kept a careful eye on our surroundings.
“I’m not sure.” But he’d better hurry. My heart raced. We weren’t exactly inconspicuous.
He jogged back to us with something in his hands and motioned for us to keep going. Because we couldn’t fly we had to take a zig zagging pattern to get to the city and start down to the ground. More than one vorpyr saw us and frowned in our direction.
“They’re going to know the direction we go in.” Jaron murmured at my back.
“Let’s just get off this cliff and deal with that next.” Before someone reported us.
We almost made it.
Only a few feet from the ground remained when I heard a sound above. I swung around and horror filled me as I saw one of the Vorazyr’s warriors flying toward us.
“Run.”
My knees wanted to buckle, but I forced myself to run, taking two stairs at a time as I raced toward the bottom, Jaron and Tatiana hot on my heels.
We’re not going to be faster than him. The thought repeated in my mind like a bad song.
The instant my feet touched the ground I sprinted for the nearest thick jungle cover.
A whoosh and grunt let me know what happened behind me and without halting my momentum, I spun, releasing my backpack from my back and using it to connect with the face of the vorpyr who had gotten ahold of Tatiana.
It startled him, but he didn’t let go until Jaron wrapped the straps of his pack around the vorpyr’s horns and jerked, throwing his whole body into it.
The male spun from the pressure on his head and stumbled. It was all we needed. We ran.
Minutes passed, sticky bug webs and lush foliage smacked me across the face as I blindly plunged through the jungle.
I gasped for breath. My lungs ached in my chest. I glanced back and found the other two pouring sweat, also wheezing.
“We have to keep going.” I told them as we slowed, out of breath from the wild race.
“They can cover much more distance than we can in a shorter time, so we need to get further away before the warrior reports that we got out.” I knew nothing about this planet except what I’d hypothesized from the little I’d seen.
That left me clueless as to the geography and where we could safely find shelter to hide.
“There are caves we could hide in along the cliffs.” Tatiana said. “Kyvar said they would use them during the war to surprise their enemies.”
I thought about our options. There weren’t many. “It’s as good a plan as any.” I nodded at Jaron. “What did you take from the city?”
“Some tech. I’m hoping I can retrofit this to get a message out, but I’ll likely need more equipment.”
I winced. “Which means we either have to sneak into the city or a nearby town to steal it.”
“It would be better if we didn’t go back toward the city.
Let’s try to make our way to the village by the celestial waters.
They have good tech and are located in a westerly direction, from what Thyra said.
I also estimate that it’s three and a half to five days of heavy hiking to get there. ” Jaron looked as grim as I felt.
“We have no supplies. That many days isn’t an option if we don’t have a way to purify water or anything to eat.
” I said, regretting that we’d lost our packs.
After getting the vorpyr to let Tatiana go, it was impossible to do anything except run like the devil was on our trail. And soon enough, he would be.
“Um.” Tatiana held up the pack she’d miraculously managed to keep. “There's a water purification bottle and a few ration bars in here.”
Trust the assistant of the team to have the essential equipment everyone else didn’t.
“You’re the best.” And I meant it.