6. Chapter 6 #2
“Daiti and I will pull you back up,” I promised.
She nodded sharply and quickly tied the cord around her waist. Then, she levered herself over the edge.
While there was still slack on the rope, I quickly stood and clicked my tongue.
Daiti, seemingly recovered from the scare of the earthquake, obediently approached, and I quickly tied the other end to the makeshift harness I used to attach my packs to his back.
Task completed, I stilled. Long moments stretched, marked by Aderyn’s labored breathing as she tried to hold on, and the patter of pebbles continuing to rain down into the newly formed gully in the earth.
I racked my brain for something else I could do to help Dhara get Elion over the edge of the cliff before he dragged Aderyn to certain death.
Then, Dhara’s voice drifted up from below, strained as if cursing to herself in frustration.
“You giant idiot.”
Another moment of shuffling followed, punctuated by a much louder call. “I’ve got him. You can let go.”
Aderyn grunted in relief as Elion’s wrist slipped from her fingers.
She reached toward Erix, who already stretched down to grab both her forearms and haul her up to safety.
I clucked to Daiti, who began to back up obediently, slowly towing Dhara and Elion up.
His feet were sure, and his muscles bunched with immense strength under his silky coat.
Once again, I fell to my knees at the edge of the incline as Dhara came back into view. She had managed to loop one of Elion’s arms over her shoulders and had him halfway draped across her back as her other arm looped around his thigh. His head lolled and a trickle of blood ran down his temple.
As soon as I could reach them, I grabbed his other arm, and Dhara and I dragged him to safety.
Even as I got Elion over the edge and laid him on his back next to where Aderyn sat slumped and gasping, I winced at the ripped skin on Dhara’s elbows and the crimson stains on the knees of her loose pants.
Finally, she made it to flat ground and collapsed, so all of us lay and sat scattered about in various postures of relief.
I leaned over to check on Elion, who was now blinking sluggishly. He was conscious but clearly dazed from the blow that had left him unable to climb to safety himself. Dhara crawled over to look him over as well.
Aderyn, seemingly having recovered some of her strength, spoke. “I nearly fell in when the ground collapsed. He was trying to help me up when the rock fell and hit his head. I barely managed to catch him when he went over.” Her voice was hoarse
“You’re lucky we heard your scream when we did.” Erix reached for his water flask and handed it to Aderyn.
She took a grateful swig and swished it around in her mouth before spitting it out. It was reddish brown with dust she’d inhaled in her fall.
“You saved me.” Lord Elion said. He had turned his head and was looking at Lord Dhara, although his eyes were still mildly unfocused.
She folded her arms over her chest and looked away. “I wouldn’t have had to if you learned how to duck. You’re lucky we got here when we did.”
With the immediate crisis averted, her words made me frown. “How… how did we get here? We were riding in opposite directions.”
Erix and I exchanged a glance, and the deep frown he wore echoed my own confusion.
Aderyn pursed her lips. “We haven’t intentionally been following in the rising sun, but our horses seem to have been favoring that direction. We don’t know where the other clans might have gone, so we have been letting the desert guide our mounts.”
Elion groaned and sat up. For how dazed he had been, he seemed relatively steady. When he reached up to gingerly touch his head though, his fingers still came away crimson. “Perhaps the desert knew we would need help today and granted us a boon.”
I huffed. “Why would she do us such a favor while trying to destroy us with monsters and disasters?”
“Women are fickle creatures,” Elion observed. “I don’t try too hard to puzzle out their motives, or I might give myself a headache.”
Despite the direness of the situation, Erix snorted and Dhara sniffed.
“I’m pretty sure the headache you have now is due to a fast-moving rock to the skull more than anything else,” I pointed out.
Elion grimaced. “I don’t think I’m fit to do any more riding today. Perhaps we can make camp together while we puzzle out why the desert brought us together again.”
I nodded and stood, dusting myself off to little avail.
Then I reached down to help Aderyn to her feet.
She clasped my forearm and let me pull her up.
Despite the unease lit in my belly by the circumstances of our meeting, I was glad to see her again, and some of my guilt at not being able to help her retake Kelvadan immediately eased.
I smiled ruefully. “Let’s get away from the edge of this cliff before anybody else falls in.”
The fire crackled and popped as it consumed the tough brush I had managed to find for our campfire. With the scent of woodsmoke on the air, and the five of us all camped together, it might have been peaceful after the chaos of the day.
An itch lingered under my skin, though, that made it hard to be idle.
It coalesced in my belly into a shivering sensation, right at the base of the tether I shared with Erix.
I looked around for him, but he was not seated by the fire.
Instead, my awareness of his magic drew me toward the patch of dried scrub where the horses all milled together.
I stood and made my way over, finding him with Alza’s face in his hands. He pet her gently, even as the set of his shoulders was tense. I walked up behind him and put my hands between his shoulder blades. He tensed even further for a moment, as if ready to flinch away, then relaxed.
I frowned, unease curling in my belly. It reminded me of how he reacted to touch when we first met, as if he expected every contact to cause pain. Now, I feared the pain came from within his own mind.
“We need to talk to the others,” he said. “Decide what to do.”
“I know, although I’m finding it hard to sit still,” I admitted, hoping I could share his burden.
Since Kelvar appeared to him, the knots in the magic around him had grown tighter and more tangled.
I did not know how to untie them, but I hoped simply staying near would ease his mind.
Nobody benefited from being alone with such spiraling thoughts.
“It seems easier to fight the elements than to figure out what the desert is trying to tell us.”
Erix’s muscles twitched beneath my fingers. “It’s my fault.”
My frown deepened and my chest ached at the pain in his words.
“I’m going mad, and I’m dragging you with me,” he said, his voice quiet but hard with frustration. “I saw Kelvar again. And the voices grow so loud, I can barely think.”
My stomach dropped and cold washed over my skin despite the heat.
The thought of Erix being pulled away from me, lost in his own mind even when his body remained near, made bile rise in my throat.
The image of him twitching on the ground as Lord Alasdar trapped him in the room beneath the palace in his own mind flashed behind my eyes.
I could protect him from creatures and storms with my body and my sword, but this was different.
The cold weight of helplessness settled in my limbs as I searched for an answer.
“But being with me… it helps.” It was half a statement, half a question.
Erix’s arms around me had contained the lightning storms that danced in my skin before.