After a tense moment of growing anxiety, Patch sighed and touched his patch, which whirred and flashed at random intervals. “Hold this.” He shoved the weapon at Lapis, and she fumbled with it as he crawled to the edge, peeked over, then hustled back. “The trail just below us has some debris, but it’s intact. At the next crossback there’s a ledge that goes around the cliff,” and he pointed at the jutting rock the ‘shroud rested on, “and leads to a gentler slope we can use to get to the southwestern parts of Green Mountain. From what I can see, it’s still viable. The problem is that it’s just wide enough for humans. I don’t think the khentauree can make it. There’s another one further down that’s wider, but I don’t know how we’d get to it. The drop is at least six stories.”
Dov swiveled his head to Chiddle, then back. “We will decide what to do when we reach it.”
Reach it?
The ground shook, and a vertical crack formed in the stone halfway between them and the destroyed crossback. More smoke billowed over the top of the cliff, and it sat heavy in the air, thick and black. Debris fell, smaller, dustier. Another shake, and chunks of stone crumpled onto the path before rolling towards the rubble. More cracks formed, the fractures heading their way.
“We must go,” Dov said.
No choice. They unfurled and looked over the lip.
The sheer face of the cliff did not look like it provided much in the way of handholds. Lapis gripped her umbrella; no way down.
Dov buzzed, Chiddle answered, then the Ambercaast khentauree jumped down.
“Chiddle!” Lapis cried, aghast.
They stood three stories above the icy next level, but he landed without mishap. Dov snagged Tuft’s sled and pushed it over the edge, and it clattered inelegantly down; Chiddle caught it with a little side-stepping. Lapis held her breath as it swung over his head, but the khentauree yanked it back and set it down, then slid it further along the path before looking back up.
“He will catch you,” Dov said. He snagged Perben’s arm, hefted him over the side, slapped him against the rock, and let go.
Lapis refused to enjoy the man’s scream as he slid down the side, because she would have to do the same thing.
Perben bumped away from the cliff, but not far enough that Chiddle could not catch him at the waist. He set him down and prepared for the next one of them. The traitor stumbled to Tuft and bent over; Lapis hated that she probably would have done the same after such an unexpected fall.
Faelan held his umbrella out in front of him in both hands and sat, legs dangling. Dov snagged him under the arms, knelt, and held him down the side as far as he could, then let go. He dropped the umbrella when Chiddle caught him, but retrieved it and scampered out of the way. Jetta sucked in a breath, smashed her lips together, and repositioned her weapon so her backside hit the stone, not the tech. She sat as Faelan had, and Dov again held her as far down as possible before releasing her. She bumped a bit further from the cliff, but Chiddle caught her all the same, slapping her against his chest to make certain she stopped, before letting her slide down.
She hobbled away, as if that had hurt. Wonderful.
Lapis gripped her umbrella as Patch pushed her forward. She sat, raised her arms, and Dov slipped his hands beneath.
“You will be fine,” he assured her as he held her over the edge.
Freefall. She screamed on the way down, but she did not have a chance for true fear to clutch her before Chiddle caught her hips and wrapped his arms around her back, bringing her into his torso. She held the umbrella to the side as she slid down his front, hit the ground, and wobbled out of the way.
She was never repeating anything like that again. Never never never.
She missed Patch’s descent as she concentrated on clawing back the last vestiges of her bravery. Faelan set a hand on her back, and she glanced up at him. He, like Patch, appeared calm, but the wrinkle of his eyes, the press of lips together, proved fear rode him, too.
Dov landed next to Chiddle, and they bumped shoulders. Was that a khentauree thing, or had they picked it up from humans? No time to ask; a shower of earth and rock bathed them, and they sped down the trail after Perben, avoiding larger obstacles.
The sound of falling cliff behind them punched enough fear into Lapis, she ran faster.
Perben stopped at the beginning of the ledge. Someone, at some point, had carved it into the rock, and she wondered at the purpose. It was not large enough for cargo, and anyone with a healthy sense of self-preservation would creep across it, making it less than desirable as a regular path.
The traitor set his foot on it, prodding outward. It was about her width in some places, a foot wide in others, and that was only the part she could see. The jutting cliffside hid the rest behind its vertical edge. As Patch said, it was too narrow for the khentauree; how were they going to get across while lugging Tuft?
“Seems stable,” Perben said before looking up. The ‘shroud sat above them, casting all in shadow, adding to the darkness the smoke caused. Crackling wiring and hanging debris did not reach them, but that did not mean it would not fall as they scooted along.
Another boom reached them, but the smoke concealed what detonated. More flames shot into the air, so high they could see them, which meant something big no longer existed. The hull above them rocked, groaned and squealed, and a shower of fine particles coursed down, just missing the ledge. Hissing, the traitor slapped his back against the cliff face and slid onto the narrow shelf. Jetta pushed Faelan next, which he did not appreciate, and followed him.
Dov motioned to her. “Go. We will use the lower ledge and regroup after.”
But how? The questions would have to wait; she put her back to the rock, held her umbrella at an awkward angle, and edged cautiously onto it.
She had to move faster, she knew that, but looking at the ledge so she could avoid the slickest parts meant she saw further down, too, and the height concerned her. Below was a wider outcropping, one they could more easily navigate, but the drop was twice that of the previous one. A wrong step, a tumble, and she would splat.
Patch hmphed, and she looked back. Dov knelt, slid over the edge, and slammed his hands into the stone, creating holds. His back legs hung while his front hooves smashed divots deep enough to hold his weight, and he climbed down.
She rounded the corner before she could see what they planned to do with Tuft’s body. Drop him, like before? Poor Tuft!
“I wish I had hands that could punch through stone.” That would make some of this escape easier.
Patch laughed quietly, but in an absent way that meant he paid little attention to the ledge. He focused on the clouds below them. What did he see? Through a break in the smoke, she noticed a packed road of people and animals heading south, pushed aside by several mounted individuals holding larger tech weapons to clear a space for a frantic driver whipping horses drawing a large carriage. The wind covered them again, and another gap did not materialize.
“That’s Gall, isn’t it?” she gritted, her fear disappearing in a burst of rage.
“Yeah. The maroon and green flags on the back of the carriage give him away. He’s not bothering to hide his retreat.” His fury was born from the fact that he could not reach them before they disappeared into other parts of the city.
“Their escape route probably got cut off,” Jetta said. “We can’t let them get away.”
“We’re not getting down this cliff before they disappear,” Perben reminded her.
“You’re not coming—” Jetta began, heat lowering her tone.
“The gods I’m not!” Perben snarled. “If Faelan goes, I go.”
Everything rocked. Lapis’s back popped from the cliff face, and with an eep, she flailed. She planted her right boot, and her toes slipped over the edge. Her heart pounding to the point she gasped for breath, she sank down, lying on her left thigh, and waited for the vibrations to end.
“Faelan!” Patch shouted, too sharp.
She jerked her head around; he held Perben’s lower arm as the man dangled. Jetta had her arms wrapped around his waist, her knees digging into the ledge, straining to keep Faelan on the ledge.
He should let him fall!
Her brother dragged him high enough he could grab the ledge, and snagged his pantleg to help him crawl up. Perben lay on his side, gasping, and both Faelan and Jetta sagged. Lapis’s fingers dug into her handle, shaking.
He should have let him fall.
“We need to get off this before it completely collapses,” Patch shouted, prompting the three to get moving.
Why had Faelan endangered himself for that man, of all people.
Lapis looked beyond the traitor, and realized he fell because the part he stood on collapsed. They could jump the gap, though the thought made her queasy. Too easy, for them to land, shake the far side loose, and plummet.
Was she that bad of a person, that she would have let him fall?
Another round of vibrations prompted all of them to their feet. Perben waited for them to subside, then easily hopped to the other side. He no longer had his umbrella, so planted his back against the cliff and slapped both hands to his side, rushing faster than before. Faelan and Jetta followed, and she could hear them arguing in low, urgent tones.
She bet Jetta agreed with her, that he should not have risked himself and let him fall.
Swallowing, feeling battered physically, mentally, Lapis ran and jumped, pointing the umbrella in front of her so it did not catch the wind and heave her off the ledge. Patch landed right behind her, and she stuck her backside to the cliff face again, glancing at him.
He would have let him go, too. And he would not have felt a raindrop’s worth of guilt over it, either.
More of the ledge had crumbled, and they crept along even thinner edges or vaulted ever-wider gaps. She kept her eyes to her feet, every other thought drifting to the back of her head. Concentrate, ignore her trembly emotions, make it to the other side.
Perben had, and she could do no less.
The ledge widened unexpectedly, and the ramp ran to the slope Patch mentioned. Just below the passage the khentauree used, mud heavy with melting snow had poured into a gulch, rivulets still running down the sides. Downed trees, bushes and boulders stuck out from the stuff, and she did not trust the rest to stay put under the strain of another explosion-caused quake.
She did not see the three mechanical beings before wind-blown smoke drifted around them, hiding everything but their immediate surroundings from view. Lapis side-hopped to hit the slope faster, then slogged through melting snowbanks with wilted grass peeking through to halt next to Jetta. The only emotion the rebel reflected was fiery pain in her eyes, and she wondered how much friction this would cause.
Faelan should have let Perben fall.
“Come on. We need to go,” Patch called.
“But the khentauree!” she protested. They could not leave them behind!
He set his hand in the middle of her back and urged her on. “They have sensors, Lanth. They can find us more easily than we can find them in this smoke, and since they run faster, they’ll catch up.” He pointed up the slope. “The ridge is our best bet to avoid slides, and it’ll take us to pathways that lead to the noble estates further down. Those mansions are close enough to all this, I’m betting the nobles are trying to evacuate. Hopefully we can take advantage of the chaos.”
Something to look forward to. Lapis checked on the ‘shroud, but she could see nothing through the thick smoke. If the Stars doled out luck, maybe they would send a bit more their way, and keep the menacing black ship where it was until they escaped its shadow.
