‘I can’t do it, Mark,’ Brynne told him plaintively. ‘I’ll fall.’
‘Yes, you can,’ he encouraged, ‘that’s the easy part. The hard part is the next bit: hanging on with your arms and shaking out your legs.’
‘No,’ she cried again, ‘I just can’t.’
Mark considered his options, swallowing a curse as he called back to Sallax, ‘Don’t let her fall, Sallax. I’ll be right back.’
‘Very well,’ the big Ronan answered. Though he sounded defeated, Mark knew Sallax would fight on to the last ounce of his strength.
‘Brynne, I’ll be back before the long arm reaches the three.’
‘I don’t remember the three.’ She sounded anxious.
‘It’s the one that looks like breasts on a sleeping woman.’
Sallax grunted in ironic amusement. ‘I must learn this system of runes, Mark.’
‘Just hang on until the arm reaches the three and I’ll be back.’ He shook the stiffness from his arms and legs and then, worried he might lose his grip and fall backwards down the slope himself, began hurrying, as fast as he dared, towards the path in the distance. After five minutes of hard climbing, he discovered there was about fifty feet of difficult loose rock before the terrain became more manageable and he could ascend again with some certainty.
By the time he reached the trail, he had worked out how he could rescue the others. Ignoring the potential threat of the almor, he jogged back along the slope until he reached a thin evergreen tree growing along the path. Its growth was stunted by strong winds that raked the sides of Seer’s Peak. Although it had shallow roots, there were sturdy branches along its trunk. He wasn’t positive it would be long enough to reach Brynne across the expanse of loose stones, but if he wasted too much time questioning his strategy, both she and Sallax would fall. He set about trying to push the tree over.
Mark’s watch read 11.22 by the time he reached the upper end of the loose gravel slope. He found two solid rocks on which to brace his feet and shouted to Brynne, ‘I’m going to lower a tree down to you. Grab on with all your strength and don’t let go. I’ll pull you up.’
There was no answer.
‘Brynne,’ he called into the night, his heart racing, ‘Brynne, take hold of the tree. All you need to do is walk up the slope. It’s much easier climbing up here.’
‘I’ll try,’ he heard her answer weakly, ‘but you are well past the three.’
‘I’m sorry, but I am here now, and I’m going to get you to safety. This tree was tougher than I expected.’ He braced himself, then yelled down again, ‘Sallax, you hang on. I’ll send this back in just a moment.’
‘I can wait,’ Sallax shouted back.
Mark lowered the tree trunk-first, fearing Brynne’s hands might slip on the fragile green boughs near the top; he removed his tunic and wrapped it round the top to ensure his own grip held fast.
He still couldn’t feel Brynne’s weight and was about to call when she shouted up the slope, ‘Mark, it doesn’t reach.’
‘Son of a pregnant, mother-humping bitch!’ he cried into the crevasse, then, thinking quickly, pulled the tree back up the hillside. ‘Hang on, I’ll send it right back.’ Resting the tree beside him, Mark removed his boots and stripped off his jeans. Pulling his sweater off as well, he tied the sweater sleeves to the legs of his jeans and secured the jeans to the tree with his belt. ‘I hope to God this holds,’ he prayed in a whisper, then added, ‘and I hope that godforsaken monster doesn’t kill me here in my boxers.’
This time his makeshift rescue line reached and he soon found himself hauling Brynne up the slope, heaving with all his might. When he pulled her up beside him, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him long and hard on the lips. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief and ran his hands through her thick hair and across the supple skin of her face: he had wanted to touch her for days now.
They might have taken things further had Sallax not interrupted from below. ‘Hello? I’m still down here,’ he called crossly. Mark wasn’t sure if he had seen them kissing, no matter how fiercely he burned for Brynne, this wasn’t the time.
‘Jesus, Sallax,’ Mark exclaimed and lowered the tree once again. The big man was much heavier than his sister and Mark slipped twice, almost pitching headlong into the ravine. Once Sallax was safe, Mark retrieved his clothes and let the tree fall down the slope. They watched as it disappeared from sight, then heard it strike the trail far below. No one said anything, though all three wore a look of great relief.
As he pulled on his jeans, Mark caught Brynne watching him by the pale light of the Eldarni moons. He flushed, and fastened his belt before pulling on his sweater. The stolen tunic, now ripped to shreds, was tossed into the darkness.
‘Follow me up this slope,’ he told the others. ‘It isn’t far and there are solid rock footholds all the way to the trail.’
When they finally reached the safety of the path, they collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. Sallax reached over and clapped a strong hand on Mark’s forearm. ‘That was well done, very brave. You saved us all.’
‘Don’t mention it,’ Mark replied. As an afterthought, he added, ‘We were there a long time. Did either of you hear anything of Versen passing us along the trail? I didn’t.’
Brynne’s breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t thought of the woodsman since fleeing the campsite. ‘Lords, do you think we lost him?’
‘I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, when we get off this mountain. That almor leaves behind the barest remains of its victims, but if it took Versen, there should be enough left for us to identify him,’ Sallax said, putting into words what they knew, but were hesitant to say out loud. ‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘right now we have to worry about ourselves, and the others up there-’ he pointed up at the wide, flat area atop the mountain. ‘They have no idea that thing is coming.’
‘Mark, can you get us up there by dawn?’ Brynne was worried. ‘I mean, we can’t go up the hillside again.’
‘I can get us there,’ he answered, ‘but we’ll never make it by dawn. We have to risk the trail.’
‘So be it.’ Sallax punctuated his decision by standing and tossing his saddlebags over one shoulder. He reached down to help Mark to his feet. ‘Like breasts on a sleeping woman?’
Mark grinned. ‘That’s right – but if you’ve never seen any, I’d be happy to explain the concept to you.’
Steven hurried along the trail as quickly as he could without leaving Garec and Gilmour behind. Perhaps he was worried for no reason: maybe his friends had moved their camp to a safer location, inside the canyon and out of the open. But scrambling over rocks along the treacherous pathway, he was certain something dreadful had befallen them; he had a gut feeling he couldn’t ignore. If only he had looked over the cliff sooner; they could have been halfway down the mountain by now. Instead, he’d wasted half the day trying to work out the confusing dreams and visions sent to them by Lessek’s spirit. He still thought his dream was just that: a memory of three friends together at work, nothing more.
Steven actually remembered that day well; that afternoon he had met Hannah for the first time. Myrna was planning to go out with her friends and Howard had sent him to pick up tickets to a football game that Sunday. There had been nothing mystical, magical, or even questionable about that day at work. Steven played it over in his mind, but every time he came to the same conclusion: Lessek had nothing to say to him, and he was happy with things that way.
Reaching the floor of a shallow gully, he paused to allow Garec and Gilmour to catch up. Seeing Garec in his boots, Steven was sorry he had agreed to trade for the day. Garec’s own footwear was made of soft tanned deer hide, but it didn’t compare with his own top-of-the-range boots. It was obvious Garec agreed; Steven could only hope he’d get them back one day.
Gilmour was quiet, almost brooding. Although he hustled along at Steven’s urging, his thoughts were elsewhere, deep within Riverend Palace or buried among the Windscrolls at Sandcliff. He made Steven promise to reflect on his dream in an effort to uncover anything out of the ordinary; Steven agreed he would investigate every single detail, if only they could just hurry back down Seer’s Peak. He needed to know the others were safe – after that, he would be happy to spend days talking about his recollections of Howard and Myrna.