Kleef smiled. “As you command, my lady.”
Now that a rope was hanging over the cliff, the orcs redoubled their efforts and came up the slope even faster than before. They were still too far away for their slings and crude bows to be effective, but that would not remain true for long. Kleef went to a waist-high boulder resting atop another larger stone, then pressed his shoulder to it and pushed.
The boulder slid off so easily that Kleef nearly fell over headlong. It rolled once, twice-then dropped between two huge monoliths and stopped dead.
The orcs saw what he was attempting and began to break out slings and bows. Kleef picked up a rock the size of his own chest and hurled it down the slope. It bounced off a larger boulder and went arcing through the air, picking up speed as it dropped through the chute. When it hit a second time, it knocked half a dozen smaller stones free, most of which began to roll and pick up momentum. Within moments there were a couple of dozen head-sized stones following the boulder down toward the orcs.
The orcs answered by launching a flight of arrows and stones that was doomed to fall short. Kleef ignored the volley and hurled another boulder down the slope. The result was much the same as the last time, and soon there was a second small avalanche of rocks tumbling down toward the orcs. By the time he had picked up a third boulder, the second was bouncing through the enemy swarm, leaving behind a trail of billowing dust and broken, groaning bodies.
With a river of tumbling rock following close in that second boulder’s wake, the survivors scrambled for shelter beneath outcroppings and behind huge monoliths. It was impossible to see how well the strategy protected them, but it allowed Kleef plenty of time to feed the avalanche. He continued to push and hurl boulders as fast as he could move them. Soon, his muscles were trembling and he was out of breath, but the avalanche had become a crashing, rumbling thing that shook the ground and filled the chute with billowing clouds of dust.
Kleef turned away and saw that Malik was already halfway up the cliff, clutching the rope with both hands and walking his feet along the sheer face as Arietta and Joelle pulled him up. Knowing this would be when the little man would be most vulnerable to a Shadovar attack, Kleef pulled Watcher off his back and scrambled up the slope.
But the agate on Watcher’s crossguard remained dark, even when he reached the base of the cliff. And that only made him worry more. The orcs could not have found Kleef and his companions without Shadovar help. Yet the Shadovar were nowhere to be seen-even now, when it would be difficult for Malik’s companions to defend him.
Kleef could not quite figure out what that meant. Perhaps the orcs were not in constant communication with their allies, or perhaps they did not entirely trust the Shadovar. But what Kleef feared-the thought that was tying his gut into knots-was that the Shadovar were using the orcs to herd them into a trap.
Kleef was still pondering these fears when Malik reached the top of the cliff and disappeared. When none of his companions reappeared in the next couple of minutes, Kleef began to worry that the cliff had been the trap, that perhaps it had been the Shadovar pulling Malik up.
Then, finally, Arietta peered over the edge and smiled. “I suppose another apology is in order.”
“An apology, my lady?”
“For underestimating you.” Arietta glanced down into the dust-choked chute, where the rumble of the avalanche was just starting to fade. “That was a lot more than a hundred orcs you just killed.”
She threw the rope down.
Kleef climbed to the cliff-top and saw that the companions had floated so far down the river they had left the Chondalwood behind. Now, they stood on the edge of a wide flat plain with yellow flowers rising from a blanket of new grass. A few leagues distant, the expanse dropped away into a jagged-edged abyss so deep and immense that its shadows seemed to swallow even the far horizon. Above the chasm, a vortex of purple clouds hung swirling with sheet-lightning and balls of green flame.
He was looking at the Underchasm, Kleef realized, and now he knew why the Shadovar had given up the chase.
Now, they could wait for the Eye to come to them.
CHAPTER 17
After two days of eighteen-hour marches on not much sleep, Arietta was so foggy-headed that she didn’t realize Joelle had stopped moving until she felt the heartwarder’s back against her chest. She quickly reached up and caught Joelle by the shoulder, steadying them both.
“My apologies,” Arietta said. “I wasn’t paying-”
“No need to apologize.” Joelle placed her hand over Arietta’s and left it there. “We’re beyond that now, don’t you think?”
Arietta allowed herself a hint of a smile. “I suppose we are.” In truth, she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the night before-except that it gave her a secret thrill to hear Joelle mention their intimacies. “But that doesn’t give me leave to run you over.”
Joelle shot her a sly grin. “Maybe that was the idea.”
Arietta’s cheeks grew warm. While it was true that she had developed a deep and passionate affection for Joelle, it was equally true that she was just growing accustomed to the idea of being in love with another woman. She cast a nervous glance back at Kleef and Malik, who were coming up the gentle rise behind them, then slipped her hand from beneath Joelle’s.
“Bad timing, I’m afraid.”
Joelle laughed. “Concerned about what our friends may think?” she asked. “I thought you were done worrying about your noble decorum.”
“I am.” Arietta stepped around to Joelle’s side, where their bodies would not be in such obvious contact. “But there’s a difference between following one’s heart and making a spectacle of oneself.”
“As you wish.” Joelle feigned a tone of disappointment. “I suppose I’ll just have to control myself until we make camp.”
By then, Kleef and Malik had joined them atop the rise. Malik looked from Arietta to Joelle with a smug little grin that suggested he’d seen what had passed between the two and knew exactly what it meant. Kleef simply avoided their eyes and stopped alongside Malik, his gaze fixed on their destination.
From this close, the Underchasm looked like the end of the world, an immense dark void falling away from the jagged edge of a grassy, windswept plain. Here and there, thumb-sized crags of gray stone rose out of the murk like islands out of a foggy sea. A couple of the crags were connected by pale lines that seemed to be ropes or bridges, and the largest was topped by a crownlike shape that suggested a castle and its turrets.
After a moment, Kleef worked his gaze across the grassy plain ahead, no doubt searching for an orc scouting party or Shadovar ambush. When he spotted neither, he frowned and said, “I don’t see anything.”
“Out in the Underchasm,” Joelle said. She pointed at the large stone crag with the crown of castle turrets. “That’s our destination: Sadrach’s Spire.”
“That’s where Grumbar’s Temple is?” Arietta asked, confused. “A castle aerie?”
“Grumbar’s Temple is beneath the castle,” Malik said. “Sadrach was a student of elemental magic. He kept temples to all of the Elemental Lords in his home.”
“That castle must be leagues from the nearest solid ground,” Kleef said. “How do we reach it?”
Arietta pointed at the pale lines she had observed earlier. “Across those bridges, I would wager.”
“Bridges?” Kleef’s face fell, and he turned to Joelle. “Is there another way across?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Joelle said. “Unless you can fly.”
“Or we wish to climb down and go through the Underdark,” Malik added. He cast a wary glance toward the angry sky, where a boiling red rift was opening between two banks of purple clouds. “But I do not think we have time for that.”
Kleef let out his breath, then said, “Well, at least we know where the Shadovar mean to ambush us.”