Flash! Boom!
Another bolt of lightning strikes the cliff face near them, knocking them to their knees. Below them the soldiers have now reached the third rest area and are pushing upward quickly.
Taking the steps two at a time, Jiron comes down and helps Aleya in aiding James the rest of the way to the top. “Come on!” he hollers over the wind. “We’ve got to hurry!”
Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom!
Two quick bolts strike near and he can hear an audible groan from James as he works to deflect them. Falling to their knees from the concussion of the blasts, Jiron looks to James and sees that his face is pale and drawn from the effort to keep them safe. Getting back to his feet, he picks him up and carries James the remaining few steps to the top.
“Horses!” Aleya hollers, pointing over to behind the ruined watchtower.
The crossbowmen’s horses are tied in a group. “Thank god!” he exclaims as he carries James over to them. He suddenly comes to a stop as he remembers how James had stopped Abula-Mazki back at the catacombs.
Setting him down, he hollers, “James!”
Eyes opening, he’s surprised at how bloodshot they are. “Remember back at the catacombs?” he asks. “Remember how you brought them down on top of Abula-Mazki?” Getting a nod from him, he continues, “Can you do the same thing here?”
A weak, “Maybe,” comes from him as he again closes his eyes. “Get us as far away from the edge as you can.” That last statement almost too soft to be heard over the roar of the wind.
“Go get us some horses and meet us over there,” he says to Aleya as he indicates a spot far from the edge. As she nods and moves to comply, he yells, “And hurry!”
Lifting James up, he begins carrying him far from the edge of the cliff face. Aleya soon joins them with four horses. “We’re away from the edge,” he tells James as he lays him on the ground. A brief nod is all the response he gets.
Taking two of the horses’ reins, he says to Aleya, “Hold onto them tight. No matter what happens, don’t let go!”
“Why?” she asks. “What’s going to happen?”
Before Jiron has a chance to reply, the ground begins to shake and the horses start neighing as their eyes roll with fear. “Hold them tight!” he cries. “We can’t let them go!”
Several soldiers reach the top of the stairs and are thrown to the ground as the cliff begins shaking. A loud crack can be heard as the ground begins trembling even harder. Then suddenly, three feet from where they stand with the horses, the ground splits in two. A roar the likes neither of them have ever heard before comes from all around them as the gap grows wider, slowly at first and then more rapidly.
When the gap is over three feet wide, the side of the gap away from them suddenly drops away, the ruins of the watchtower toppling over as the ground disappears from beneath it. A tremendous roar, even louder than before assaults their ears as the cliff face comes away, taking a good portion of the ridge, as well as the soldiers upon the stairs with it.
Jiron has all he can do to keep the two horses he’s holding from bolting away. Aleya loses the battle with hers and the reins are ripped out of her hands by the rearing of the terrified horses. The two horses, now free, run away from the noise. One ends up going the wrong way in its fear and plummets over the cliff side while the other races down the trail leading away from the top on the other side.
When the rumbling finally stops, Jiron moves over to the new edge of the ridge and looks down to where the stairs used to be. Below them is a massive dust cloud, obscuring everything more than several hundred feet below the top. Where the stairs had been is now just virgin, jagged rock. All those soldiers who had been upon the stairs must now be lying down at the base, buried beneath hundreds of tons of stone.
Coming away from the ledge, he sees Aleya staring at them with fear in her eyes. “What are you two?” she asks him.
“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about pursuit from there for awhile,” he tells her as he goes back over to where James is lying. He’s unconscious, but otherwise appears fine.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she says with an edge to her voice.
Glancing over to her, he finds an arrow knocked and aimed right for him. Getting up, he turns toward her and says, “As for me, I’m just a pit fighter out of the City of Light. I hooked up with James here shortly after it fell to the Empire and we’ve been together ever since.”
“What about him?” she asks, indicating the comatose James with her bow.
“You can ask him when he wakes up,” he tells her. “Which won’t be for several hours I’m figuring. Watch him for me will you?” Completely ignoring the arrow aiming at him, he turns and begins moving down the trail to find where the horses had run off.
Lowering her bow, she asks, “Where are you going?”
“To get the horses,” he replies. “If you would have held onto them tighter, I wouldn’t have to. Be back in a bit.”
She lowers her bow completely as she watches him move away down the trail. Replacing her arrow back into her quiver, she slings her bow across her back and looks at her red, bleeding hands. When the horses had ripped out of her grip, the reins had taken some of the skin with them.
Walking over to the edge of the cliff, she looks down at the dust cloud below. It’s beginning to clear away and she can see the enormous pile of rubble at the bottom. It may be her imagination but it looks like there are still survivors down there trying to dig out their companions. The exact number is obscured by the enormous dust cloud filling the valley below.
Stepping back from the cliff, she sees James lying on the ground. The sight of him sends fear through her, she doesn’t know why. Earlier during their trip together, he’d been an amiable and likable fellow. But after what she had just seen him do, the mere sight of him terrifies her. She comes nearer to him and nudges him with her foot almost as if she needs to believe he’s real. A groan escapes him when she nudges him, causing her to jump backward a foot in fright.
From the trail she hears the sound of Jiron returning with a horse. She doesn’t know what to do, being in company with such people. One tears down a cliff and the other scales a sheer drop of a thousand feet and then takes out the entire force at the top.
Jiron secures the horse with the other two and then notices how she’s standing as if she’s about to flee. “Relax,” he tells her with a smile. “Help me gather some wood so we can have a fire.”
When she still doesn’t move, he comes over to her and says soothingly, “Truly, we won’t harm you. And while you are with us, we will not allow others to harm you either. Though we do seem to attract the attention of the worst sort of people.”
He leaves her to her thoughts as he begins combing the area for firewood. After depositing his second load near James, he sees her take her bow from off her shoulder and says to him, “I’ll get something for dinner.”
“That’s a good idea,” he replies as he returns to the area by the few trees up there for another load. The clouds above had begun to clear ever since the cliff fell. Soon, blue can be seen and off to the west, the sun is beginning to descend close to the horizon.
The area around them is sparsely dotted with trees, mainly just rock and the occasional bush. Off to the west, the ridge they’re on slopes down until it finally dwindles into hills. Nestled in the hills lies a large fortress. Must be Kern that she mentioned earlier. And beyond it lies Cardri!
Chapter Twenty Two
Jiron has the fire going by the time Aleya returns with but a single rabbit. “I think all the noise must have scared off everything else,” she explains.
Taking the rabbit from her, he says, “I’m sure this will do nicely.”
She glances over to James where he lies by the fire. Wrapped in a couple blankets to keep the chill away, he looks down right peaceful lying there. “How is he?”