ON THE LEDGE
On the other side of the outcrop, their remaining assailants talked quietly among themselves. Garth stood ready to skewer any who tried to work their way around.
Karigan wiped perspiration off her brow with her sleeve. “Can you make out what they’re saying?” she whispered to Garth.
He shook his head.
Trace’s glassy-eyed gaze was fixed on the distance. She was communicating with Connly. Megan stirred and moaned, but didn’t come to.
Their foes quieted. There was the sound of shuffling as they moved about, then one said, “You’re trapped, Greenies. We’ll wait.”
“That’s too bad,” Garth replied. “My sword is thirsty.”
“What about the flying girl?” one of them said in a low voice.
“Shut up,” the first man said.
“What flying girl?” Garth asked. “I didn’t see any flying girl, did you?” he asked Karigan.
“Nope,” she replied.
“If she flies again,” the first man said, “we’ll use her for target practice. Meanwhile, we’ll just bide our time while you get hungry and thirsty.”
Trace pulled Karigan aside and whispered, “Connly says they are going to help, but it’ll be a while, probably under cover of darkness.”
So, they would have to wait.
“Wh-what’s going on?” Megan asked in a tired voice.
While Trace went to her side to check on her and explain the situation in a hushed voice, Karigan once more assessed their position. Their ledge stepped out from the bare face of the cliff. She had a good view of the valley in the distance, and the encampment beyond. It was no wonder why Connly wanted to wait until dark to cross the expanse.
The drop beneath her feet made her heart pound, and she moved back. She had no wish for her or her companions to dash themselves on the rocks below. Behind her, the exposed cliff face ascended to a great height. To scale it would first require surmounting the obstacle that was the rooflike overhang, which meant clinging to the underside of the jutting rock at an impossible angle over the terrible drop, then clambering over it to reach the cliff face itself. There were people who could do that, find the least fissure or hollow to use as hand- and footholds, and crawl spiderlike up any wall, but she was not one of them. None of them were, and that was why Zachary had needed Megan’s floating ability in the first place.
She then thought to call for Ripaeria, but if the eagle hadn’t been allowed to help with spying on the pass, then she wouldn’t be allowed to help them now. Karigan tried anyway, calling out with her mind. She was answered only by silence.
She shook her head, resigned to waiting, and sat beside Megan, who was beginning to look more like her old self. “What happened up on the Landing?” she whispered.
“There were men up there,” Megan replied. “I didn’t know they were there, and they didn’t see me, either. They must be climbers unless they can float like me. Anyway, I had to pee, so when I got up to find a place, I saw them, and they saw me. They drew their swords and I panicked. I ran right off the mountain. It was like I forgot how to use my ability and I just kept falling.” She shivered.
Karigan did, too, recalling the dream or vision that had awakened her. “Were you able to see into the pass? I mean, before you saw the men?”
Megan nodded. “I’ll be able to tell the king something, if we ever see him again.” She sounded more peeved by their situation than fearful.
She continued, telling Karigan that there was hardly anyone to be seen in the pass. Maybe a dozen soldiers kept watch on the battlements and the gate of the keep. Civilians tended the few livestock or collected firewood outside. It certainly didn’t have the look of a fully occupied garrison, she said. Her words confirmed what Softfeather and Ripaeria had reported.
It begged the questions, however, of where Second Empire’s army had gone if it were no longer at the pass, and how it had left without their noticing. The possible answers were worrisome.
“I’m starving,” Megan complained loud enough for all to hear.
Their enemies made much of their access to food and water.
“Come over here, Greenie,” one of them said from his side of the outcrop. “I have a good meatroll here.”
Megan pouted. “I’m tempted,” she murmured.
Karigan was, too. She hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the previous night.
“They’d stick you with a sword before you got very far,” Trace told her.
As the afternoon wore on, Karigan took a turn at guarding the outcrop. Garth and Trace sat with their backs against the mountain. Garth drowsed. Megan got up and down, up and down, and stomped around. She muttered something about being bored, looked up at the overhang, and down the cliff. She looked out into the valley.
“Hmph,” she said.
Her restlessness was beginning to annoy Karigan. Apparently, it wore on Trace, too, who told her to sit down.
“No, I’m tired of sitting. I’m tired of all this.”
She stepped off the ledge.
Karigan clapped her hand over her mouth so as not to shout Megan’s name. Trace looked to be undergoing a similar struggle. Garth snored.
Megan floated up and past them and disappeared above the overhang. There was a chance she’d remain unseen by the enemy so long as she kept her current trajectory. Even if the enemy did see her, it was unlikely they’d get a good shot at her.
Trace got up and made her way to Karigan’s side. She whispered, “What the hells is Megan doing?”
Karigan shook her head and shrugged. All she could figure was that the self-absorbed girl was put out by being stuck on the ledge and had had enough. At least her confidence in her ability had finally grown enough that she hadn’t any qualms about taking matters into her own hands.
Trace then cleared her throat and pointed at the outcrop.
A hand was reaching around it. Karigan hacked at it, but the man to whom it belonged snatched it back just in time. The blade of her sword glanced off rock with a spark.
“Not quick enough,” the man said with a laugh.
“Try that again and we’ll see,” she replied.
She scanned the sky above, then the valley below. No sign of Megan.
“Should we wake him up?” Trace asked, pointing at Garth.
“No real reason to,” Karigan said. He’d kept watch for them as they had napped the morning away, then had used his special ability to find this spot. They might as well return the favor and let him rest while he could.
There was a click-click-click of a pebble skittering down the cliff face.
“What the—?” one of the enemy said. “Hit me on the head. Where’d it come from?”
There was more, like a handful of gravel tossed down from above. The men swore. The sound grew into more of a shower of dirt and stones as it slid down the smooth granite wall.
When the sound continued to grow into an alarming roar, Karigan wondered, What has that girl done? and said aloud, “We need to get back.”
She and Trace tucked themselves beside the snoozing Garth beneath the shelter of the overhang. Rocks thundered down the mountainside, along with tons of soil and trees. Most did not hit their ledge, but a few bounced off the overhang. The men on the other ledge didn’t seem to be faring as well if their screams were any indication.
Karigan thought they would make it, but then another boulder pounded the overhang. There was an alarming c-r-r-r-ack! and a section collapsed onto their ledge. Rock shards exploded in every direction with the impact, and she buried her face in her arms to protect it.
“You all right?” she asked Trace.
“I’m shaking, but not hurt.”
Karigan could hear the strain in her voice and felt much the same.
She didn’t know how long the slide lasted, but it felt interminable. Finally, it ended much the way it had started, with stray pebbles rolling and plinking off the cliff. So much dust hung in the air that it was hard to see beyond their ledge.
“Good gods,” Trace muttered. “You don’t think Megan caused that, do you?”
Karigan rose, patted dirt off her uniform and hair, and, stepping over the rubble, tried to look around the outcrop to see what she could, but the dust was way too thick. She heard no signs of life.
When she turned back, she was startled to see Megan alight on their ledge with a very self-satisfied expression on her face.
“Well, I took care of that,” she said. She dusted her hands off, and then promptly passed out into a heap.
Garth, who had slept through the whole thing, awoke with a yawn. When he saw Trace and Karigan staring incredulously at him, he asked, “What did I miss?”
They investigated as the dust settled, and discovered that the rockslide made their way back to the stair impossible. Garth, who was confident enough to edge around the outcrop, reported bodies buried beneath the rubble on the ledge, and at the bottom of the cliff. He couldn’t say how many, and speculated that some of the men had gotten away. His speculation was confirmed when Trace spotted three men down in the meadow riding away.
“I got rid of them,” Megan said when she came back to her senses.
“Yes, you did,” Karigan replied, “and you almost got rid of us, too. Not to mention we are now stuck here.”
“Oops. I didn’t think about that. Too bad you can’t float.”
Karigan narrowed her eyes at the girl, thinking maybe she’d grown just a little too bold.
“I’ve told Connly we need a rope,” Trace said. “Mistress Floaty here can go retrieve it for us.”
As darkness fell, Megan did just that, meeting Connly and a contingent of Riders down by the eagle statues. She returned with a couple lengths of rope.
It was hazardous finding their way down in the dark, but none of them were keen on spending the night on the ledge, and Megan helped direct them from the air while Garth used his ability to find the best way.
When they reached level ground, Garth led them to the Sky Stairs, allowing them to descend the rest of the way without ropes. They met Connly and the Riders at the eagle statues.
“Well,” Connly said, “so much for a stealthy scouting mission. I’m sure that rockslide was heard for miles around.”
Megan could not have looked more proud.