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Tariro

Chapter 4: Rope

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Alanna took charge easily, giving direct orders with a smile to the grinning soldiers and only checking with Daine when she wanted some information- such as how long it would take them to get into the Johi territory. It was a relief to Daine that she didn't have to think of plans, and a relief to the soldiers to finally have a plan of action. They hunkered around the fire pit, sharpening their blades absentmindedly while they discussed strategies. The men who were to be left behind boasted of the challenge they would soon overcome, while the others were scampering like cowards for the caves. In their turn, the gifted told the ungifted they were monster food, and should probably carry around some herbs to make the Johi's dinner more enjoyable. They, on the other hand, were to defend the hub of the island from the deadly spell. Snide jokes abounded, none of them hitting home, and by the time they bedded down for their early rise the men were in high spirits.

Before sunset Alanna had drawn the ungifted aside to one of the rocks. She pressed her palm to the stone and frowned, concentrating until the boulder glowed purple. When she took her hand away the stone faded back to a normal grey, until each of the soldiers came forward to press their own palms to its surface. As each man touched it, it glowed again and left the shining outline of their handprint on the surface. When they had all touched the spell, the knight snapped her fingers. The handprints flared brightly for a second, and then disappeared. The spell could be activated again by any one of them touching it, as Alanna showed them: when they touched it, a glowing orb flitted from the rock and sped towards her. She caught it easily, shrugged and then threw it into the air, where it promptly fled back to the rock.

"What if you die?" Guy asked easily, as if he was discussing the weather. Alanna shrugged.

"I'd hope you'd use your own brain and decide what's best." She replied. "I don't want you to wait for orders, anyway. If you find the statues then tell me, but for anything else, you can handle it however you like."

The soldier grinned and checked his sword was free from frost. "That's just what I was hoping for."

The next morning brought a thick mist, different from the snow-laden murk that had brought blizzards, but still eerie. Apparently none of the soldiers were morning people; in a surly silence they clapped each others' shoulders in farewell, and the gifted left. The mist soaked them to the skin, and they walked through the eerie stone hills for hours before they climbed above it and it suddenly cleared in a flare of sunlight. They blinked in the light and stopped, shading their eyes. After weeks of overcast skies, the light seemed violently bright. They skirted the edges of the valleys for a while, letting the sun dry their soaked clothes and warm their skin. The condors seemed to be enjoying the sunlight too; they circled lazily in the sky above them, only swooping down close enough to see the warning glint of arrows before they flew back up again.

They ate as they walked, not stopping for a rest. They preferred being tired to the idea of the Johi catching them. Worn out by the early start, Sarralyn slept deeply in her sling and didn't fuss for food until the middle of the afternoon. Alanna nodded when Daine asked if they could stop, and called out to the men that they were having a privy break.

"I'm a bit worried at the sun," Daine confided to her friend when they stopped. "I crossed the lake because it was frozen, but even when it was snowing constantly there were still melted gaps."

"How did the bandits get to the island? Did they swim?" Alanna asked. Daine shook her head.

"Gods, no! The Neferii would have slaughtered them. No, Numair made a bridge." She smiled, "If you wanted to pass as bandits, that much magic would kind of... give the game away."

"Is there no other way onto the island? You said it's in a cave, right? Are there any holes in the roof?"

Daine blinked and tried to explain how a cave was a small thing, and that the roof of the island was at least a mile above the ground. Alanna waved away the protest until she got a straight answer- yes, there were holes in the roof, they started in the city, and you'd better not be planning what I think you are...

"I don't know what you're scared of," Alanna grinned and flexed her legs, getting ready to walk again. "You're the one who can fly."

A few hours later, as the pinkish sun lit the city, one of the soldiers joined in the argument. Looking down at the hole in the floor, feeling the depths of cold cave air rushing through it, he swallowed and said, "I'm ever so slightly nervous of heights, lady."

Alanna frowned at the hole, trying to work out how strong the edges were. "Then, Markus, today will not be your favourite day." She poked at the stone and scowled as the edge crumbled, as if it had done it to taunt her. The whole city had put her nerves on edge- perhaps it was only what Daine had said about its dead children the night before, but there was an unsettling heaviness in the air, and the blood-red splashes of paint on the walls did nothing to help. Creepy or not, she couldn't attach anything to this crumbling mess without reinforcing it first. Closing her eyes, Alanna tried to concentrate while Markus kept whispering frantically to the other men.

"But- what if we fall?"

"Just try not to," one of the other soldiers hissed back, watching Alanna's spell-casting with interest. As military mages, the men were still excited at the chance to learn from the legendary warrior mage- even if she had spent more time being seasick than summoning spells so far. Markus turned back to Daine, his pupils tiny scared dots in his wide eyes.

"How far down is it, miss?" He asked. Daine looked up from tightening the sling straps that were tied around her waist. If Sarralyn made any sudden moves it could send her off balance. The baby mewed at being held so tightly, but made no other protest. She opened her mouth to tell the truth, and then stopped at the sudden chorus of faces the other soldiers were pulling at her from behind Markus' back.

"You'll be fine," she told him instead, and smiled. "Just don't look down. It'll seem a lot higher than it really is, honest."

The ground rippled for a moment, and they all staggered at the slight shock. Alanna stood up, dusting off her knees absently. The crumbling ground had turned to strong iron for meters on each side, as had some of the furniture in the house. When Kray nudged at one of them it didn't move- it was fused into the ground. He drew a rope out of his bag and knotted it around the chair legs, testing the knot for strength and then wrapping it around again for safety. He glanced up at the knight, who nodded, and then began to cast his own spell. The amber-yellow glimmer of his gift wasn't as strong as Alanna's violet flare, but the spell was very neat and settled into the weave of the rope like water soaking into cloth. The rope thickened and shifted like a snake, coiling into longer and longer loops on the ground as it grew. Alanna waited for a long time before she nodded that it was long enough to reach the distant ground, prompting a nervous noise from Markus. She responded by rolling her eyes and ignoring him.

"Can you make that into a ladder?" She asked Kray, "No-one will be able to hold onto a rope for that long."

He nodded, concentration written on his face in soft lines. The snake shifted again, spikes growing from it until it looked like an enormous caterpillar. When they were a foot long they split at the ends, twisting around each other until they were fixed. He opened his eyes and grinned at the handiwork, nodding his smug thanks for the grudging appreciation of the other men.

"You weave nearly as well as my missus." One of them finished lightly, ducking away to avoid the swipe Kray took at him.

It took two of them to push the great mass of rope to the edge of the iron floor, and then it had to be fed through the small gap slowly and carefully. They could hear it creak in the depths, the sound echoing and amplified. It finally fell through in a hiss of rushing rope, and suddenly there was only the tether rope, straining gently at the weight of the enormous ladder. Kray tested the weight carefully, and then grinned and disappeared down the hole. Two of the other men followed him in quick succession, and then a third glared at Markus until the pasty soldier climbed down, too. Daine followed him, then Alanna, and finally the remaining soldiers. With ten of them on the ladder it swung alarmingly until they found a rhythm, carefully matching their movements to the person below and above them.

Even if they wanted to look down there was little point- their eyes had hardly adjusted to the light, and the cave was as black as night. They could feel the height in the sway of the rope, and hear it in the gentle shimmer of the water far below them. But their whole world was touch- to reach out, to grasp the next rung in the ladder, and then to reach out again. The ladder was strong but rough; the edges of the rope bristled with scratchy fibres, and soon their hands were tired. And the darkness still pulled at them: they had no way of knowing how close to the bottom they were. The hole in the roof disappeared, but not from distance- the sun had set.

They climbed in silence, completely focused on the rope. The first sound was the intake of breath from the man who'd climbed down last. A second later they all felt it- a tremor which danced down the rope. As one, they looked up. Was the rope fraying?

The ladder shuddered again, and this time they heard it: a single stream of laughter, so light it was almost hidden under the metallic sounds of the cave.

"Go," Alanna whispered, and then repeated more urgently when none of them moved. "Climb, you idiots!"

There was a hiss as they all breathed in the breaths they were holding, and started climbing again. This time they were less cautious- as soon as one foot found a rung the second was reaching for the next, and there were hissed curses as one by one they lost their grip and had to grab for the rope, making it dance even more erratically. There was no way to tell anymore if the movements were from the Johi above them, or their own rush for the ground.

There was a flat noise from below them, and Kray laughed softly in victory as he set foot on solid ground. As the second man rushed to join him, the ladder swung violently sideways, the humans clinging to it like kittens on a windswept branch. As far above them as the Johi were, the laughter was still clear in their ears: now more than one voice, and filled with cruelty.

The second man jumped and rolled, closely followed by the third. Markus gripped the ladder in white knuckles and climbed a further few rungs down, watching the ground rushing beneath the swinging ladder with a sickened expression. The others were only a few rungs above, but couldn't move until the soldier did.

"Go on," Daine whispered, trying not to sound terrified as the ladder jolted and dropped a few inches closer to the ground with a tearing sound. "You're fine. It's easy. Just twenty more steps, and you'll be safe."

The man looked up and swallowed, his eyes involuntarily drawn to the ground as if gravity was sucking at his thoughts as well as his body. Alanna kicked at her rung impatiently, making the ladder shake again, and didn't bother to whisper.

"Move." She put every iota of command she possessed into her voice. "Climb down, or I'll kick you off."

Torn between gentle encouragement and open threats, the soldier forced himself another few steps downwards, his hands dripping with sweat and slipping from the rope. One of the more athletic soldiers climbed down the ladder from above, clinging to the rope at the side and pushing past them. Daine opened her mouth to yell at him when she saw what he was doing: when he reached the bottom of the ladder he held on grimly, using his weight to steady it. The other soldiers on the ground rushed over to help as soon as it was still. For a few heartbeats it was better; Markus climbed down another few rungs, and his crippling shaking eased up slightly. Held like a tightly wound lute string, the next attack on the ladder made it snap violently back and forth. They clung onto it with their elbows locked in the sides- all except Markus, whose slippery hands surrendered the rope. Daine cried out and tried to catch him, but he was hurled away like a doll.

"At least he's down," Alanna said, and apologised when Daine looked appalled. "He'll be fine- Lee there is a healer. Quickly now, move."

Daine nodded and climbed, making short work of the last section of the ladder. When she got to the base she held on with the other men, noticing how one half of the ladder was longer than the other one. They must be fraying through the ladder, magical rope or not.

The last man was barely off the ladder when it shuddered a last time, and then was eerily still. Kray looked up into the darkness and shoved the nearest men roughly away.

"Run!" He shouted, pulling the nearest one with him. They scattered as far as they could on the small island. They could feel the ground shudder when the weight of the enormous ladder thudded into it, lashing like a whip from the speed of its fall. One coil fell into the water, and the huge crash of water soaked them all from head to foot.

Then the ladder was down. It was over. Above them, they could hear the manic shrieks of the Johi as they realised their prey had escaped.

"Oh Mithros, Markus..." one of the men swore from somewhere behind Daine. They emerged from their hiding places, fanning out to search for him, and hoping that vast rope hadn't landed on him. One of the men called out, and they rushed over to see him lying in the mud. One hand was lying under a coil of rope, pushed deep into the oozing muck by the weight of it, but the rest of him was unscathed. A knotted bruise was already forming on his forehead, where he'd hit the ground. Without a word, the man who Alanna had called Lee crouched next to the man and summoned his gift, while the others dragged the coil of sodden, muddy rope away from the man. Wet, it took four of them to even lift it.

One of the other men brought a fragment of rope to Alanna. One edge was clean-cut where he'd sliced it with his knife, the other end was a torn mess. The knight's eyes narrowed as she examined it; it looked like it had been torn at with teeth and claws.

"The magic must have called them to us," She said, dropping the shredded thing. It landed in the mud with a squelch as she looked up at the ceiling. "Well, they can't get here, anyway."

"The Neferii can, though." Daine said uneasily. She didn't know how the creatures would take to so many humans being splashed with their precious water. She didn't particularly want to find out. "We should move. The bandits will be here soon, they'll have heard the rope falling. What will you tell them?"

A few minutes later, Kray answered that problem easily.

"We're from the Swoop cliffs. Smuggling, mostly- had a run of good luck, as you can see." Kray preened as he showed off his good leather armour to the bandit, who barely glanced at it but continued staring at the group. "But then we heard about this Tariro, and what with the Queen's Own moving camp..." he tailed off and scratched his head, smiling with a vague bewilderment. "Say, you're not too friendly, are you?"

The bandit had appeared out of the darkness so quickly that they hadn't even had time to finish healing Markus. He shouldered the staff he was carrying and shifted his gaze from the men to the coils of the rope, and back again. "Mage, are ye?" He growled poking at one of the unnaturally heavy coils. Kray shrugged and smiled in one gesture. His questioner scowled, still not convinced. "How did ye find this place, cliff men?"

"I brought them." Daine stepped through the crowd, cautious despite herself. She didn't recognise this guard, but that didn't mean he wasn't one of Elan's cronies. She didn't spend a smile on him, but nodded a respectful greeting. The man's voice rumbled in his throat before it formed words.

"Oh aye, you're alive then?" He actually waited for her to nod before he carried on, as if she would disagree. "Went lookin' for your man, did ye?"

The girl pretended she didn't hear that. She could almost hear Alanna wondering what he meant. Instead, she squared her shoulders and said, "We have news from the coast, and we're soaked to the skin, and half frozen. Do you want to stand here and gossip until we drop dead from the cold?"

Yes, said the man's eyes, but he only raised an eyebrow and waved them towards the trapdoor. He could tell everyone Elan's wife was back, that was a gift worth keeping. The men were all burly, strong specimens, sure... but then they were cliff folk, used to scouring the beaches and cliffs for wreckage. In the semi-darkness he saw nothing threatening about them, and besides, they were right- it was freezing out here. The last two men half-carried the third, who shivered from his coating in mud and from a half-healed bruise on his head.

Daine pulled the trapdoor open and heard Alanna's hiss of surprise at the ornate corridor at the base of the stairs. Without thinking she automatically led them to the healer's rooms. The door was shut, and after being away for weeks she felt awkward just walking in, so she knocked. The bandit who had waved them in dawdled in the corridor behind her, watching to see if she would do anything worth gossiping about.

The door swung open, and Emma opened it. She gaped at the crowd blocking out the bandit's torchlight, her eyes marking all of them until they settled on Daine. Her mouth fell open.

"Goddess bless it, you came back!" She breathed, smiling. The bandit smirked and slouched away, content with that reaction. Emma realised she was being watched and collected herself, nodding at the others, her eyes questioning.

"Our friend is hurt," Daine said evenly, smiling her own welcome. "May we come in?"

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