“Ly’Tana!” Kel’Ratan’s wail of sheer despair bit deep into my soul. I glanced over my shoulder as Rufus half-bucked, trying to maintain his balance and me on his back.
The earthquake wasn’t finished.
The identical black stallions belonging to Left and Right skidded into one another, whinnying with panic. Corwyn’s ugly roan kept his feet and his balance with an effort, as the grey mare reared, tossing Tor to the quivering ground. Only Corwyn’s firm hand on her bridle prevented her from falling backward and crushing Arianne beneath her solid weight. Rannon cursed fluently as his horse backed up, strong legs splayed wide.
“Where is she?”
Rannon’s voice rose above the din, the roar of the river, the crashing of timbers, the half-panicked voices of the horses and no few of the warriors.
“I don’t see her!” Witraz yelled, forcing his piebald closer to the cliff edge, peering down.
I kicked Rufus.
He answered with more courage, more intelligence, more nerve than any horse I’d ever met. He leaped out and down, lunging down the side of the rocky cliff face. Down the side of the cliff I’d just stopped Kel’Ratan from forcing his horse into jumping. He took both of us into the unknown, into incredible danger, where gravity could kill us both before we could reach Ly’Tana. He leaped without hesitation, without consideration of what that leap held for him.
He jumped because I asked.
I lay back against Rufus’s rump, across the cantle, keeping my weight back and preventing it from interfering with Rufus’s balance. Straight down he galloped, his big hooves finding something, anything, to put his weight to.
I think Rufus’s hooves hit the rocky side, using the rocks like a springboard. Airborne again, his flattened ears disappearing into his flying mane to cut the wind, he crashed through thickets that long ago found roots within the cliff wall. How he kept his footing and didn’t topple heels over head with me under him, I’ll never know. Rufus’s powerful legs held strong under our combined weights.
Kicking out against the steep cliff side, he propelled his huge body upward and outward. His front legs stretched out long in front of him, his hindquarters extended behind, Rufus hit the water belly-first.
The boiling, bucking river became a maelstrom. Shattered rock was strewn throughout the passage. Broken tree branches slammed into his body. The evil currents threatened to turn him head over tail, but he fought them off. Despite my immense weight on his back, he held firm against the rushing waters that wanted to flow over his head and knock him off his feet.
Kicking free of my stirrups, I dove headfirst into the dirty, white and grey churning water.
Instantly, I felt the river’s power, its awesome strength, the magnitude of its seemingly fragile environment. The waves didn’t part before me. They tumbled me ass over heels. Breasting the water with my arms, I broke through to the surface. Like an unruly bronco, the earth bucked again and tossed entire trees and their roots into the raging waters of the swollen river.
Rufus, without the impediment of my weight on his back, stumbled to safety on the other side. Water sluiced from his hide, his mane, dragging his tail as he cantered, lunging, up the bank. He turned, whinnying, his reins tangled in his mane, half-rearing. He called for me, panicked that I hadn’t followed him.
I looked downstream. Ly’Tana’s body floated near the surface of the river, bobbing like a cork in its still powerful embrace. Swept swiftly downstream, her unconscious body streaked downriver, only rods from the killing rapids. I saw no sign of her horse. I glanced upstream. Two or three stout oak trees that had once graced the top of the cliff now rushed toward me, spiked roots, bare and deadly, fronting the frothing waves.
If the rapids hadn’t killed Ly’Tana, those trees would.
Caught between them, she stood no chance.
Diving again, I allowed the rushing water to claim me, tumbling me head over heels, faster and faster. I stroked my arms with it, my booted feet pushing me along, my strong arms giving me my much needed control. I pushed downriver faster than Ly’Tana.
How would I find her? Half blinded by the churning grey and white water, I reached out with my hands. Luck may have played some role, for the river narrowed considerably. The water rushed faster, taking Ly’Tana and I with it, but there was only so much space for a human. My fingers touched leather and skin.
Seizing her body, I kicked off the river’s rocky bottom. My hair streaming water and hanging over my face, I surfaced. I held Ly’Tana’s limp form by her tiny waist, upright. I could breathe air but saw nothing. My own thick black hair blinded me, sticking tight to my face.
Holding her above the swift water, allowing the river to carry us along, I kept her head clear above the water.
I shook my face, a quick sharp shake. But I cleared only one eye from its clinging prison of wet tendrils of my hair. I peered through the heavy mass, and discovered I faced upriver.
The trees hadn’t given up. Caught in the grasp of the angry river, they hurled toward us faster than a running horse. Spiked and deadly roots reached to enfold us in their stiff embrace.
They’d hit me, within seconds, with the speed of a charging bull.
And Ly’Tana.
I seized her about her tiny firm waist and lifted, crying out with the effort. I leaped high, higher than the rushing waves, her red-gold hair sticking wetly across her face and neck. I braced myself against the horrid, eager, deadly current.
I screamed a single name.
“Bar!”
I never saw him. I’ve no idea if he even heard me. I hurled her upward, into the talons I hoped were hovering, waiting, above me.
Darkness cooled the sun, dampening her bright rays. Colossal wings shadowed both me and the fragile creature now held by her upper arms by huge eagle’s talons, her legs dragging the water. Heavy wing beats pushed the river back, a fleeting, quick, push of air that temporarily sent the waves backwards, onto themselves. I fell back, free of her weight as Bar lifted her clear of the churning river and carried her to safety.
Deep within my mind, I heard a dark snarl. I felt from deep within me an evil cry of rage and hate and death.
I had no time to think about that sound, that creepy voice. The trees hadn’t given up their chase.
I didn’t care where Bar took her. Swept by the current, the trees would hit me in seconds. A lightning glance told me the rapids now had me in their control. Huge boulders broke through the churning surface. My body would break, caught between the sharp tree roots and the rocks of the rapids. Downriver, trees killed by previous floods awaited me with open snags like welcoming arms.
I caught a gasp of air, filled my lungs, and dove down.
Stroking to the right side of the cliff, I hoped the trees might miss, passing me by above and to my left.
Wrong. I wasn’t quite quick enough.
Pain exploded into my left shoulder as tree roots slashed me. Tumbled helplessly out of control, I slammed into a boulder. Still caught in the fast current’s grip, I scraped into another, and rolled sideways over a third. The fourth loomed in my wavering sight.
“Lie on your back with your feet pointing downriver.”
I obeyed the voice. Thrashing with my arms, I righted myself, gasped air and rolled up. Thus with my legs to the front, I hit and slid past yet more boulders. None managed to catch me between the river and themselves, for my legs acted almost like a boat and sent me sailing through them along with the flow. I also breathed.
The deadly trees, now downriver from me, jammed on several large rocks and lodged there. A wild tangle of branches, trunks and bared roots snarled into one very large impediment to both the river and me. The river smashed into and over them, white spume flying high. Now ’twas I who would crash into them.
“Grab hold!”
I didn’t know whether the voice was inside my head or outside, but I obeyed. Switching my legs once more to point upriver, I steered with both arms and legs toward the center of the neares
t tree, crosswise against the river’s flood. A section of its trunk lay stripped bare of many of its branches. Stroking my arms, I aimed for that small bit of safe haven.
I hit the tree hard, knocking my breath from me. I grabbed its rough trunk and held on tight.
The river tried to tear me from it, shoving hard with the full might of the earthquake and its own body behind it. I held on, my arms wrapped about its sturdy stability, my head out of the raging flood. I gasped in a lungful of precious air, my chest on fire. Broken ribs, I thought, haphazard.
Despite the spray and foam, I looked around. The river sneaked around the tangle, washing over boulders, crashing high against the cliffs. Stone walls, jagged with sharp boulders and rocks, to either side met my eyes. Spots of green and brown where tough shrubs had taken roots sprouted. Not much help there.
I looked up.
On the right-hand cliff top where I hoped they might be, ranged the Kel’Hallans on their horses. Corwyn sat his ugly roan with Arianne, her face white and horrified as she stared down at me. Rannon and the two blonde warriors, Yuri and Yuras, yelled soundlessly. Tor stood beside the grey mare, his skin milky white. Where was Kel’Ratan? Where were the twins?
Where was Ly’Tana?
The land quieted. Its rage spent, the earth ceased its violent spasms and lay still once more. Eyes ringed white with fear, the Kel’Hallan horses danced in place, worried the soil might yet rise up and slay them. No few fingers of their riders made the signs to ward off great evil. Arianne’s tears lay stark against her pale cheeks, her hand tightly grasped by Corwyn’s calloused fingers. I saw no sign of Kel’Ratan, Bar or Mikk. Where were they? Where was Ly’Tana?
Off his piebald horse, Witraz swung a rope. Where the hell did he get that bloody thing? High over his head, he swung the noose, knotted to form a huge loop.
What the hell was he trying to do? Round and round the loop twirled, his lean warrior’s body bent at the knees. The sphere grew bigger. While I could not hear it over the noise of the raging rapids, I imagined it whistled.
He cast it.
Out and down the loop fell.
It hit the raging water several feet to my left. I could not reach for it, for that meant leaving the security the trees offered. I let it go, realizing the heavy trunks afforded more safety. In them, I still lived and breathed air.
The rope drew back as Witraz wound it back in. Raising my head, I watched his hands widen the loop, shake it out and begin to twirl again.
This time the loop fell just behind my head. I reached for it, but the river’s force sent it downstream too quickly for me to grab hold.
Witraz, his one eye grim with determination, recoiled his noose for another try. Gathering it, dripping, into his hands, he shouted down to me, his voice unheard.
‘Hang on, big guy,’ he might have bellowed. Or, ‘catch it this time, fool’, I’ll never know.
Whatever he said, I readied myself.
Come on, you one-eyed genius, I silently urged him. You’re getting better.
Once more he shook out the loop. His fellow Kel’Hallans offered him tips, their hands pointing, twirling imaginary ropes over their heads. Arianne and Corwyn sat silent, tense, saying nothing but waiting with frantic faith for Witraz’s idea to work. My own desperate hope probably matched theirs, for I saw no way out of this abyss I found myself in this side of death. Unless that one-eyed bandit managed to rope me, I was a dead man.
Witraz once more cast his rope, his arm flinging the loop out and down, his wrist snapping sharply.
Wide and sure, it settled around my shoulders. I shoved my left arm through the circle, my right occupied with holding my body fast to the tree’s trunk.
Witraz snaked it closed.
“Hold on!” he yelled.
This I heard clearly.
Drawing it snug, he tied the rope to the pommel of his saddle. I hope his horse is strong enough, I thought with an inane chuckle.
Witraz, still on the ground, pulled on his piebald’s reins, asking the courageous stallion to back up.
The rope tightened painfully around my injured shoulder and chest. I let go of the tree trunk and grabbed the rope. The river’s forced bashed me into the spikes, breaking several off, before its current washed me around the terrible snag. I hadn’t escaped that encounter unscathed I knew, but ignored the smaller problems for the larger one.
For a moment, I was caught between the river’s fury and the piebald. Who would win? The rope cut off almost all my breath. I sucked in a trickle as I was dragged out of the water and bounced along the top of it like a child’s toy. The rope cut into my vitals and dug into my broken ribs like a knife. I shut my eyes, the sickening nausea swirling my vision into a nasty tempest.
The river didn’t let go without a fight. It slammed me into a boulder. Now I had no breath to even try to get into my lungs.
Dimly I heard yells of encouragement and whistles above the noise of the rapids. If I didn’t die from the lack of air, I thought dimly, the rope was going to cut me in half.
I pulled down with my strong hand on it, creating a tiny bit of slack around my chest. ’Twas enough for me to suck in a quick breath, anyway. I inhaled a couple of times before the cliff hit me in the face.
Dragged inexorably upward by the strong Kel’Hallan stallion, I bumped over the savage rocks before some sense returned to my head.
Use your legs, dumb ass.
Kicking away from its granite face, streaming river water, I fended off the cliff face with my legs, easing the danger of the rocks. Walking, hitching, I crept my slow way up the sheer side of the cliff. Pacing the steps of the piebald, he finally dragged me over the top to lie, gasping, face down, breathing dirt and precious air. The hot agony of the rope lessened as Witraz ceased backing his horse and asked him to step forward, putting much needed slack into it.
Helping hands turned me over. Long hair framed worried, concerned faces. Hands checked me for injuries, finding several bloody gashes and my broken ribs when I winced, coughing. My vision blurred as the hands slipped the rope from my chest, yet I craned my head, frantic.
I sought for, and found, Witraz’s lean face with its one blue eye and eye patch. I grasped his hand.
“Where the hell did you learn that trick?” I gasped, struggling to sit up.
Despite the hands that tried to hold me down, I half sat forward, my right hand holding Witraz’s wrist.
My left shoulder sang out with white hot agony, my chest burned with fire, and an untold number of cuts, bruises and scrapes set up their own choir. Ignoring the chorus, I let Witraz’s strong hand heave me to my feet.
“The Yuonese y’bex drovers,” he said. His shoulder under my arm helped me remain upright.
“This is idiocy, he should lie down.”
“Witraz, put him down, dammit.”
Those voices, like their hands, failed to connect. Drawing in another lungful of sweet air, wincing, I focused on Witraz and his single amused blue eye.
I leaned away from him, my hair, still streaming water and blood, all but blinded me, hung in my face. I peered through it. He tossed his own hair away from his face with his free hand, his grin growing wider.
“The what?”
“They caught Bar that way,” he explained.
His other hand not supporting me, twirled an imaginary rope.
Rannon paused in the act of inspecting my bleeding left shoulder and cuffed him upside his head.
Witraz lurched, and almost dumped me headfirst into the dirt. “Your Highness,” he added hastily.
I began to laugh. It hurt, I coughed, and I laughed.
When I could breathe, I looked Witraz in his one eye, meeting his jaunty grin with one of my own.
I cupped his neck with my hand. “Witraz, you are hereby exempt from ever calling me ‘Your Highness’ again.”
Arianne ducked out from behind Corwyn’s protection and ran toward me. With a sharp hip shot, she jolted Rannon out of her way.
“Are yo
u all right?” she cried, tears running down her face. “I thought you were dead!”
I dropped my left arm around her shoulder, her body tight against my very painful left ribcage. While she tried hard to offer support, her tiny body could do little. Her arm couldn’t even reach across my waist.
I peered down at her, a grin quirking my lips. She looked up, her magnificent eyes swimming tears.
“Oh, ye of little faith.”
Her sense of humor wasn’t quite as impulsive as Ly’Tana’s. She stared at me for a moment. Then her shocked laugh burst forth like a bubble. Choking on her laughter, Arianne snorted her own tears.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed along with her, Witraz joining me. I had no idea whether Ly’Tana still lived, yet I could not cease. I laughed for the sheer joy of it. I laughed until sheer exhaustion took control.
His strong shoulder under me, I limped forward, still chuckling. Arianne supported me from my other side, her arm cradling my broken ribs. Without medical training, she still knew what was necessary and best.
The Kel’Hallans followed behind us in not exactly a solemn parade. Yuri and Yuras, I heard, retold the story of my rescue with Tor, even though they all three witnessed it firsthand. Silent, Corwyn walked behind us, leading both his gelding and the grey mare. Alun cursed under his breath as Rannon swung a stick like a sword and murdered innocent thickets.
Left and Right spurred their black stallions forward and past me, only to rein them in again.
A shadow fell between us and the sun.
Bar screeched overhead. I glanced up, seeing his long lion body, colossal wings and tail with its black tufted tip before he was blotted out by the trees. Bar? Where is she?
Banking high, in a graceful curve, he flew once more into my sight, his fierce eagle head and beak angling down to see us better. Then he vanished once more behind the trees.
Cantering hooves caught my attention. I stopped, Witraz and Arianne stopping with me, as Kel’Ratan on his bay loped up to the top of the cliff and into my sight. Left and Right, finally releasing their identical blacks, cantered toward him only to rein them in again as they circled to flank him.
Catch a Wolf Page 31
