“If you please,” Inari said, “could you remove my shackles before we embark on this?”
Oda remained silent.
“You cannot expect me to scale a cliff bound so.” He raised his wrists, showing the short distance between the chains. “If I slip, I’ve no chance of catching myself. Then your map is gone. If one of you slips, I’ve no chance to aid you. And, if we are heading into as much danger as Morag implied, would it not be better to have another amongst you able to fight?”
“He’s making an awful lot of sense, Oda,” Kaja said. “I’d certainly like another set of hands to help.”
Oda puffed out a sigh. “Fine. But only whilst we are within the vale.” She released the manacles, fixing them on her belt.
Inari rubbed the puckered and red skin where the bands had been. “Much obliged.”
“Lead the way then, Huntress.” Oda gestured to the ledge. “Since you are the one who insists we continue.”
“All right.” Aloisia scooted closer to the ledge, gritting her teeth against the sharp burst of pain in her ribs.
A glance over the edge was enough to make her vision sway. The drop was fatal, and the ledge was narrow. The rope did not look stable either, held onto the cliff face with small metal rings. With a deep breath, as deep as her aching ribs would allow, she steeled herself and swung over the edge of the cliff, the rope clutched in her hands. Her feet scuffed the ledge, trying to find purchase. For a horrifying moment the rope gave a little too far and Aloisia swayed backwards, her feet sliding beneath her. Just as she thought her feet would slip from the ledge, the rope pulled taut and Aloisia found her balance, hugging close to the rock face.
“See? That wasn’t so bad,” she said, the wavering of her voice giving her away.
The ashen faces of her companions implied they did not agree.
“Damnation,” Oda muttered.
Aloisia’s knuckles shone white as she gripped the rope, edging her way along the ledge to make room for the others. Kaja was the next to clamber down, taking a more careful approach. One by one, they made their way onto the ledge, the shaman sandwiched between the huntresses and the guards.
Silence enveloped them as they inched their way down the cliffside. Aloisia could feel the watchful gaze of the Shadow Sisters, hidden somewhere within the vale. Guaranteed, their presence would be known by now. However, her primary concern was not the clan, but the fall awaiting them should they misplace a step.
The wind howled through the vale, making it difficult to battle their way across the narrow ledge. Ahead, the rope snaked back and forth in the gale, and Aloisia struggled to grasp it. Her teeth clattered as the icy winds pierced her.
A shout came from behind and Aloisia clung to the rock face, turning as the ledge collapsed beneath Oda’s feet. Inari reached out, catching her arm before she could tumble down to the sea of poppies below. Ludin grabbed her other wrist and the two of them pulled her back up to safety.
Aloisia stared wide-eyed at the path before them. Terror plucked at her nerves, but she knew they had to continue. Yet they still had so far to go. She inched along the edge, swallowing her fear. Inari and Oda helped Ludin across the gap now separating them.
“I bloody hope there isn’t too much further to go,” Kaja said. “Surely, this doesn’t go all the way down?”
“I think it does, Kaja.” Aloisia glimpsed downwards, seeing no end to the winding trail of the narrow ledge.
As they continued, the ledge turned increasingly steep. Aloisia’s feet slid, her grip on the rope tightening.
“This is a death sentence,” Kaja said, her teeth clenched.
“We just have to keep going.”
And keep going they did, the path turning ever more downhill. Between one step and the next, the rope beneath Aloisia’s hands slackened. Before she could correct her footing, the metal ring keeping the rope in place popped out of the rock face.
Aloisia screamed.
Her feet skidded down the ledge, struggling for purchase. One by one, the metal rings pinged out of the stone ahead of her, and the rope slackened. As she tried to regain any hold on it, the rope burned her palms.
“Lis!” Kaja called, her voice too far behind her.
Aloisia’s feet slipped off the ridge and she careened over the edge, the rope pulling taut with her full weight. Her back hit the rock face. She let out a yelp, the force of the blow almost loosening her grasp as her ribs flared with agony. She scrambled against the side of the cliff, trying to push herself back up, but there was no purchase to be found.
“Stay still,” Inari ordered. “Just hold on.”
Aloisia couldn’t see the others, her back pressed to the cliff, the rope clutched in her hands high over her head. But she could hear his cautious footsteps approach. The rope was slick beneath her fingers. Far below, the bed of poppies stretching the full length of the vale looked far softer than they had any right to. They would not break her fall; of that, she was certain.
Inari leant out over the ledge far above her, his fingers clasping about her wrist.
