We’re all gathered on the cliffside of the campus. The viciously sheer cliffs are what the Aran Islands are famous for, towering piles of rock ending in jagged shards from the relentless assault of the waves of the Atlantic. We’re wearing another harness and spiked climbing boots.
It’s not hard to guess what we’ll be doing.
Looking around, I see fifteen of the Leader’s teams have already dropped out or failed the first task. No judgment from me. If my team wasn’t all in, I would have told the pilot to take us back. Several meters down on the cliff edge, I can see Lucca and Mariya, and that bastard Ronan’s team is next to theirs; he’s staring at my fiancée instead of paying attention to the Dean.
“Each team will rappel down to the rocks at the base of the cliff,” the Dean says, “and then make their way back up. Thecomplexity here? One of the team members will have a belay device and climbing cams that have a high chance of failure.”
A low, angry sound sweeps through the teams. Top-roping is dangerous as hell under any circumstances. Now ten people on a line will all risk their lives for her games? Lucca and I exchange a glance.
“This ismalakíes, bullshit,” Athena says, and not quietly.
“We will have patrol boats under the climbers, of course,” the Dean says pleasantly.
“Go way outta that, she’s barmy,” snarls Liam, gathering his team around him.
I do the same. “This is risky as hell, but at least we’re not ten thousand feet in the air,” I said. “We’re going to double-rope everyone. We’ll all use our equipment on the way down, even though it’s redundant. It’s possible we can weed out the faulty belay or the climbing cams early.”
“I’m beginning to think getting selected for these teams isn’t such a great honor,” groaned Boris, one of the incoming freshmen. Most of the newcomers didn’t get selected for anyone’s team for the Challenge. I picked him because he was wiry but strong, and he’d already shown some great tactical support on the skydiving task.
“Cheer up,” Tatiana said cheerfully, “it’s only going to get worse.”
Our descent is slow, and I know half of my team is watching the others make better progress until the first equipment failure sends six of O’Neill’s people dropping fifteen feet with a brutaljolt. The other four just barely held on as they all frantically hammered in new climbing cams.
“Keep moving!” I shout, “Stop looking at the others, focus on keeping your teammates safe!” Still, I catch O’Neill’s eye. “Are you okay?”
“Aye,” he calls, “true grand.”
“I think that means he’s good?” Tatiana said as she tightens her belay, watching anxiously to make sure it holds the ropes. The rock on the cliff face can be brittle, and it’s taking longer to make sure we’re dug in tight.
“You got this,” I yell down to the five people below me. Boris flips me off with a smile.
Fournier’s team makes it to the bottom first, to the cheers of everyone watching, but he’s overconfident and tries to push them too fast on the ascent. Meiying’s belay breaks loose from the ropes and Tatiana shrieks almost as loud as Mei, who’s dangling upside down. The climber just under her is Mikal from the Warriors division. He surges up, bracing his foot against a slight crack in the rock, and holds her until the climber above her can reinforce the rope. But it’s cost them in time, and two other teams make it down and begin making their painful way back up.
My fucking arms are burning, but it’s nothing compared to my side. Taping my ribs isn’t helping as much as I’d hoped. The wind isn’t as bad against this part of the cliffs, but as we move lower, the sea spray from the waves crashing below is making our clothes wet, and I can feel my muscles tighten against the chill.
“Keep rotating your feet,” I call out, “stretch as much as you can. Don’t let the seawater lock up your legs.”
My team descends to the bottom without an accident, and I’m almost disappointed. I’d rather have the equipment fail on the way down than on the way up when we’ll all be exhausted and slower to respond.
“Halfway there,” I shout, “well done!”
We make it another twenty-five feet up when two of the climbing cams Boris painstakingly hammered into the cliff face pop loose, one after the other, as loud as a gunshot.
Mariya…
I know Konstantin’s team is to our left, separated from us by Ronan’s, who are still struggling on the ascent. We’re already halfway up the cliff and my fingers are bloody. I keep slapping chalk on them but it’s not helping much. On the bright side, we caught our faulty climber early, Ansel Müller’s belay broke in half when we were only five feet into our descent.
A scream from Tatiana shatters everyone’s focus. One of their younger team members broke loose and the wind is swinging him violently, making it impossible to get him back in place. Half the group is desperately reinforcing their ropes as Kon shouts to the others to hammer in more climbing cams.
When I see his hands go to his belay, the only piece of equipment holding his ropes in place, I swallow down a scream. Kon is going after the freshman - his name is Boris, I think - but he can’t swing far enough with all his safety ropes attached.
“Shit,” Lucca groans. “Keep climbing!” he shouts to our team. “We can’t help them from this far away.” Ronan’s group is separating us from Kon’s and they’re not slowing down, either.
My blistered hands tighten my ropes with the belay as my lips whisper an old Russian prayer of protection. I never realized before now how soul-destroying it could be to have to watch your friends in peril and be helpless to do anything about it.
“O Theé, ti voítheiá mas se óra anánkis,”I whisper rapidly, “pou eísai díkaios kai eleímon kai pou klíneis stis ikesíes tou laoú Tou. Koitáxte tous Lucca kai Tati kai eléisé tous kai lýtrosé tous apó tin talaiporía pou tous kyriévei tóra…O God, our help in time of need, Who are just and merciful, and Who inclines to the supplications of His people. Look down upon Kon and Tati and their people and have mercy on them and deliver them from the trouble that now besets them…”
I haven’t prayed for a long time. Once I learned the cruelty of my world, I doubted God was listening. I can only hope he’s listening now.
