The bridge vanished from beneath me while I was in the air, still over the abyss, my arms and legs swinging, fighting to gain more distance.
A foot more.Six inches, even.Anything, whatever I could get.
The edge of Ombrash Island was close but nowhere near close enough.
Never had inches mattered so greatly.
Time seemed to draw out just so that I could contemplate, in what must have been a flash, what it would feel like to be swallowed up by the abyss.Would my body shatter from the tremendous fall against its bottom?Or would I forever be in freefall?
I didn’t so much pray to Hope, but I did conjure her name in my mind—held it there to overpower the fear I wasn’t allowed to have.It only ever made things worse.
Hope, I felt as much as thought.
Then I was crashing against hard ground.As I’d practiced thousands of times, I rolled to soften my landing.But damn it all, I wasn’t usually in cumbersome skirts.When I rolled, my boot snagged on my petticoat.I pitched forward, caught myself with my left arm to keep from smashing my nose, still smacked my chin.My teeth slammed closed, cutting into my tongue.
But pain was already blinding me for another reason: my shoulder wrenched out of its socket.
It was as if flames raged inside the joint, the muscles, the flesh.I was burning.
To support the arm so it wouldn’t pull on the shoulder, I collapsed onto my chest, smushing my breasts in their bustier, making it even more difficult to breathe.
The crossbow banged against my back, poking my ribs.My bag slid to my side.
I struggled to breathe, to blink away the blinding pain so I could see straight.
The earth beneath my legs shuddered and began to crumble.I dragged myself across the ground with my right arm, each move delivering a jolt of fresh agony through my other shoulder.Great clumps of dirt scattered into the abyss.
I crawled along my belly until I was reasonably certain the ground beneath me wouldn’t cave, and then I collapsed, breathing raggedly, holding back the whimpers eager to escape me.
This was enemy territory.While I recovered, I scanned my surroundings.I heard only the crackle of electricity emanating from the dense fog that encapsulated me, obscuring my view more than a body’s length from my face.A fine mist settled onto my clothing and bare skin, mingling with the sweat that had broken out from my pain.Light flashed through the fog with muted cracks, illuminating it in reddish violet that revealed no approaching figures.
The usual range of my senses was shortened, my focus strained by the dislocation.
Out in the open like this, I was an unguarded egg, and within the fortress somewhere on this island, past a forest of gangly trees and beyond the mist, waited a host of soldiers ready to snatch me up.
My power heightened every one of my senses.Usually, that was helpful, at times even glorious.On rare occasions, it was an erotic, orgasmic feeling.
Knowing what would follow, I clamped my mouth shut and called on my blood power.I nearly passed out as it intensified my pain a hundredfold.Tears burned my eyes while I fought to hold back my cries, not to do anything more than I already had to reveal my presence.
Once more trembling all over, though not from the cold this time, I directed my power outward, searching for the blood of others.
My entire body shook while I held on to what control I could.Each shake racked my shoulder, causing more pain, making me shake more, exacerbating this horror.Nausea surged up my throat while I scoured the immediate area for bodies that pumped blood.
None near me.A few farther away, probably at the castle—at the end of my power’s range.
The very moment I confirmed my count, I released my power, sagging as the pain receded to its previous levels.What before had been unbearable now seemed somewhat manageable—everything was relative.
For a few minutes, I allowed myself to catch my breath.The fog buzzed around me in that eerie violet.I wanted more time—felt like I needed it—but I had to get my shoulder back into place before its dislocation caused any more damage.I was a sänglure with superb healing, yes, but the less damage I had to recover from, the stronger I’d be faster.
Alobaz was supposed to be the prey, not me—and now I was in his territory.
Supporting my left arm with the other, I rose to my feet, careful to move my skirts out of the way.Steadied, I staggered through the fog, pushing off of trees, until I found an outbuilding of some sort, small, and constructed of simple stone smoothed by age.It would do.
Straining my ears and nose, I waited.When I sensed nothing amiss, no one wandering around, I awkwardly slid my satchel, crossbow, and quiver with its three bolts from my back.I tucked my sore tongue against the roof of my mouth and away from my teeth, and clenched them shut.No matter what, I would not cry out.Surprise was my greatest advantage against Alobaz.At all costs, I had to preserve it.
Never before had I had to set a joint back into place, but I’d seen it done once at the edge of the training arena.One of Alonso’s soldiers had helped another, slamming the other man’s shoulder back into place.
It had looked simple enough.All it took was force.
