We stumbled out into a clearing and came to a stop, staring at the wonder ahead.
A huge cavern stretched for cliks. And not far in front of us, a chasm plunged down to a rushing river spiked through with jagged rocks. A very deep drop.
Structures glowed with soft, warm light through a thin mist on the opposite side. Buildings, definitely. Not ruins. These had the organized look of a settlement.
Or the end of the Rite of Bonds.
Bryson pointed. “I think that’s where we need to go.”
“I agree,” Kerralyn said, her sharp mind already working. “I read something about glowing buildings. It could be the end of the trial.”
“Might as well be on the sun,” Derren said, but wonder filled his voice. “There’s no way we’re jumping across that gap to reach it.”
I walked to the edge, my boots sending pebbles skittering ahead of me, into the void. The silence swallowed them. No sound of them hitting bottom, no echo to give me a sense of the depth.
Dropping, I lay on my stomach, ignoring the way the others tensed, and peered over the edge.
“There.” I pointed down and to the right, my voice tight with both excitement and terror. “There’s a way across.”
Far below, maybe a third of the way down the ragged cliff face, a rope bridge spanned the chasm. From this distance, it looked impossibly fragile, little more than a thread stretched across the abyss. But it was there. A way to the other side.
“We have to get down there.” I pushed to my feet and brushed dirt and sticks from the front of my leather tunic.
“There must be another way.” Kerralyn stared at me like I’d suggested we sprout wings and fly. “Isi, that’s a cliff. I’m no mountain climber.”
“I think it can be done.” I’d studied the rock face again, marking potential hand- and footholds. It would be treacherous. Terrifying, actually. But possible. “Look. There are narrow ledges jutting out. Rocks we can hold onto. We can use the vines dangling along the face where we have to.”
The plan sounded insane. I knew it even as I spoke.
“Anyone have other suggestions?” I asked. “I suppose we could go back through the jungle that we suspect herded us here. Try to find another way around a chasm that appears to stretch for cliks in either direction.”
Maddox stepped up beside me, standing close enough I could smell the honey still clinging to his clothing, mixed in with his sweat and the taint of his ongoing anger. “You first.” His lips curled into an expression that was anything but a smile. “Since you’re eager to lead us into one danger after another.”
“Alright, I will.”
I strode back to the edge and took a long time deciding where to start, before sitting and levering myself down onto a narrow spit of rock jutting out from the surface. Clinging to a vine plunging down, down, down, I stretched my leg out, carefully placing the tip of my boot on a rock secure enough in the cliff face to hold my weight.
The others followed, sullen Maddox close behind me, of course, and Derren cracking a joke about no fancy dancing, maybe trying to make up for the lack of Jaxon. Lexie and Kerralyn came next, Lexie’s shrill laugh echoing through the vast cavern before she cut it off witha jerk. As always, Bryson took the rear, his gaze meeting mine before he nodded.
I wouldn’t have made it this far without his support.
Every handhold turned into a gamble and every step a potential death sentence. Moisture from the mist rising from the chasm slicked the rocks, and some crumbled the moment I stepped onto them, leaving me hanging. Trembling. And scrambling to find a place to put my feet before I dropped.
I tested each hold carefully before committing my full weight. My fingers cramped from gripping the rough stone, then bled from the cuts I received from sharp rocks.
The others made their way down behind me in tense silence broken only by sharp intakes of breath when someone’s foot slipped or a handhold gave way.
Maddox barely took his sharp gaze off me. He remained close enough that I could smell him, close enough that if he fell, he’d be able to take me with him.
The thought kept spiking through my mind. I expected him to suddenly cackle and push me. Let me fall and claim it was an accident. It wouldn’t matter if it was or not when I lay broken and bleeding out on the cavern floor.
“Watch out here,” I called as I reached a sharp slice in the cliff face that pocketed into darkness and had to be at least my height across. I spied decent footholds on the other side.
A vine thick as my wrist dangled in the middle, the only option to pass from where I stood to the other side. The plant looked sturdy enough, but in this place, it was just as apt to bite me as support my weight.
I studied the gap, then Kerralyn’s shaking hands. This crossing would break her.
“Kerralyn.” I kept my voice calm. “Look at me, not the drop. You’re going to do exactly what I do. When I say jump, you hold onto the vine and do it. When I say wait, you freeze. Can you do that?”
