“Guys, this isn’t good,” Helen was whispering. “This is very, very,verybad…”
“We’ll be okay,” March insisted. He was standing right behind me, but his proximity wasn’t helping the way it usually did. “We’ve done this before. We’ll do it again.”
“There’s ten of us,” Levana said. “We got this.”
“We’ll come out of this place in one piece in no time,” said Seth.
Then the cage moved.
We still screamed, even though Iwasfeeling a little better. They were right—we’d already unwon two trials. The last one hadn’t even been dangerous, and maybe this one wouldn’t be, either.
But then the thick chain tied to the top of the cage strained, pulled us up, and all that newfound confidence went through the bars. We held onto them for dear life, called for help, but help wasn’t coming. We were all alone in this tower with only a set of dark stairs curving to the right. No windows, no ceiling, with only tree roots, half rotten, half climbing on the stone blocks.
Nobody was in here but us, and just like they promised, they pulled us up little by little, until we made it to the very top of the maze.
I kept my eyes closed through it all, my hands firmly around the bars. Not only because I was afraid of heights or because the entire cage swung to the sides the higher we went, but because I knew that once we were up there, I had to be prepared. A trial had to be unwon whether I liked it or not. I had to be ready.
Then the cage stopped.
Screams. Gasps. I opened my eyes and the cage kept on swinging, but we had reached the very top indeed. A round roof was over us, with a massive metal hook bigger than my entire body in the middle, which held the chain of the cage. Below, the floor was too far, long swallowed by the darkness, and falling would most certainly kill all of us. Ahead, where the stairs had been on the ground floor, there was a doorway, an opening, and all we saw on the other side before it curved to the right was green. Large leaves, roots, grass, even a few colorful flowers at the edge of the wall.
It was at least three feet away from the cage.
“We have to jump.”
Russ’s voice echoed on the empty walls of the tower.
Others protested, but only for a moment. Tried to find other ways, but only for a moment. We all knew that the longer we stayed in that cage, the more probable falling became, especially with the groaning sounds the chain atop of it made as we continued to swing sideways slowly. It was going to give eventually. We needed to get out of this cage right now.
I moved, half convinced that I’d taken the time to prepare, half faking it—but what other choice did I have? I unhooked the handle of the barred door from the other side, then had to wait for Erith and Anika to make way for me, before I pulled the bars open just like the soldiers had done.
It worked. The door gave without complaints. The cage moved to the sides more furiously, and the chains above us screamed like living things.
Stop it—you’re going to kill us!some shouted, while others encouraged me tokeep going, faster!
I didn’t listen to anyone, only secured the door to the side as well as I could, and I leaned out a little, just to get a feel of how far I was going to have to jump.
Not far, not far—it’s not that far!
It was.
Up there in the air, it was, with the swinging cage that was barely holding us. But the alternative was dying, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Thinking holds you back,Father used to tell me. He was of the mind that I should always act first, think later. Do what I could with what I knew and then learn along the way.
Right now, I took his advice, and I didn’t wait for a single thought in my head to paralyze me because I knew exactly how powerful they could be if I let them get ahold of me. There would be no moving then. So, I stepped back as far as I could go, and the others moved to the sides to give me some space. I was going to need all the momentum I could get for this.
“Her?!If she jumps first, she’s going to deliberately ruin the cage and throw us to the ground!”
Could have been Levana who said this, and others agreed with her, too, but no one stepped in my way, and that’s all I cared about. I didn’t spare them a single glance.
“You sure you can make that jump?” March asked from the edge of the cage, just near the open door, a hand around a bar, the other held out and ready as if he were preparing to protect himself from an attack.
Or stop me.
I looked at him for a second, but I didn’t reply. If he was going to try to stop me, so be it. I only focused on the doorway covered in green, and I ran.
Timing your feet when jumping high distances was important. But timing your feet when jumping high distances without momentum and without enough space to gain it was impossible. That’s why the moment I jumped off the edge of the cage and my feet were in the air, I was only six-hours certain that I could make it.
