“Untie the rope from the beam.” I said it firmly, not showing them the tremor that was going through my entire being.
Both their eyes seemed to bulge out of their heads.
“Absolutely not, there would be no assurance that the rope wouldn’t slip out of my grasp and send you plummeting,” Jaron said, sounding horrified.
“Jaron,” I said calmly, “I’m going to die anyway if this doesn’t work. I have to try.”
“No!” Tatiana said. “We’ll find another way.”
“We’ve discussed this. There isn’t time to find another way.” They were both shaking their heads vehemently. “This is my decision. Please, it will work. It’s just the amount of rope I need.”
I quaked when I saw the defeat on Jaron’s face, knowing he was giving in to me. Still, he tried again. “It’s not worth it. We can make something else work. We’ll pull you back up and we can all brainstorm something else.”
I wanted that so badly. “Your lives mean too much to me not to give this a try. I’m not asking you to completely release it, you and Tatiana can anchor the very end.”
They exchanged glances and disappeared inside. Several moments—too many moments hanging suspended above nothing—passed, and Jaron finally popped his head back out.
“The odds of the rope slipping through our hands even if we have it wrapped around us, depending on how long you take to gain momentum, are about thirty-two percent. I don’t want to gamble your life with those odds.”
“Sounds like good odds to me. Let’s do this before someone sees me.”
We locked eyes for a long moment. “We’ll hold on to you,” he vowed.
I nodded once, not trusting the clog in my throat to say that I loved him. If he heard any tremor, he wouldn’t do it.
The rope gave.
I sucked a breath in through my teeth as my stomach bottomed out. But then I was lowered, slowly and carefully.
“This is as much rope as you’re going to get,” Jaron called from above. He sounded strained. I needed to hurry.
I began to swing, my heart in my throat, afraid the movement would wrench the rope from their hands. But it held fast. One more swing. Two more. I got closer, just enough—
Swinging the weighted rope in my hand, I aimed for the metal pole. I’d made it far enough along the side of the building that all I had to do was latch it around the pole in front of the door. If I didn’t...
I plummeted away from my destination. Nausea swirled in my stomach and I became dizzy.
The rope connected, the weight on the end wedging into the base of the metal artwork. I held on for dear life.
Pain lanced through my arm into my shoulder as I snapped to a stop, my hands burning in agony as I slid down the rope from the jerk. I ignored the pain, adrenaline aiding me as I pulled myself up until I was at the lip of the landing. I pulled myself over, biting my tongue to keep the cry of pain from my hands feeling like they were shredding on the wood as I pulled myself up. Finally, I was standing on the landing in front of the door. I crouched, being completely still and observing the surrounding area. Nothing stirred. Moving as quietly as possible, I unhooked the bar and slid it out of its place.
Jaron barreled through, wrapping me in his arms and clinging to me. His body lurched. Was that a sob? Tatiana was not as quiet with hers and she cried as she clung to my back, her face pressed against my hair.
“It’s ok. I’m ok.” I patted Jaron’s back with one raw hand and reached behind me to pat Tatiana with the other. “We really need to go.” Now the fear that we would get caught was first place in my mind.
They finally released me. When Jaron handed me my bag I realized that blood was dripping from blisters on my hands. I quickly hid them. I would deal with them later.
We made our way across the archway and down the steps. We jogged down flight after flight of steep steps. At one point we scrambled into a building to hide from the busy stewards, crouching low and hoping they weren’t headed inside.
When we began traveling again and got to the final level of the vorazka, Jaron stopped and trotted back a few steps. He took a knife out of his pocket and started digging into the cliff wall.
“What is he doing?” Tatiana whispered as we kept a careful eye on our surroundings.
“I’m not sure.” But he’d better hurry. My heart raced. We weren’t exactly inconspicuous.
He jogged back to us with something in his hands and motioned for us to keep going. Because we couldn’t fly we had to take a zig zagging pattern to get to the city and start down to the ground. More than one vorpyr saw us and frowned in our direction.
“They’re going to know the direction we go in.” Jaron murmured at my back.
