Small spots of pale blue peeked through the dark cloud, but Torden was right. More lightning danced within them—booms of thunder reached far and wide across the storming seas, making the ropes even more unsteady.
I groaned. “It’s as if he knew there would be a storm.”
“You’ve got this.” Torden placed his hands on my shoulders. “You only need to repeat what you’ve just done.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” I said.
A low chuckle rumbled through Torden’s chest. “I can seewhy your mouth gets you in so much trouble. You have a retort for everything, don’t you?”
“Only when it’s deserved.”
Torden gave me a pointed look. “That right there is why you’re driving him insane.”
I stared down at the floor of the wet lookout. “I’m merely responding.”
“Which means you’re not listening.” Torden moved his hands to my waist, lifting me onto the rope. “Now go before your life forever rests on my conscience.”
Torden anchored me while I secured my grip, his hands warm against my wet leathers. Darcke’s glare reached all the way over, his features not softened at all by being drenched, but the opposite: the warrior looked lethal with his wet, darkened hair lying around his face, and the sharp angles of his face were accentuated by the rain.
I was as resolved to return as my clothing was dry.
“He doesn’t want me to make it,” I said when Torden let me go and the wind instantly took hold of my body.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Torden replied.
I began inching forward again, trying to push away the terror claiming my chest. “He hates me.”
“Yes.”
“But he wants me to live?” I cried out in my mind when the rope snapped taut and the karls beneath me cheered. My heart was making somersaults in my chest, pounding as uncontrollably as the storm.
“He wants you to prove him wrong.”
I could barely hear Torden’s words over the storm anymore, so I didn’t respond. Creeping forward, I kept my eyes on the violent sky, where gray and black and bright lightning whirled in an intricate pattern.
When I passed the midpoint, my entire body hurt. My fingers were stiff from the cold, and every inchof my skin was wet, my leathers squeaking with every slow step forward. The chanting had quieted, and even the wind died down a little bit.
I blew out a deep breath and a wave of relief crashed through my limbs, the exhaustion from not eating or sleeping enough barreling into me until my arms slackened an inch. I caught Darcke opening his mouth when the sun speared through the clouds, blinding me.
At the same time a wave must have hit the ships, because the line snapped upward before stretching so tight my fingers lost purchase. My gut surged into my chest as the world retracted beneath me, and I found myself in free fall.
“Elvara!”
“Elvara!”
Two people screamed my name in fear, but the rest of the Hird erupted in triumph. The rope I’d been standing on burned my chin as I fell, and it was only at the last moment I managed to grab it with one hand, feeling weightless and heavy at the same time.
I swung back and forth in the air. Air rushed through my teeth, and a pained sound wound up my throat as I managed to get a finger, then two, then the rest of my other hand over the rope, holding on as hard as I could, my arms stretched as far as they could.
“Nowthatwas close.” A dangerous amusement flitted across Darcke’s face.
I didn’t even have the energy to respond.
Biting down on the inside of my lip, I moved a hand forward, yelping when the motion made my body shift as well, nearly stopping me from grasping the rope again.
I was so close. There were perhaps fifteen feet between me and the lookout.
I moved my hands again.
