14

Progress became slower as they neared the rope bridge and how Sialira could tell where it was, Miraveh could not begin to guess. The storm had not become as strong as Miraveh had feared, but the rain still pounded against them, the wind buffeted them all and the clouds masked the sky, allowing no light from the Moon to fall upon the land at all.

Yet, after many, ponderous footfalls, the beginning of the bridge came into sight, Sialira's magic touching the thick posts, that held the ropes tight, and curling, stretching and easing up and around them. The ground had become even more treacherous, by this point. Loose rocks and cracks in the surface of the rise all lit by the pale green magic of the young Witch.

The short journey had taken its toll upon Sialira, however. Upon making their way down to the path that they should have taken in the first place, the girl fell to her knees, the magical energy that had curled around her fingers and hands, that had lit their way, faded and then disappeared entirely. Daras, again, ran to her side to ease her to the ground.

"That's enough, now!" Resting Sialira's head upon his thighs, Daras brushed strands of her blonde hair from her face, even as the wind caught it again. "Much more of this could kill her."

"Not as easily as the sword of a Hunter. That I can assure you." Miraveh tied both horses to the dead branches of a nearby tree that erupted from a crack in the stone. "Look at the ground. Even with this rain, you can see horses have come this way recently. Scratches from shod hooves here and here, but no further. As though people have come, looked and turned back. Patrols checking for refugees avoiding the main route, no doubt."

She wished she felt as certain of that as she sounded and Daras did not appear convinced. A sense of urgency filled her. As though something, or someone, prodded her onwards. An insistent, nagging feeling. Or, perhaps, a feeling of something, or someone, tugging at her, dragging her onwards. Either way, she felt certain they had to cross the ravine this night.

Leaving Daras to care for Sialira, Miraveh moved to the rope bridge. The closer she came, the more the winds whistled and plucked at her, racing down the ravine, funnelled by the sheer sides. The river below roared its disapproval at her, but she ignored the wrath of nature as easy as she ignored Yusuvur's far-reaching influence.

The ropes were thick and greased, giving them longevity in the face of such harsh elements. Looped around the sturdy, hardwood anchoring posts that looked as ancient as the rocks, and as hardy. She had no worries that the ropes and the posts would remain for long years after Miraveh had gone to the grave. The slats, fastened between the ropes on either side, were a different matter and they worried Miraveh.

She took several steps along the bridge, hand gripping the nearest guide rope, and then crouched to examine one of the slats. At one time, the boards were as strong as the anchoring posts, but the slats had had to suffer more direct assaults from various elements. Water from the river below, traffic from people's boots and horses shoes above. Rain and wind and baking sunlight. All had taken their toll.

The slats had become worn, thin and bevelled by much use. Some had started to rot and there were gaps along the way, where other boards had fallen into the rushing river waters. There were newer slats, replaced only a year or so before, but it looked as though any maintenance had now stopped. She could only imagine what the rest of the Goblin Trails looked like and she wondered whether the appearance of the dragon in Jukunashar had stopped smugglers taking care of the bridge.

"It's alright, little one. I'll warm you up soon enough." Miraveh returned to Daras and Sialira only to find him gathering scraps of wood into a pile. "Cook some meat, a drink of water and then you can rest, eh?"

"What are you doing?" With a glance along the path and then over the rise, back to the Hunters' encampment far in the distance, Miraveh kicked the gathered wood away. "Do you want to signal to everyone that we're here? No fire! Give her the drink, some biscuits and five minutes rest. We must keep going."

"Why?" Daras had started to collect the wood again, rearranging the pile Miraveh had kicked away. A hand indicated the sloping sides around them, where the path sat between. "This is as hidden as we could hope for. No-one will see a small fire. The girl needs rest, proper rest! I will not let you harry her to death! I won't!"

Miraveh grabbed him by the collar of his coat, dragging him away from Sialira, the twigs and shards of wood falling from his fingers. Stumbling, Daras could do little but allow her to pull him back to the top of the rise. Once there, she spun him to face the flickering lights of the encampment and gave him a push, sending him tottering that way.

"You don't like the way I do things, then go. You'll pass through them without any bother. After all, you have no magic. They don't slaughter people without magic." The wind pricked cold against her cheeks, but they felt hot. Blazing hot. "We don't have that luxury. She and I. We will be killed, strung up like pieces of meat, our bodies desecrated. Because we have magic. Have you so easily forgotten Kubsa, or did you happen to miss the dead Witch draped upon the remains of the Coven house?"

"I'm sorry. I just felt she needed ..." Rained cascaded from Daras' beard, his eyes blinking to wick away the water.

"You don't know what it's like!" She could hear her voice growing in volume, cracking as she almost screamed into the darkness and the storm. "To see people killed over and over again. People you care about. People you love. Their lives ripped from you, not by accidents, or illness, but by the hands of men and women that care nothing about the lives of others. Nothing! I'd rather she die through using her magic to help us than for a sword to rip out her guts!"

For a second, the fury of the storm grew. Miraveh fell to her knees, screaming at the ground, cursing the stones and the trees and the mountains. Screaming her hatred of people with their petty needs to accumulate power at the expense of others. She roared her fury at those she had lost, the ones that had left her to continue in this life alone.

Arms wrapped around her and she dug her nails as deep and as hard as she could into the flesh beneath the thick, sodden clothing. The arms did not release her, but held her even more tightly, not even flinching as she roared even more into the shoulder her head rested upon, teeth clamping onto it as she tried to silence herself.

Several seconds passed before Miraveh could stand to move. She had made her point. She had loosed all her anger and frustration that she had tamped down, hidden away in the deepest, darkest parts of her soul. As Alran had always said, it did good to let it out in one burst, then the real work could begin. With a sniff, she lifted her head from Daras' shoulder.

After that last outburst, the storm had slackened a slight. The rain still poured, the wind still blew and clouds still covered the skies, but Miraveh could sense a lessening in the storm's strength. That could prove to their advantage. Without looking at Daras, she rose to her feet, wiping her face with her hand and heading back to Sialira.

Upon reaching the girl, Miraveh found Sialira sat up. Though heavily shadowed, the girl's face showed signs of fatigue. Her eyes drooped, hands shaking as she took a drink from the water skin. A closer look showed that the colour had bleached from her face. But, Sialira also had a determined look about her. More than once, in silence as Miraveh returned to her, she looked towards the leading edge of the rope bridge.

"Perhaps Daras is right." Crouching, Miraveh took Sialira's hand between both of her own, rubbing it to bring warmth to the tiny, bitterly cold fingers. "We could wait until the morning. Or until tomorrow night? We could go back to that other dip. No-one would see a fire from there. What do you think?"

"I can do it. I can." As though to prove it, Sialira's pale green magical energy began to swirl and curl around both their hands. The sensation tickled Miraveh's fingers. "Better on that side than sit here and chance those vile Hunters come and find us."

Miraveh patted Sialira's hand and rose to her feet once again. One way or another, she had got what she wanted. As Daras joined them, she averted her gaze. In truth, she had only ever shown Kay, Alran and Yusuvur that emotional side of herself. She didn't like to show it, but Daras no longer had that accusatory air about him.

Miraveh moved to the horses, untying them with her back to Sialira and Daras, and smiled.

-+-

The storm had abated, somewhat, but the winds and the rain still continued. To the north, however, around the Hunters' encampment, it looked as though the storm continued to rage. Sheets of rain falling upon it like great, black blankets falling over the tents, as though the storm itself wished to aid them in avoiding detection.

Once again, Sialira chose to take the rear of the group, ensuring that she could project her magical light before her, rather than having to guide with her back to where Miraveh, Daras and the horses would have to step. Daras, especially, did not like leaving the Witch in such an exposed position where he would find it difficult to rush to her aid, should exhaustion take her.

"If you need to rest, call out." He fussed over Sialira like a father over a daughter. Or, perhaps, like a brother for a sister. "We do not need to rush this."

"I'll be fine." Sialira had taken a long moment to assay the bridge, calculating the length of it and the state of the slats. "The sooner it is done, the better."

As she passed Miraveh, Sialira straightened her back, stiffening her shoulders and making the slightest of nods. She wanted to prove herself to Miraveh and Miraveh gave her a smile in return before taking a deep breath and tugging the reins of her horse, stepping to the very edge of the bridge.

Once everyone had lined up, Miraveh felt the swell of magical energy in the air once more and then saw those tell-tale tendrils and fingers of magic crawling along the ground, clutching and sloughing towards the bridge. It almost looked as though the energy itself were alive, flinching back as it touched the first slat before engulfing the board and making the surface glow pale green.

The magic expanded outwards, taking in around ten feet of the boards before Miraveh and reaching up, along the taut ropes connecting the slats to the thicker guide ropes at around waist height. The glow only appeared on the inside of the ropes, showing nothing on the outer side, where others could have seen, were they stood close enough. The girl thought well. Tactically. Miraveh liked that.

Without waiting, Miraveh took the first step onto the bridge, out of the shelter of the rocks that lined the pathway, and almost gasped as the wind caught her breath. As she led the horse along the first few slats, keeping the reins as tight as she could without spooking the beast, she looked down towards the white froth of the rushing river below.

"Have a care on the fifth board!" A call over her shoulder almost became carried away by the wind and strands of hair, that she had thought tied back, whipped into her face. "It looks weak."

Daras nodded and repeated the call behind him to Sialira. How the girl could be so precise, Miraveh didn't know, but the fifth board became darker than the ones at either side, showing the danger. Miraveh's horse, skittish and wide-eyed, balked at the gap that had appeared between glows, but stepped past the weak board and on to the next as Miraveh nursed it along.

Before too long, they had all made their way on to the bridge, their combined weight mollifying the swaying caused by the wind, but not stopping it entirely. That didn't worry Miraveh so much. The ropes looked strong. The slats, however, did worry her. Twice more she had to call back to warn of boards that she did not like the look of.

Again, Sialira's magical glow compensated for those, and for the gaps where slats had already fallen into the river. Yet they made steady progress and, as Miraveh reached the middle of the bridge, she took the opportunity of a run of strong boarding to turn to check upon Sialira's health. She did not look well.

With one hand gripping the nearest guide rope, the other held out before her, magical energy trickling like a waterfall from her fingers and palm, down to the bridge boards at her feet, Sialira looked stooped and ready to collapse. Miraveh couldn't move to the back to urge the Witch to find the strength they needed. She had to trust that Sialira would show some of that same determination she had whenever she tried to get Miraveh to study magic.

The magical glow flickered and dimmed and Sialira fell to one knee. Daras almost began to rush back to her, but a raised hand from the girl stopped him. She lifted her head, face and hair slick from rain and spray from the rapids below, and shook it. Daras looked in two minds, looking from Sialira and then back, over his shoulder, towards Miraveh.

Sialira pushed herself to her feet, gritting her teeth, then, with a look of anger upon her face, she renewed her magical pathway. The boards and ropes began to glow once again and Miraveh turned to continue the crossing. She moved with urgency, now. If Sialira collapsed again, the way to the other side could become far more dangerous.

She urged her horse forwards, taking faster steps, skipping over missing boards while trying to keep her horse under control. By the time they were only ten feet from the far side of the bridge, Miraveh began to feel the tightness in her chest begin to diminish. They had almost made it. Ten more feet and Sialira could rest and Miraveh could allow her guilt to wash away with the rain.

The first she realised she had made a mistake, moved too fast without keeping a watchful eye on the boards, came as a tortured creak sounded above the winds and the crashing of the river waters. Miraveh's head whipped around too late as the creak turned into a crack that echoed from the walls of the ravine, drowning out every other sound. Every other sound except the scream of the horse led by Daras.

Everything appeared to slow down. The back end of the horse began to fall through the gap created by a weak board that had broken and collapsed beneath it. A board that Miraveh had missed in her rush to reach the other side. Yusuvur would never have let emotion force her to rush anything!

She tried to move but it felt as though ghostly hands pulled her back. Still everything appeared to move as though time itself had slowed. She saw Daras, reins wrapped and entwined about his hands as his feet braced against the slats, trying to stall the horse's fall. If he didn't let go. The horse would drag him down into the river below, carrying him to certain death.

"Let it go, you fool!" Time snapped back and Miraveh could still do nothing but try to keep her own horse calm. "It's only a horse! We can get another!"

"It's a living creature!" Daras' boots scraped along the boards as the horse fell even more, its forelegs clattering against the wood of the slats, metal shoes gouging deep scratches in the surface. "I will not let it die! I will ..."

Another slat broke beneath the horse, dropping the animal further and dragging Daras from his feet. Only now did he attempt to release his hands from the reins, knowing his attempt to save it was futile, but the reins, thickened by the rain, remained tight. The horse slid even more. Miraveh stopped caring about her own horse. She dropped its reins, slapping it on its backside and sent it running across the remainder of the bridge.

She pulled the knife, taken from the Hunter, from the sheath at her back and rushed towards Daras, ready to cut the reins, or his hands from the wrists, if she had to. But, before she could reach him, she began to feel Sialira's magic swell to a strength she had never felt from the girl. The pale green glow upon the bridge winked out and Miraveh could barely make out the Witch in the darkness.

As though the storm wished to give aid, the clouds above broke for a short while, allowing the light from the Moon to fall upon the land and Miraveh could do nothing but gasp at what she saw. Sialira's entire body shook and trembled as her magical energies poured from her hands, down, below the bridge. The horse had stopped falling.

Miraveh fell beside Daras and began to saw at the reins, his fingers had become fat and darkened by trapped blood. As Miraveh cut the reins, she expected the horse to fall through the gap but it did not. Instead, it began to rise, its legs thrashing and kicking, its nostrils flaring and snorting, head snapping one way and the other. Miraveh glanced through the gap between the two boards by her face and saw something amazing.

Whatever Sialira had done before paled in comparison to what she and her magic achieved now. A funnel of water had erupted from the river, spinning like a whirlpool, but upwards instead of within the river. The tip of the water spout rose up to the feet of the horse and, incredibly, the horse stepped upon it as though it were solid. Within seconds, the horse had managed to find purchase on the bridge and ran, jumping over Miraveh and Daras, racing after its companion.

But Miraveh's eyes fell on Sialira, not the horse. The girl had collapsed and Miraveh couldn't tell whether she lived or not.