Fires of Prophecy_ Book Two of the Morcyth Saga - Brian Pratt [30]
Delia comes to the point where the burning branch has fallen upon the bridge, but it’s burning so hot, she has to pass by as far to the side as she can. The wooden planks she’s walking upon are beginning to burn as well as the supporting ropes.
When James gets to the fire on the bridge, he can see that the ropes have already almost completely burned through, only a few strands keep it from snapping in two. “Hurry!” he shouts as they quickly make their way to the other side.
Jiron reaches the other side first, just ahead of Delia. Then Tinok reaches the other side and carries Cassie away from the edge of the canyon before he lays her on the ground. James is almost to the end when one the remaining strands of the support rope snaps, causing the bridge to skew suddenly, throwing him to his knees.
“James!” Delia cries out when she sees the bridge lurch to the side and James almost plummeting to his death on the rocks far below.
Jiron comes to the edge and reaches out to help him the last of the way. Seeing the hand before him, James stretches his arm out, trying to grab hold of it. Before he’s able to take Jiron’s hand, the remaining rope suddenly snaps, causing the bridge to break in two and each half falling against their side of the canyon.
James loses his grip and falls. Reaching out in panic, he tries to grab hold of one of the wooden planks of the bridge. He finally manages to stop his plummet ten feet further down as he catches hold of one of the planks that’s still attached securely to the rope. He holds on tight as the bridge slams into the side of the mountain and prays he doesn’t fall. Once the section of bridge he’s clinging to settles down, he looks up and sees Jiron looking down at him from the top, twenty feet away.
“Come on!” he yells. “Climb up, you can make it.”
James makes the mistake of looking down at the river far below. Panic overcomes him for a few seconds, causing him to hug the board in a death grip. The panic slowly subsides when he realizes he’s not going to immediately plummet to his death. After taking a couple deep breaths, he reaches up to grab the board above him and starts climbing up.
One by one, he climbs the boards on his way toward the top. Suddenly he hears one of the girls scream and looks up, but Jiron is no longer there. He continues climbing and when he is less than five feet from the top, a body flies over the edge and falls, narrowly missing him.
What the hell?
Climbing as fast as he can, he reaches the top only to find Jiron and Tinok standing shoulder to shoulder as they face three men with swords. Six men already lie dead on the ground. As James climbs over the top, another of the men falls to the ground as he holds his stomach where Jiron had sliced him open. Then in a flurry of motion, Jiron and Tinok each take out one of the remaining two.
Coming over to them, he asks, “Everyone okay?”
Jiron has a wound in his side oozing blood, other than that, its just minor scrapes and cuts. Delia comes and helps him to bind it, while James goes over to where Tinok is holding a coughing Cassie and asks, “Is she going to be okay?”
“I think so,” he replies. “She just needs to get the smoke out of her lungs.”
“What happened?” he asks, referring to the dead men.
“They came out of the trees just after the bridge broke,” he explains. “I think they were robbers, probably in the area and coming to see about the fire. When they saw us, they attacked without warning.”
At mention of the fire, they all look across the chasm at the roaring inferno consuming the road they just left. Some embers are being carried across the canyon, but are failing to start any fires.
“Let’s search them and see if they have anything we can use,” James says.
He and Jiron go about the task of searching the bodies, but only come up with a pouch for each of them and a belt knife. They also find some coins, though not nearly replacing the amount