Temple Hill - Drew Karpyshyn [48]
After a moment's delay, Corin followed with more difficulty. In part, his progress was slowed by his handicap, but even more debilitating was his fear of heights. Despite his best efforts not to look down, Corin was well aware of the empty space yawning beneath him. With each step up, he had to make sure both feet were firmly planted on rungs of the same level before he dared to release the grip of his one good hand. Even with his amputated arm wrapped tightly around the metal pole, he felt as if he was on the verge of toppling over each time he let go of the ladder to reach for the next rung. The sensation of the ladder wobbling beneath his awkward, jerky movements did little to alleviate his fears.
By the time he finally reached the top, Lhasha had used the shears to cut through the wire mesh over the ventilation chimney, and had already attached the spreader to the iron bars that blocked the opening. Corin could hear the groaning of the bars as the metal became fatigued from the stress being applied by Fendel's invention.
Lhasha grunted softly with each turn of the screw, obviously it was hard, slow work. The air was still cool during these first few nights of the Sunsets, but Corin could see tiny beads of perspiration on Lhasha's forehead, the result of her efforts to try to bend the iron bars.
"Glad you made it," she said between breaths, noticing Corin standing above her. "Maybe you could give this contraption a try, while I collapse the ladder."
Corin nodded, still a little winded from the climb up. It hadn't been physically demanding, but he had been holding his breath virtually the whole way.
He turned his attention to the bar spreader. Lhasha had clamped it onto two of the bars as Fendel had shown them, now it was simply a matter of turning the handle. With only one hand, Corin couldn't get the same leverage as Lhasha, but his superior strength more than compensated for the mechanical disadvantage. By the time Lhasha had the collapsible ladder stowed away in her backpack again, Corin had bent the bars enough to open a hole several feet wide. The mortars holding the iron bars in place had begun to crack and disintegrate into dust as the bars warped and twisted. Corin gave a few more turns to the handle to weaken the stone foundations holding the bars in place, then yanked the entire mess-the spreader and the bars it was clamped to-out of the ventilation chimney, sending a small shower of dust onto the warehouse floor fifty feet below.
"That should do," Lhasha commented. With the bars removed, the chimney was easily wide enough for even Corin to slip through.
The chimney led them into the exposed rafters that crisscrossed the upper reaches of the warehouse, supporting the structure from inside. The floor below them was bustling with activity, even at this late hour-confinning Corin's suspicions about the illicit nature of the inventory stored there. Lamps and torches from the warehouse floor provided a flickering, half-illumination of the roof. Not enough to expose Corin and Lhasha, but enough to allow Corin to see the narrow beams they would have to crawl across. Unfortunately for Corin, the dim glow also emphasized how far a fall it was from his precarious perch.
"Why don't you wait here," Lhasha whispered. "I'll scout things out from up top."
"Don't do anything stupid," Corin warned, wrapping his arms and legs tightly around an intersection of the beams. "Remember why you brought me."
"Ill come back to get you before I head down to the floor," Lhasha promised.
She set off along one of the narrow beams, and again Corin could only marvel at the self-assured ease with which she maneuvered through the rafters.
***
Lhasha wasn't even aware of the thousands of intricate movements her muscles made to keep her perfectly balanced on the four inch wide wooden