Mirefall

Chapter 30 - Leap

It's too far down. We all know it is. But there's no time, and it's our only chance. I shove Puka, bleating and protesting, into my shirt. His head pops up out of the collar. The others tell me through the Link what they'd do if they were in control, and I direct them through the actions.

Thrall Picks Saffryn up from her chair and they wrap their arms tight around eachother. Rhetrien grabs her chair and tosses it into the water-that one's my idea, not theirs-but I also let them cast a final look back through the balcony door. Back to where we'd last seen Oz. Pash can't communicate through the Link, but I make her ditch the pieces of armor that are quickest to get off. Howla secures her sword as best she can through her belt and takes a deep breath, her energy beginning to gather and crackle around her again.

Thank the Firstborn for the Surge. That mysterious blessing of desperation that allows even the most ordinary of people to gather unknown reserves of energy in times of absolute need. It's probably the only thing that's gotten me this far. We all circle around her, holding on to whatever part of her we can get a decent grip on.

We jump as one. Howla's energy builds around us as we hurtle through the air, fizzling across my skin, making all my hair stand on-end. There's a sound that I think is a shout-but my hearing's still muffled from earlier damage. Then there's movement from the other side of our cluster.

We're an instant from hitting the water when there's that thundercrack again-and I'm almost grateful my hearing's mostly shot. This time none of us can protect ourselves from it. My ears ring again, Puka's ears ring, and all other sound is lost. But in the next heartbeat, we've reappeared eight paces or so above the water, dropping into it now with hardly any force at all.

The cold of the water goes straight to my bones. My sphere of influence is tiny at this point, and I have to fight hard to keep everyone within it. I thank the Firstborn yet again when I feel something slimy and huge brushing against Rhetrien's leg, focusing on its Ember and into its awareness to find myself possessing the body of something completely limbless. I bring it up beneath us just as I feel Howla's Ember flicker and dim into unconsciousness.

Nothing I do wakes Howla or makes her move, and she's sinking-but I manage to catch hold of her using Rhetrien just before she slips beyond the reach of my control. Every time I focus on Rhetrien's senses, I'm almost distracted, because they don't actually see as I or anyone else does. Rather than sight, their eyes possess a sense I have no name for. A sense that makes life forms stand out in vivid contrast to all else in a way that's hard to describe. A sense that makes it easy to snatch Howla quickly, even with just one hand. And hauling her up to drape over the eel's back is surprisingly easy too-Rhetrien's even stronger than they look.

But Pash is lost to me. As I sense her Ember sinking deep into the fathomless lake-also still with unconsciousness-I begin to put together what happened. Her grip had faltered immediately before Howla bolted us upward, and she must have hit the water at full speed.

There's nothing I can do to help her now.

Tears warm my eyes, and I can feel my own Surge wearing off by the heartbeat while I fight to keep us all clinging to the eel's back as it courses through the water. Getting us as far away from Grailhold as I possibly can, as fast I can. Getting us to the locks. Trying not to think about how thoroughly we've already failed. Because as long as they have Oz, they have control of the Sentinal. And as long as they have some medicine and their supply train intact...they have the others' guards to track us with.

It doesn't matter. We still have to try.

But I'm tired. So tired. And so cold I can barely feel my own fingers. Every few heartbeats, I almost slip somewhere. Almost lose one of my Khajra's grip on the eel. Almost lose control of the eel itself. At one point, I do-and immediately it begins to dive. I feel the others' panic even before they start shouting into the Link, righting the massive creature just before our heads dip beneath the surface.