Falling Skyward

Chapter Forty-Seven: Trapped

Lana fled, moving upward along the passage, toward the light and sound of the ocean. There were moments when Lana had to drag herself and Gailen's body through narrow passages, squeezing through twists and crawling under boulders. A white crack of blinding light, like lightning frozen in time, lay before them, and Lana thrust through, emerging into daylight.

Lana was on a narrow cliff ledge above a violent sea.

Lana looked up, seeing the rim of the cliff twenty feet above. The rocks directly around and above Lana were uneven, slanted, as though freshly broken off.

"Gailen, I need you right now," Lana said, looking into his waxy face. Lana feared a climb like this might kill him, but yelps and strange noises from the cave behind her told Lana staying would guarantee a fate worse than death. Gailen shook his head, his eyes looking as though they were those of an animal detached from the frail boy who wore them.

The journey happened one small climb at a time. Lana's shoulder and ankle were alight with pain, but she continued to push and drag Gailen upward, straddling him to keep him from falling at those moments when he didn't have the strength to cling any longer. Through grueling effort, Lana managed to push Gailen to a ledge just eight feet from the top of the cliff, crawling up to collapse beside him. The rocks near the top were smoother, less distinct, all the features of the rock slowly worn to uniformity.

The cliff above Lana had few purchases, only enough to shimmy up the rock using finger and toe holds, but nothing that would allow her to carry Gailen, who was now barely coherent.

Guilt tore at Lana when she realized the inevitable—she would have to leave Gailen to find some way to retrieve him. But she didn't allow the emotion to incapacitate her. Lana grappled at the wall, trying to claw into the smooth nodules or bulges, unable to find more than a hold or two before slipping back to her starting point. The top was so agonizingly close.

Suddenly, the yelps and rustling from the cave entrance beneath quieted, and the silence unnerved Lana more than the noise.

With no room for a running start and no cushion for error, Lana channeled the last of her strength, leaping so her arms reached over the cliff edge up above, her fingers clawing and grasping for a handhold or purchase. Her fingertips clung to a thin ridge of rock that threatened to rip free of her grip at any moment. A ripping pain in her shoulder caused Lana's vision to dim, and she feared she would lose consciousness.

Lana's feet slid across the smooth stone surface, unable to find leverage. Inch by inch, Lana rose up the wall—first her hands and wrists, then forearms, finally her head and chest. As she struggled, her face in the icy snow, Lana began to feel the rock she was grasping pull free, sending her back as skin scraped against the gravel and ice beneath her, tearing a scream from her.

Catching hold of a new rock, Lana kept herself from plunging backward, her forearms still dangling over the ledge above. Lana could feel her muscles spasming with fatigue, but there was no turning back. The ledge below where Gailen lay was too narrow to allow her to slide back down to rest, so Lana began to pull once again.

Just as her chest cleared the ledge, Lana felt hands grabbing her wrists and another set grasping under her shoulders. She jerked back, trying to pull away, ready to plummet to the rocks below rather than allow those creatures to touch her again.

But the hands that moved down to grip her waist were warm, callused, and muscular.

"Wait, Lana. It's okay. You are safe now. It's all right. I've got you."

Taren. Lana felt such relief, the sound of his voice washing over her. Drayer stood behind him, pulling until she could stand on the solid ground above. Taren instantly pulled her to his chest, uncaring for the blood that covered her tunic.

"Gailen," Lana whispered.

"What?" Taren asked, pulling her back, examining her while his hands cupped her face.

"Gailen. We need to pull him up before they find us."

Taren and Drayer both peered over the edge of the cliff. Without a word, Drayer gripped the rim and lowered himself down. In a seamless movement, Drayer picked up Gailen and lifted him above his head.

"Hold onto my waist," Taren said, laying so he could reach down over the ledge to grasp Gailen under the arms and heave him up. Lana could feel the muscles in his back as she lay across him, not trusting her arms to hold him after her climb.

Taren set Gailen in Lana's arms before reaching down to pull Drayer back to safety.

"We need to leave, now," Drayer said, looking down at the star ether on his belt despairingly. Taren scooped up Gailen.

"Hold onto me," he commanded. "Lana, clear your mind. Drayer, take us back." Lana reached for her belt, where nothing but a small ebb of warmth and light still flickered. They turned all the remaining vials of crystal.

Holding their breaths, they waited. Nothing happened.

Drayer cursed. "We waited too long."

Taren and Drayer instinctively began running for the nearest line of trees, searching for cover in this field of blank white. Lana stumbled after them, knowing they couldn't erase their tracks, knowing they stood out like a flare in this field of snow.

"How far are we from my uncle's farm?" she asked.

"We wouldn't dare take them there," Taren responded. Take them? What did he mean?

"But we could hide. I know the woods near our farm well. I know places we could disappear."

"It's useless," Drayer said, motioning toward Gailen. "They must have a tracker on him. Unless we find someone who can remove it, they'll know where we are." Tracker? What had they done to Gailen? Lana shuddered as she thought of the boy she had seen in that subterranean world of darkness, black-eyed and menacing. Did they turn him into that thing?

Drayer swore again. "Why didn't I learn?"

"I know a little of it," Taren said. "But Dawson was always the best when it came to trackers."

Even as he spoke, cloaked figures began emerging from the trees before them, hedging their way. The ebony spilled across the snow, like ink on a page.

Taren and Dawson turned to look for other escape roots, but flickers of shadow as deep as midnight circled them, pinning them against the cliff edge.

Drayer drew his sword, but Lana knew it was useless to prepare her bow, unless she was prepared to use the arrow on herself.

Something flickered in Lana's chest, a warmth she had felt when summoning light in the caves below. She closed her eyes, allow the feeling to flow over her.

Lana began murmuring in her mind, ancient ruins in the form of pictures, memories, emotions, and words she had never learned coating the crevices of her brain. She clutched onto Drayer and Taren, who still carried Gailen, squeezing her eyes even tighter as the messages formed, twisting her gut and wrenching her forward. Place and time blurred, light and darkness collapsed, and then, silence.