When The Petal Fell

6-2

There! Far to her right, the flash of golden hair once more showed the way. Yet, it could not be so. The girl had run in a different direction. Now, Klaron had to run around the end of this walkway to join the rope bridge she had seen the girl upon. She could never catch her in time. Unless ...

Between the walkway she stood upon and the rope bridge, a gap yawned. Only around six feet, but it may as well have been a mile and the fall beneath would mean her death if she failed to make the jump. She had no choice. Jumping onto the wooden rail, ignoring the protests, cat calls, whistles and fools urging her to jump, she licked her lips. And leaped.

She caught the rope of an upright tie, flapping her arm upward, fastening her wrist around the rough twists. She heard a few cheers, a few boos and a few gasps as she swung her leg up, onto the rope bridge. She rolled onto the boards of the rope bridge, shaking, but she couldn't take the time to rest. Lifting her head, she saw the Fae, crouched down at the other end of the rope bridge, a huge grin on her face, tilting her head. And then she ran again.

Klaron groaned and dragged herself to her feet once more. If she knew the Underside as much as she thought she did, the girl had now run into a dead end. She became cautious, now, not wanting to miss the girl if she realised her mistake and ran back towards her. She looked around the corner and saw the girl walking along the top of a wooden rail, uncaring about the drop to her side.

Manderi held her arms out to the side, balancing herself like the rope walkers from Entertainers' Row. The girl giggled to herself as her bare feet moved, one in front of the other, the nightshirt, still open to the waist, billowing in the updraft from below. Klaron edged forward and caught sight of the debt collector's head emerging from the level above. Sora held a silencing finger to her lips.

"Manderi? I need you to come down, my love. We don't want you to fall, eh?" Klaron held out her hand as she stepped forward, slow and steady. "If you don't want to answer any more questions, you don't have to. Let's just get you back to the House of Reflection, eh?"

The Fae looked at her and grinned again, her green, sapling-like skin almost glowing in the light from the nearest lamp behind Klaron. Holding Klaron's eyes with her own, the Fae turned on the balls of her feet and faced the sheer drop from the wooden walkway. Her eyes never left Klaron's, as if teasing, or daring her to stop her. Manderi held out her arms and began to fall forward.

Even as Klaron jumped, she knew she would never reach the girl in time. Then, from above, Klaron saw Sora swinging by her arms from the level above, catching the Fae between her legs, clamping them tight around the girl's tiny body. As the arc of the swing reached its end, Sora released her grip on the level above, sending her and the Fae tumbling to the battered boards of the walkway platform. So much for the debt collector having no grace.

Klaron ran to them both, readying herself to grab the little Fae if she tried to run again. She reached down to grab the girl's wrist and her hand closed upon nothing. The debt collector, Sora remained. The Fae had disappeared, once again. Now Klaron knew this to be impossible.

"Where'd she go?" Sora looked up to Klaron. "I had her. I felt her body! She was right here!"

"I know." Klaron stood straight, looked around and glanced at the people walking by the entrance to the dead end. She turned back to Sora and frowned. "How's that itch in your head?"

"Itch? What are you ..." Sora stopped and thought for a second. "It's gone."

When they heard the scream, echoing from the direction of the House of Reflection, heard even above the normal sounds of the Underside, they both ran in that direction like monsters were at their backs.