“Should we all go together to help each other out?” Lucius asked.
“No,” Mara said, shaking her head. “That would be too much weight. I think we’re going to have to go one at a time.”
“I hate to say it,” Appius said, looking deeply worried, “but you’re right. I don’t like the way the bridge is shaking with just Conrad’s weight on it.”
“I think it’s me shaking and not the bridge,” I said, trying to make light of what I was doing. “I’m sure I’ll be fine once I get the hang of it.”
I was not fine, even though I did get the hang of it. My knees felt like butter as I shimmied slowly along the ruined bridge, hugging the chain for dear life. I did everything I could not to look down as I inched along from one section to another, unfastening the clip, then refastening it every time I reached a downward rope. But, of course, once I made it out to the middle of the broken, wobbling bridge, something made me look down.
I was instantly dizzy, and for a second, I thought I would shit myself. It was so far down to the sharp rocks and roaring river below that I couldn’t even judge the distance. I closed my eyes and whimpered, teeth chattering as the cold, mountain wind whistled by me. I’d never felt as alone and scared as I did in that moment. My friends from the Old Realm felt as though they were miles away, even though they all stood at the end of the bridge, watching me. My frontier friends, Dushka, and the Sons, still felt completely out of reach in front of me. The only thing that existed in the world was me, my pounding heart, and my churning stomach.
“Keep going!” Appius’s distant shout made me open my eyes. “You can do it, Conrad!”
I nodded as if Appius were right next to me and continued inching along the remnants of the bridge. I could do this. For Appius, for Dushka, for the Sons, and for my housemates. I could cross the chasm between the Old Realm and the frontier and live to tell the tale.
And I made it. By some miracle, I pulled and scooted and hugged that chain, and I made it all the way across to the other side.
I was so relieved to feel solid ground under my feet again that when I unhooked my clip for the last time, I stumbled several yards away from the bridge and dropped to my knees, then collapsed to spread out and hug the earth under me as hard as I could. I might have even sobbed for a few moments.
Fortunately, the moment passed, and I pulled myself together enough to straighten, then stand. I turned back to see if I could shout some sort of words of encouragement to my friends, but to my surprise, Leander had already started making his way across after me.
It was almost worse to watch my friends struggle to cross the ruined bridge than it had been to travel across it myself. From the vantage point of the other side, I could see the way the remaining half of the bridge swayed and juddered with every movement Leander made. I watched a few of the remaining planks shake loose from whatever was still holding them to the bridge and spiral down to the rocks and river below.
I almost threw up when a plank slipped right out from under Leander’s feet when he was about thirty yards away from me. I was close enough to hear him hiss a curse as he wrapped himself around the suspension chain until, presumably, he felt steady enough to go on.
“Never again,” he said as I marched forward to grab him and pull him the rest of the way onto solid ground. “Never, ever again.”
We embraced each other tightly. I was shaking as much as he was.
But then we both had to turn and watch as Darius started across the bridge.
“Darius is coming after me,” Leander said, still breathless, as if he’d run all the way from Royersford. “Then Mara, then Lucius, then Appius.”
“What?” My gut clenched at the news that Appius would go last. “Appius…he…I mean, I understand Mara going next, but….”
Leander clamped a steadying hand on my shoulder. His eyes held more understanding than I was comfortable with as he said, “Appius insisted. He said he has more climbing experience than the rest of us put together, and if anything were to happen, he would be able to climb down that side and up this side.”
After getting a bird’s eye view of the river below, swollen and churning with spring melt, I doubted it. Crossing the ruined bridge had been our only chance from the start.
I couldn’t voice those thoughts, though. All I could do was watch, clinging to Leander while he clung to me, as Darius made his slow, painful way across the ruined bridge.
Darius avoided some of the weak spots that would have sent Leander to his death, if not for the safety rope. He made it across faster than either Leander or I had.
“Never again,” he said, exactly as Leander had, once he made it to our side.
“Definitely not,” Leander said, breaking away from me and striding to pull Darius well away from the bridge and into a tight embrace.
The two of them clung to each other for a moment, both breathing heavily, and then they leaned back, stared deeply into each other’s eyes, then surged into a kiss that was so intense I had to look away. I mean, I knew they shared in bed, and I pretty much knew they fucked each other too, but that kiss was something else, something both sacred and profane that I couldn’t look at, let alone comprehend.
I had plenty else to look at, though. Mara had already started across the bridge, and I focused on watching her progress and praying that whatever divine force was holding the bridge together would keep her going.
Mara paused a few times on the bridge, but I couldn’t figure out why.
At least, not until she made it to our side and the three of us already there pulled her well clear of the bridge and onto solid ground.
“It’s losing stability with each of us who crosses,” she said, more animated and alarmed than I’d ever seen her. “So many of the planks are loose, and I felt like the whole thing was going to twist more than a dozen times.”
My stomach roiled at that revelation.