by Halie Fewkes
We rapidly came to the wide opening of Treldinsae’s wall where the water lapped at the bridge, rocks, and sand.
“Don’t touch the water!” Archie exclaimed. We both skidded to a full stop, mere cubits from the foam of the last wave. The bridge was attached to a few of the larger jagged rocks, but the waves came far past where the structure met the land, leaving water between us and the bridge. The Escalis on each side of the open walls regarded us with eyes that wanted to kill as our pursuers arrived behind us. No dead end had ever been as dire, with Escalis on three sides and the Breathing Sea.
I could tell by the way the wall guards hesitated that the two Escalis tailing us were highly regarded, even though they seemed younger than the rest. Each had hair darker than a moonless midnight, as Prince Avalask himself was rumored to have. The one with hair spiked at all angles atop his thin face stepped toward us, his knees bent, ready to spring. He looked exactly the same as he had the day he attacked us in the woods. The second Escali, burly with tied back hair, the one who had ripped the woman’s throat out, stood behind him.
Without moving his mouth, Archie breathed, “Allie, you can draw blood from Escalis if they’re not adults yet. We have a chance.”
Chapter Thirteen
The bristle-haired Escali pulled his upper lip back into a vicious grin. “Tallies don’t deserve to live in this world,” he said. Most Escalis spoke roughly, probably from their years of snarling, but his voice was lethally sharp — leaving a razor-thin cut in my heart where panic could leak in. I wasn’t even sure when I had pulled my short swords out, but I had them ready.
I noticed from the corner of my eye that the last wave from the Breathing Sea had receded particularly far. The bridge was within jumping distance!
“Archie, come on!” I said, grabbing his arm just long enough to get him moving with me. I got as much of a running start as I could manage before leaping over the remaining water.
I barely heard Archie warn, “No, we can’t!” before I landed with a thud on the speckled granite face of the bridge. He landed next to me within the next few seconds, all objections forgotten. The edge of the bridge was lined with piers taller than I was, but in the great space between them, one could easily step right over the edge and fall into the Sea.
My first few steps slipped beneath me in my haste to take off, even though the stone bridge was completely dry. Archie and I only made it as far as the third pillar before the two Escalis with the unnaturally dark hair thudded onto the granite behind us. Archie grabbed my arm to stop me. “We don’t have a chance of outrunning them.”
I had my short swords at the ready, but I expected to have a spare second of panic before the Escalis jumped us. I didn’t get one.
The growling Escali with the spiked hair pulled a bladed staff from his back and collided with Archie, but I had no idea what happened to him past that because the burlier of the two monsters made a grab for me, not even holding a weapon. I ducked into a crouch with surprising speed, using the blade in my right hand to slash at the monster with his hair tied roughly back. He darted to the side to avoid my swipe, then lowered his shoulder and charged straight into me, catching me in the middle and crushing me into one of the pillars lining the bridge.
The bone-crunching crash knocked hope itself out of me, and I hunched immediately forward against him, unable to even gasp for air. One of my swords hit the ground with a devastating clink, but I drew my other arm above my head to get the tip of my remaining blade to the Escali’s neck. I drove it forward, hoping to kill the beast, but he jerked himself quickly back from me. Even without his weight pinning me, I still couldn’t draw a breath.
My opponent was merciless, dashing to the side and lunging forward. Instead of crashing into me again, he grabbed my wrists, twisting my hands sharply to make me drop the second blade. In the same motion, he turned to the side and used his momentum and brute strength to flip me over, slamming me onto my back and rattling my very thoughts. I rolled quickly away from him and onto my feet, but before I could even begin to stand he tackled me back to the granite.
I wasn’t fast enough to be considered the slightest threat.
The Escali was so close I could see the dark storm clouds in his irises and feel his spit as he snarled at me and clamped his hands around my neck. I still couldn’t breathe from being crushed — he didn’t need to strangle me too.
I had my hands wrapped around his, trying to pull the pressure from my throat, aware that I didn’t have a chance. All I could muster was a pathetic gasp as he murdered me. I could see Archie still locked in combat with the other Escali, his eyes alive with a hatred I had never seen in them. I was starting to notice the noises around me dimming, and then I saw Archie kick his enemy back into one of the bridge columns. Seeing the action was becoming a strain on my eyes as well.
Archie abandoned that fight long enough to take a stab at the Escali holding me down as I noticed two dragons approaching us in the starry sky. The burly Escali I hadn’t been able to deal with let go of me and instantly brought one of my forgotten swords up to parry Archie’s attack. The thinner monster then jumped back onto Archie from behind and knocked him to the ground. They both struggled to get back to their feet and keep the other down, and I had already twisted myself onto my stomach and dug my elbows into the chinks between granite blocks, dragging myself away from the Escali so I could get up again.
I expected to be crushed within the next second, but Archie got the upper hand against his opponent, and all commotion suddenly stopped. They were standing again, and Archie was holding him against one of the pillars, blade at his throat, spitting through his teeth as he growled a hateful warning at the monster.
The Escali was muttering something, getting louder each time he repeated it. “Kill the dragons, kill the dragons, KILL THE DRAGONS!”
The thicker Escali finally took the hint and launched my blade like a javelin at the dragons just as they reached us. No longer watching, I grabbed the edge of the bridge to pull myself on my belly toward my other dropped sword, but I knew the Escali’s throw struck true. A distressed roar ripped through the air and the entire structure beneath me shook as something large crashed onto it.
I had just grabbed my sword and pulled my knees beneath me into a crawling position when I saw the pony-tailed Escali leap for me again. This time when he knocked me back down, I threw all my weight in the same direction as his momentum and succeeded in rolling him over and landing on top. Never had a victory been so short lived. I growled through my teeth at him and he snarled back, grabbing my weapon arm and then throwing me back down beneath him. My head and shoulders were off the edge of the bridge now. He wrenched the sword from my hand and dug the tip of it into my neck, making me crane my head back and grit my teeth together.
At least four voices exclaimed “WATCH THE HAIR!” in multiple languages.
I snapped my head sideways to see the water beneath me, and the motion pulled my braid up just in time to miss a passing wave from the Breathing Sea.
The Escali jerked his attention over his shoulder, and I struggled to keep my head high and my hair out of the water as an invisible force blasted him off of me. I was quick to sit up and push myself back to my feet. Although my mind spun and compressed in response to the sudden stand, I was still able to see West next to a dead dragon, his hands outstretched. He and Michael had shown up. The Escali who had been suffocating me leapt back to his feet, but was flung backward again at the flick of West’s hands.
I wanted to exclaim, you found your power! but I had to take a second to hunch over with my hands on my knees and gasp air into my lungs.
The Escali landed roughly and rolled past where Archie and the spikey-haired villain were dueling once again. Now Michael had joined Archie as well, and the combined speed and skill of the two of them was enough to push the Escali back toward land. The pony-tailed Escali West had just thrown off me bared his teeth in a livid rage, and he snarled over his shoulder, “Shoot them! Shoot!”
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I saw two Escalis from across the water take aim. “Look out!” I shrieked, finally at the point of forming words again. West ran forward and flicked his hands out, knocking the arrows straight off their courses, but he missed one. Michael’s scream turned into a string of obscene curses as the arrow hit him in the side and West’s power knocked the Escali violently back. Michael dropped back from the fight, clutching his side as blood began to stain the ripped hole, and I dashed forward to help hold him up. The spiky haired one disengaged from his furious battle with Archie and shouted, “Just get back! Their mages won’t be able to find them if they cross the bridge.”
Both Escalis turned in a flash and leapt back to land, and Archie took no hesitation in grabbing Michael to help hold him up as well. West used his newfound power to deflect the next arrows shot at us as we helped Michael hobble farther from the predators. Michael exclaimed through a grimace, “That coward of a dragon left us here!”
“And the other one’s dead! We’re going to have to retreat across this bridge,” West yelled over the crashing of the waves beneath us and the taunting from the Escalis on the shore. “We don’t have another choice.”
Archie told West, “We’re going. Just blast them back again if they try to follow.” I retreated with them and hardly had a split second to cringe as I wrenched my sword out of the dead dragon’s side, letting go of Michael since Archie had him.
I whispered “I’m sorry” to the dragon as I sheathed the sword. I grabbed Michael’s other side again to help him move faster, and the four of us beat a hasty retreat.
The Escalis didn’t follow us — one of the first things to go right in a night of failures.
So many thoughts whirred through my head that I was taken aback to see the bridge connecting to moonlit land ahead of us. Treldinsae had already vanished behind us in the dark.
“Is this an island?” I asked, still holding Michael up. West still followed behind us to make sure the Escalis couldn’t pursue, and none had.
Archie said, “This is the Everarc island, where they found the crystal that cursed the entire Sea.”
The end of the bridge was buried in what would have been a golden beach if we weren’t seeing it in the dead of night. A sandy slope led from the bridge to higher elevations, and the rest of the island seemed to be bordered by a giant cliff that walled off the Breathing Sea waves. A few trees had grown scattered in the sand, and the ground was dotted with tough clumps of grass.
“We need to figure out what else is on this island,” Archie said as we stepped into the fine sand.
“I think I’ll stay here and hold the crossing,” Michael groaned, breaking away from us to sit against one of the trees.
“I’ll stay with him,” West said, “since I can keep the Escalis from getting across the bridge. Allie and Archie, you two had better come back as soon as you can. We’re going to need the world’s two greatest fighters here if anything shows up to kill us.”
“Just keep the Escalis back,” Archie said. “Nothing from the Sea should bother us as long as we don’t touch the water.”
“And we’ll be back as soon as we can,” I said, turning to climb the sandy embankment.
I added quietly to myself, “Although, calling us both the best fighters may be an overstatement.”
“I heard that,” Archie said, stepping only on the clumps of grass in the sand to get traction. “Allie, you were incredible against those Escalis. Don’t you dare think otherwise.”
“You actually defeated yours at one point,” I said, rather than argue that I wasn’t as competent as I had hoped. “And you managed to keep the second one from killing me.”
“My Escali wasn’t as good of a fighter, and Allie, that’s what friends are for. Had we switched opponents, you would have been saving me from that bigger one too.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said, feeling strangely better. We reached the top of the island, and I held on to a tree near the cliff’s edge where I could see a huge stretch of the bridge. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found no Escalis trying to cross, and I turned back to Archie to see that he was already reliving the fight in his mind. Hatred began sinking into his eyes as he explored, so I left him alone for a little while.
We moved north, following the cliff, but within ten minutes we’d circled to the south side of the small island. Even with the terror of being pursued, I couldn’t help but catch my breath at the sight of ten thousand stars overhead, resilient enough to shine despite having two brilliant moons to compete against. I hoped the beauty of the sky would never be lost on me, no matter my situation.
Archie had also used the silence to calm down, and when he glanced back to make sure I was coming, I asked, “Do you think we can find where the Everarc Crystal used to be?”
“Probably,” Archie said, climbing a small rock pile to see over the short trees around us. “There would have been a cave left behind from where the crystal was excavated.”
“How big of a cave?” I asked, walking along the southern cliff line. “Are we talking a little rabbit hole, or a tama cat den?”
“I don’t know,” he said as he pushed through a large growth of brush. “But I don’t think we should go looking for it.” Rather than ask why, I just shot Archie a questioning look, and he sighed when he saw it. “You remember the story about the Everarcs, and how they give magic to the world, right?”
“Yes.”
“Shadar mentioned that there was barely any magic in the land before the Everarcs, because they were encased in magic-resistant rock. When they took the Everarcs out, everything became the exact opposite. The magic was out in the world then, while the excavations where the crystals used to be became void of magic. Does that make sense?”
“It does,” I said. “And I could see how that would be dangerous, since we’re both going to be mages and the caves would be void of magic. But could it really be worse than crossing back over the Escali bridge or trying to swim across the Breathing Sea?” I asked.
Archie gave me a smirk in response. “Maybe not, but it isn’t going to get us off this island either.”
“I know what might,” I said, climbing onto a large boulder embedded along the edge of the cliff. Archie came over to join me and saw the same moonlit land I could see across the water. Trees, sand, bushes with old silvery mosses hanging from the branches — it was the way to get off the island. The strait of water was no wider than a small river, which somebody could swim across in about two minutes without a current. Not me, but somebody.
“It’s almost cruel how close that land is,” Archie said. “I know it looks like hope, but we still can’t touch the water.”
“We may not have to,” I said, pointing to a cove at the bottom of the rocky cliff, sheltering a pocket of water from the Sea. It even had a steep trail leading down to it and a patch of sand and trees nearby that almost glittered beneath the stars.
“That’s got to be the cave where they dug out the Everarc Crystal,” Archie said, seeing the same hope I did, bobbing in the water as a wave swept past. “That’s the only way there could be a boat in the water.”
I skidded down the sandy slope near the bridge with more optimism than I had left with. Archie wanted us to forget about the small carved boat, but I was eager to get back to Michael and West to tell them the news.
West met us before we got to Michael and immediately said, “You guys, I pulled the arrow out and wrapped his side as tightly as I could, but I don’t know anything else about healing. I just know he looks awful. We need to get him out of here.”
“We might be able to,” I said, but Archie cut me off before I could mention the narrow strait of water.
“Jesse will be getting back to the Dragona sometime soon,” Archie said. “As soon as he does, the mages will know to look for us and bring us home.”
“The mages won’t find us out here,” I said. “That Escali said so. That’s the only reason they didn’t follow us.”
“What do you mean he sai
d so?” West asked. “You must have the power to understand other languages, Allie. They were definitely speaking Escalira.”
“Maybe it is my power,” I said, “because I have no doubt that’s what I heard.”
We all whipped our heads back toward the beach as Michael shouted, “ESCALIS ON THE BRIDGE!”
The three of us swore quietly and ran back toward Michael to help. Archie was the only one with a real sword left. I didn’t know what I was going to do with just one short sword. I saw Michael, still against the tree, but I didn’t see any Escalis on the bridge. West quickly pulled a sheathed dagger from his pack and handed it to me. “You need it more than I do,” he said.
“Where are they?” I asked, quickly flinging the sheath to the ground.
“They’re not here,” Michael replied, holding his side. “I just don’t want you guys talking about me while I’m not there.”
I leaned against a tree and waited for my pulse to calm. West, however, shouted, “I hate you! Do that again, and I will push you into the water!”
“We found a boat,” I said before somebody else could make a retort. “And this island comes really close to the main shore on the south end.”
West, Michael, and Archie turned to look at me, instantly focused on my news. I could tell Archie still didn’t want to consider it a possibility, but West squinted skeptically and said, “I thought nobody could build boats in the Breathing Sea.”
“It’s in a cove,” Archie said. “We think it’s the Everarc Cave, otherwise the boat would have been demolished when something in the water caught sight of it.”
“But the fact that a boat is down there must mean something,” West said, sounding hopeful.
“Look look look look look!” Michael said, pointing back to where we had come from. This time when we looked, we actually saw a black falcon swiftly tearing through the air over the bridge, only visible because its wings blacked out a few stars at a time. It reached the island where it clearly saw us, then swept in a tight circle to fly back toward land on exactly the same route.