by Alan Black
CHAPTER FIVE
Perched high on a rough rock, he looked back and saw Durrban and Gadon on a boulder. They waved at him and pointed upward.
The available light made it difficult to see the path they were trying to point out. A shallow ledge from where he was standing angled back and upward to a point midway between them. Tanden couldn’t see a way to make progress beyond that point. Unfortunately, he also couldn’t see another alternate route from where he stood.
He turned back to continue to where he had left I-Sheera. Looking down, he saw her standing below him patiently waiting to be noticed. She had gone back to her flimsy skirt and loose flowing top. She tied the top closed with a strip of cloth torn from around the waist. The cloth held it firmly in place. She carried her bundled robe tied on her back, leaving her hands free.
“Well?” he asked.
She pointed at the water already lapping at her toes. “I was running out of dry places to stand. I didn’t know what else to do, so I came looking for you.” I-Sheera seemed to want to say something else, but she refrained.
“And?”
“Sir?”
“And what?”
With a deep breath, she said, “And I was afraid that you had left me to drown. Please, Captain Tanden, help me up?”
I-Sheera thrust her hands up to Tanden with an imploring gesture. Squatting down, he grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her up beside him.
He said, “We must climb, or we drown.”
I-Sheera nodded in acceptance, turning to face the rock wall before them. She gingerly reached forward and grabbed a small outcropping of rock with her right hand. She gave the rock a quick tug and swung forward to jam the left toe of her dainty slippers into a small crevice. Scanning the area above her head, she put her left hand on the rim of a ledge. With a fluid motion, she put her right foot on the same small rock outcropping as her right hand and shifted her right hand to the ledge above. Without pausing, she pulled herself upward until both feet had small toeholds on the same rock. Pushing upward with her legs, I-Sheera kept her body close to the rock wall and her palms flat against the face of the cliff. Her fingers danced across the rock, looking for a handhold anywhere above the ledge she was on.
Her agility and strength surprised Tanden. He expected to see her flimsy skirt hamper her movements or become twisted and end up bundled around her waist. He noticed the servant girl had transformed the skirt into pants by ripping long slits up the front and back. Smaller strips of cloth tied the front and back edges together forming billowy leggings. Her ingenuity pleased him, though the result somewhat disappointed him as it afforded him less to look at than he would have liked. He continued watching as I-Sheera’s hands found a much larger handhold above the ledge. She slithered upward until she was standing on the ledge above Tanden. She glanced down at him.
He smiled and gestured upward along the ledge toward the two crewmen who were even now beginning the ascent up the face of the cliff.
“Ah!” I-Sheera cried in obvious delight at seeing the other two men.”
“Gadon and Durrban survived also,” Tanden said.
“Good. I like Gadon. He’s a funny man.”
Tanden was surprised. I-Sheera seemed to take a perverse pleasure in seeking out the heavyset first mate for many spectacular verbal barrages. Without further comment, she began working her way easily along the ledge. Her slippers moved quickly in a sidestepping motion. Tanden looked at his thin-soled shipboard boots. They had hard uppers and thin flexible soles as opposed to the thick-soled boots he normally wore when he was ashore. His boots were too bulky for the task ahead, but he would need them once he reached the top of the cliff.
He thought, “If I reach the top. I’ve spent the last few years letting others climb the rigging of my ships and while I do occasionally load cargo, I’m not getting any younger. I’m strong enough, but I’m not as limber as I used to be. Would it be better to drown here without the effort or climb almost to the top and then fall backdown to drown? No, the fall on the rocks would probably kill me.”
He shook his head as if shaking away unwelcome visions. “If anyone ever heard my self-doubts they wouldn’t follow me to the dinner table. Look at the girl, you fool. She has more courage than you. Get up and get moving.”
As he berated himself, Tanden sat down and removed his boots. He tore a long strip from the bottom of one pant leg to tie the boots together and placed them around his neck so they hung down his back. He stood, flexed at the knees, leaped upward, and grabbed the ledge I-Sheera stood on with both hands. Using his momentum from the leap, he pulled himself up to get a foot on the ledge. Balancing on one leg and pushing upward, he found himself standing upright in short order.
Being taller than I-Sheera, he found the hand holds above the ledge quite accessible. The ledge was wider than it looked from below. He was able to put the length of his feet on it. He looked over to see the girl traveling quickly along the ledge, scooting her feet along without raising them off the ledge except to step gingerly over rough spots or an occasional gap. She only slowed to search for new handholds.
Below him, he saw the tide was rising fast. The water was almost halfway up the boulder he had just quit. “No going back now,” he said to himself, “as if there ever was.”
Tanden shivered, certain it was due to the chill settling over him, because he was wet and in the shadows of the cliff. He hoped it did not indicate the coming of night air. He had lost track of the time. They needed to reach the top of the cliff before nightfall to survive. They were all too tired, cold, and hungry to have the strength left for such a task. Tanden was sure Durrban could list more reasons than being tired, cold, and hungry. After all, he was close enough to listen to Gadon’s constant complaints.
Despite it all, Tanden would make every effort to succeed until he died. He could not face his adopted father if he lived and failed. The guilt of failure was too great a burden to carry even into the next life.
Tanden attempted to twist around far enough to look out over the bay. From this vantage point, he hoped he might be able to see Tuller, Seenger, or Alton. There was a possibility they might still be alive. If they were late in reaching the coast at this point, the incoming tide would probably push them against the rocks and pull them under before they could gain a handhold on the cliffs. He also hoped to see the White Wind. Her tall sails might not have gone over the horizon due to the high incoming tide in the wide bay. He could not twist far enough. His broad upper torso prevented him from turning without unbalancing his stand on the narrow ledge.
“Gods,” he asked in supplication, “protect my men.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “and me.” It was foolish to pray to six lifeless rocky moons, but where else could a man without magic send his supplications? He had been a pagan long before he heard of science and old habits die hard.
Following I-Sheera along the ledge, he imitated her movements. In no time at all, he was warmed by the exertion. The mixture of sweat and the seawater from his damp trousers formed a cloud of steam around him.
“At least,” he thought, “it’ll take the chill out of my body.”
Tanden looked down at the surf crashing onto the rocks below. The incoming tide raged against the half-submerged boulders.
His arms were tired.
His feet hurt.
His back ached.
He was almost too physically tired to continue climbing the sea cliff, but inside he was boiling mad. His ship had been stolen, her cargo taken, and his passengers killed or kidnapped. He, his loyal crewmen, and a passenger’s maid were tossed into the sea to drown or swim to the distant shore to face an uncertain death by savages or wild animals.
Tanden climbed, forcing his tired body forward.
The skinny servant girl outdistanced him. They were still moving along the thin ledge, an outcropping wide enough to stand on, but so narrow it forced them to move along in a sidestepping shuffle. She reached a peak in the ledge that reversed direction slanti
ng downward. She moved like a veteran sailor climbing aloft in familiar rigging. Tanden followed as fast as he could, though he felt like he was lumbering along like a ship's lad going aloft for the first time.
Reaching the midway point on the upsloping portion of the ledge, Tanden looked up to see I-Sheera looking back at him. She had reached a wide place on the upper ledge. “Keep going,” he commanded the girl. “Find and follow the path Gadon and Durrban took. If you rest now, you might not get moving again. You have the strength and speed, girl. Gadon will help you to the top when you catch up to him.” Without hesitation, she turned and continued climbing.
Tanden noticed I-Sheera was moving slower, possibly from fatigue, but her pace was still faster than he could manage. His boots were rubbing a raw spot on his back as they swung freely with each move. Quitting now would mean falling into the raging sea and certain death. Tanden wasn’t ready to die yet, so he climbed.
Tanden reached the point where the ledge reversed direction, forcing I-Sheera to traverse back as she moved to the slightly wider place on the upper ledge. He did not see any readily available handholds to climb vertically. He would have to follow the girl’s downward slanting path. If reaching the top of the sea cliff was the goal, moving back down did not make sense, but there was no other path.
Moving downward should have been much easier physically, but strangely, down was just as difficult. Tanden wasn’t able to see each foothold or handhold. He found each purchase in the rocks by touch alone.
Finally, he reached the wide spot on the ledge. The small shelf was large enough for two men to stand closely side-by-side. He stretched and twisted, not daring to sit, afraid his muscles would cramp up before he drew his first breath.
He looked out over the empty sea to see the shadow of the cliffs racing eastward as the sun was setting. He, and what remained of his crew, had only a short while before they lost all light. This climb was difficult enough in the daylight. It would be impossible in the dark.
Tanden remained standing on the ragged shelf for several seconds easing the knots out of his weary muscles. The shelf was not a cave exactly, just a place where a chunk of the cliff had broken off and fallen into the sea. I-Sheera had passed it by. Tanden could do no less than to keep moving after her. Climbing up a short distance, he followed along another ledge, little more than a crack in the rock face. With his greater strength and longer stride, he should have caught up to her, but her smaller size enabled her to move easier and faster. Tanden forced himself to stay focused on his task. He constantly strained to watch every step, every handhold, to double-check every rock and piece of ledge. I-Sheera was only half his weight. What held her might send him crashing into the sea below. He was careful not to step with his full weight until he was sure there were no sharp pebbles under his bare feet.
Looking down again, he saw the water now fully covered every rock below.
He continued forward. His downward slant shifted and he began ascending again. By the time the upward slant of the ledge brought him to about a quarter of the way up the cliff, his forward progress put him about two-thirds of the way to where he had last seen Gadon and Durrban. Tanden glanced upward toward I-Sheera, surprised again to see she was still quite a distance ahead of him. Due to the ever-increasing upward slope, she was in an area a bit higher than he was on the ledge.
“Girl,” he shouted. “How close are you to Gadon and Durrban?”
Before she could answer, Gadon said, “You’re closer than she is.”
Tanden looked straight up to see Gadon leaning over a ledge, staring down at him about thirty feet above.
Gadon said, “I wish you’d hurry. I’m not liking this cliff at all, even if we have found a shallow gap to rest on for a bit. You’ve been lagging behind all day.” He looked behind him and said, “Durrban, someday we need to find a captain to follow who isn’t so clumsy and slow.”
Tanden replied, “Ha. I beat you to the shore with a woman in tow.”
“Sure,” Gadon said, “now he’s going to brag that he’s so irresistible to women that they’ll follow him anywhere. But Tanden, my valiant captain, it looks to me like you’re following the woman, not the other way around.”
I-Sheera shouted, changing the subject, “We can’t move forward too much farther. This path becomes too steep.”
Tanden said, “Hold on a moment, girl. Gadon, are you able to move upward from where you’re resting on your fat butt?”
“Fat, he says!” Gadon said to no one in particular. “That’s gratitude. I risk my life to sail the world with him. I could be home with a big bowl of my mother’s goat stew and one of Uncle Rollen’s beers. But where does he lead me? I’m here on a cold, hard rock. I’m only resting because I’m waiting on you. You going to take all day?”
Tanden said nothing and Gadon continued to complain. He could tell by the way Gadon’s voice faded, grew stronger, and faded again that his friend was searching the rock face above them.
Durrban was out of sight. He said, “Here, Gadon, then there, and there and then there.”
Gadon’s answered, “Yes. I see it, then, across to that crack, from there we should be able to climb up that chimney looking thing. Yes. That’s best. Tanden, are you still there or have you fallen off?”
Tanden said, “I was just napping.”
Gadon responded, “I knew it, Durrban. Here we are doing all of the hard work and Tanden is relaxing again. Tanden, if you can reach this location we can point the way to the top.”
Tanden shouted, “I-Sheera, can you see a way to reach Gadon’s perch?”
“Yes, sir. We’ll have to leave this ledge. If we climb straight up from here, we can go above where they are now and then angle back toward them. That is, if it pleases you, Captain.”
At this last phrase, Tanden looked up to see both Gadon and Durrban staring down at him, eyes wide as if to ask, “What have you done to that girl?”
Tanden tried to ignore their looks. “Don’t wait for us. This light may fade fast. We may not reach the top if we don’t get there before last light.” Tanden cut off Gadon’s complaint, “Do it, Gadon. Get up and get going. Stopping is failing. You know that as well as I do. Move, now!”
“Yes, sir,” Gadon said with a mock salaam.
Tanden instantly regretted snapping back at Gadon. He had been talking as much to himself as to the men. He wasn’t able to bring himself to call out to them and explain. His weaknesses were his own to bear. Gadon would forgive and forget far quicker than Tanden would forgive himself.
Taking his own commands to hand, Tanden moved again along the ledge to where the girl had stood. It became steeper as he edged sideways. His bare toes began to cramp as he tried to clamp them to the ledge to hold his footing. When he reached a spot directly below I-Sheera, he started his vertical ascent. He could see the path the others had taken, following it with his eyes to the bottom of a long crack shooting vertically to the cliff’s top. Durrban was right. They had not been able to see it from below, but it looked like a chimney.
Gadon and Durrban had already reached the bottom of the chimney and were beginning a slow ascent. The chimney looked easier to climb than what they had accomplished to this point, but they were tiring and slowing. They needed to reach the top before their bodies gave in to the strain of the day. Tanden believed his men would make the top with daylight to spare if they kept up their pace. I-Sheera, with her greater speed, would reach the top shortly after them. Tanden’s pace was too slow, he would not make it to the top before dark.
He could backtrack and try to spend the night at the wide spot on the ledge or reach the shallow place where Gadon and Durrban had sat. However, even if the night was warm, he was fifty-five or sixty feet above the sea. The dampness would set into his fatigued muscles and he would be too stiff to move in the morning. Instead of backtracking, he continued upward.
After a few steps, he realized this area of the cliff was not as steep an angle as it appeared. It slanted back away from the se
a. His balance wasn’t as precarious as before. He found the few degrees off vertical quite refreshing. He was no longer forced to constantly struggle for balance. Climbing with increased speed and vigor, he raced to beat the setting sun.
The path laid out by Durrban was easy to follow once you knew where you were going. Tanden did not have any trouble moving from handhold to handhold. He continued to be careful not to slip, but he realized he no longer needed to test every handhold as carefully as before. Each of these rocks and crevices had held Gadon, Durrban, and I-Sheera, so they should hold him, or so he told himself until a handhold gave way as he grasped it. Fortunately, Tanden had not yet put his weight it. His emotions cried out to slow down, but logic told him he must continue on even faster, or he would die alone in the dark.
The bottom of the chimney came none too quickly to suit Tanden. There was no place to rest at the bottom, but he could see the uneven handholds going up the crack. He looked up, fully expecting the men to be at the top. All he could see was I-Sheera silhouetted against the dark rock—she was not moving.
Tanden shouted up to the woman, “Girl? Why have you stopped?”
“Gadon has stopped above me.”
Gadon called out, “And Durrban above me.”
Tanden shouted, “Durrban. Move it. We don’t have time to dally. Can’t you see we’re losing the sun?”
Durrban’s voice floated down to him, sounding frightened and overly tired, “I can’t go higher, Captain. There’s a ten-foot gap above me with no handholds.”
Gadon added, “It’s true, Tanden. I can see beyond him. The crack is as smooth as a skinned salt eel. Oh, what a life I’ve led. This isn’t where I want to die. We have to turn back. Maybe we can pass the night in that little cave. I know it would be uncomfortable—”
Tanden interrupted. “No. There isn’t time to get back before we lose our light. Prepare yourselves to let me climb past you.”
He began to climb. The chimney was thin enough that the best speed he could make was climbing with one hand and one foot on each side. He climbed crab-like, moving from side to side, with his back to the sea.