The Crown of Bones (The Fae War Chronicles Book 2)

by Jocelyn Fox

  “That would be a correct assumption,” I replied. “We’re mostly just damp by this point, but some extra bandages would be appreciated.”

  “Sit.” Luca pointed to a rock.

  “This would be the perfect time to make some clever comment about how well-trained and obedient I am,” I said, making myself comfortable on the boulder.

  “From what I’ve seen, you have a bit of a stubborn streak, so I don’t know about obedient,” Luca murmured, kneeling by my leg. “I’m just going to add to what’s already here. No sense in unwrapping it and starting the bleeding again.”

  A roll of bandages soared overhead and Finnead caught it in one hand, tossing it to Luca.

  “Good catch!” said Forin exultantly.

  I hissed through my teeth as Luca began working. He wrapped my thigh quickly, drawing the bandages so tight that a wave of pain threatened to overwhelm me. But I forced it down and as he worked on the second fresh layer, the pain receded to an ache again. When he finished, I stood and experimentally put my weight on it. It hurt, no doubt about it, but with the added wrapping it was bearable.

  I might need your help if my leg gives out halfway up, I said silently to the Caedbranr. I felt its power stir and then a tingle as it sent a questing tendril down to my leg. I waited for a reply but instead a wash of coolness radiated from inside my thigh, as if my bones had been turned to ice. I closed my eyes and sighed at the relief of the hot ache of the claw-marks. The iciness intensified until it was almost painful in itself, and then it retreated. Luca made a sound of wonder. I opened my eyes and looked down. Patterns of frost painted crystalline whorls on the bandage, glimmering in the sunlight. I experimentally touched my thigh, and it was numb—so numb that I could put my entire weight on it without feeling anything at all. I raised myself onto my tip-toes, and then crouched down. Still nothing. I jumped, pushing myself into the air with all my strength, and felt only the slightest twinge.

  It will not last forever, so you should start climbing, the Caedbranr commented in my head.

  Thanks for not giving me frostbite, I thought back. Out loud, I said, “The Sword helped me out a bit.”

  Luca raised his eyebrows. “A bit?” He turned and looked at Finnead, who only shrugged slightly.

  “Let’s get this show on the road,” I said.

  We debated for a moment whether to tie a climber’s chair out of the rope, but Forin was adamant that there was not enough length to spare, and so I settled for tying a double-eight knot after running the rope through my belt. “Well, if my belt breaks, I’m screwed,” I said matter-of-factly.

  “It is good Sidhe leather. It will not break,” Finnead said.

  “Will you do the honors, please, Forin and Farin.” I turned and faced the imposing cliff wall, trying to ignore the nervousness jangling in the pit of my stomach like a hundred tiny bells. My fingertips tingled, anticipating the feel of the rock against my skin. The distance to the first tree was probably greater than the entire climbing wall from top to bottom at our college gymnasium. And I’d never climbed—really climbed—outdoors. I ran through the basics in my head but my thoughts were so jumbled that I shook my hands out, loose-wristed, like before a race, and started saying them out loud. “Keep your hips close to the wall. Try to keep three points of contact. Use your legs to push and your arms to stabilize.”

  “All set,” Farin reported.

  “Don’t look down,” Luca said to me.

  “Was that meant to be encouraging?” I said breathily with half a smile. “I recall you telling me that once before, and it didn’t turn out quite too well.”

  “We’re all here, aren’t we?” he pointed out. “That says to me that it turned out quite well indeed.”

  “Right.” I walked up to the cliff wall, tested the knot in the rope one more time, and looked for my first set of holds. “Get to the first tree,” I told myself.

  “Come on then, Tess-mortal,” Farin cajoled. “We haven’t got all day.”

  I smiled a little, even with my knees turning to water at the prospect of climbing up this damn cliff. I could always count on the Glasidhe to lighten the mood.

  “Tess,” said Finnead.

  I looked over my shoulder, met his steady sapphire eyes.

  “You will be fine,” he said firmly. “Now climb.”

  I nodded and turned back to the rock, and fit my hands into the first holds.

  It turned out that I remembered more about climbing than I thought I did, or that becoming the Bearer had imbued me with some uncanny cliff-scaling skills—or maybe both, because after a few shaky moments in the very beginning, I started to find a rhythm. Find a hold for the left foot, find a hold for the right hand, push up, switch sides and repeat. Before I knew it, I was level with the first tree. “Now for the tricky part,” I said to Forin.

  “Hold still,” he replied, industriously untying the rope from around the trunk of the first tree. I studied the rock in front of my face, marveling at the veins of rosy quartz running through the grayish white layers, acutely aware of just how tenuous my position was as Forin tied the rope around the second tree. The barest suggestion of an ache took hold in my leg, but I brushed it away easily and resumed climbing as soon as Forin finished anchoring the rope to the next tree.

  The wind picked up a bit as I pulled myself higher and higher, plucking at my sleeves and ruffling my hair. I kept my breathing steady and measured. My fingertips began to sting from the scrape of rock upon my skin, and I felt my shirt beginning to stick to the back of my neck as I began to sweat. I forced myself to focus only on the rock face within an arm’s-reach of me. As I tested a ledge with my toe, I felt it shift and barely managed to transfer my weight to my other foot before the rock crumbled, leaving me clinging to the cliff with two hands, balanced on my bad leg. The muscles in my wounded leg began to quiver. I glanced up quickly and saw that I was almost to the second anchor-point. Swinging my right leg up, I found a toe-hold almost level with my waist. I grimaced as my hamstring ached in protest of the deep stretch and looked for the next handhold that would let me stand up on my right leg, breathing deeply. I saw a little jutting shelf that would be a perfect handhold, but it was a few feet too high to reach. I would have to push myself up on my right leg and grab for the next handhold with my left hand at the same time. If I didn’t catch hold of the ledge, I would probably lose my balance and fall—and there was a good amount of rope played out, since I was almost to the second anchor point.

  “Forin,” I gritted out.

  “Yes, Lady Bearer?” He hovered near my shoulder.

  “Can you take out the slack in the rope, please? See if you can….loop it around the tree, or something.” My arms and legs were beginning to tire from being locked in the same position for so long. One of the keys to successful climbing was to keep moving, avoiding cramps and fatigue by staying dynamic. I felt a tug on the rope as Forin took out the slack.

  “It is done!” he reported to me from above me.

  “Thanks,” I said shortly. I took a deep breath, fixed my eyes on the hold for my left hand, crouched down just a bit and pushed off hard with my left leg, pulling with my right arm and extending my right leg at the same time. My body was launched up the side of the cliff and I reached up with my left hand, straining to catch hold of the ledge before my upward momentum slowed too much. As soon as my fingers brushed the ledge I grabbed it—and not a moment too soon, as gravity began pulling me back down. I let out the breath I hadn’t known I was holding and found a slight hold for my left toe—not enough to put much weight on, but enough to help me keep my balance as I found a higher hold for my right hand.

  I made it to the second anchor point without having to pull any more stunts. “Well done,” said Forin approvingly as he untied the rope from the tree. I was concentrating too hard on keeping my balance to do anything more than give a wordless noise of agreement.

  “More than halfway there,” Farin said in encouragement, patting my ear as she and her twin returne
d from tying the rope to the third tree. I glanced up and thought to myself that it still seemed like a long way up, and there was an overhang at the very top that was going to be an absolute bitch to climb.

  “You can do this,” I said to myself, and the Sword agreed, sending another little spark of cold to my leg. Gwyneth’s pendant heated slightly at my throat, as if to add its voice to my self-motivation.

  By the time I reached the third tree, my leg was aching fiercely, and sweat slid down my back as I craned my neck, trying to see the best place to attack the top of the cliff. It took Forin and Farin a long time to return from ferrying the rope up to Vell, leaving me clinging to the rock face, panting. If it took Finnead and Luca half as long as me to climb, one of them would be climbing in the dark, I thought to myself, watching the shadows creep across the rocks, striating the cliff in gray and black, punctuated by golden bars of sunlight. The rushing of the Darinwel was muted beneath the whistle of the wind. I shivered as the wind pushed my damp shirt against my skin.

  “Last stretch!” piped Farin.

  “Vell has the rope?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

  “Would we let you climb if she did not?” Farin replied indignantly.

  I chuckled. “It’s not as if I have a choice. Up or down, and I’m definitely not interested in the down option.”

  “Then go up!” said Farin, pushing at my ear as if to prod me upward.

  “Up and away,” I agreed, finding my next toe-hold. When I moved my hand, I noticed a slight red stain on the rock.

  “Your fingertips are bleeding,” Farin informed me.

  I tried unsuccessfully to shake an errant strand of hair out of my face with a flick of my chin. “Yes, I can see that.” Farin swooped in close to my cheek and tucked the sweat-damp strand behind my ear. “Thanks.”

  “Up, up, up!” Farin prodded my ear again.

  With a small smile, I obeyed the Glasidhe scout, steadily working my way up the cliff, encouraging myself with the thought that this was the last portion of the climb. Never mind my quivering muscles and the sweat sliding down the curve of my back and the rawness of my bleeding fingertips; at the top of this climb were Vell and Merrick and the new ulfdrengr Chael. And Luca’s wolf Kianryk. And the faster I climbed, the faster that Luca and Finnead would join us at the top. My forearms burned from clinging to the rock face by my fingers, and the strength in my left leg was beginning to be tenuous at best. I felt the rope tighten as Vell took out the slack, and the tension heartened me. If I fell, I would only crash against the rock face, not fall and then crash—closer to the consequences of falling while climbing indoors. It still wouldn’t be pretty and might earn me a serious injury, but there was less chance of, as Vell had so eloquently described it, bashing my brains out.

  “Come on then, almost there!” Farin’s small hands patted my shoulder, her touch light as a feather. When I paused to catch my breath, she busily massaged my tight calves, taking me by surprise; but I let her work on the muscles for a moment.

  “Thanks,” I breathed.

  “I cannot imagine what it would be like not to have wings,” Farin replied, as if that were explanation enough.

  Forin began helping me find hand-holds and foot-holds as I neared the top of the cliff. The rocks were becoming smaller and smoother, taxing my already-tired muscles.

  “Just to the left, there,” he directed me. “A little more—no, too far—” He took my wrist in two hands and directed my grasp. I found the little ledge and gritted my teeth, barely able to fit three fingertips onto it.

  “Is there a better one?” I panted.

  Forin industriously studied the surrounding rocks. “No.”

  I took a deep breath and pulled myself up. It felt as though my fingers were going to fall off. A lance of pain shot through my left leg and I faltered. Farin hovered anxiously.

  “Three or four more reaches, and you’re there!” Forin told me.

  I wanted to tell Vell to put more tension on the rope so that I could maybe lean back against it a little, but then I remembered I wasn’t wearing a harness, I just had the rope tied to my belt; and on top of that, the pressure of the rope against the rock at the edge of the cliff would undoubtedly weaken it for Luca and Finnead. Snapped belt or frayed rope—neither of those sounded like good results, so I clenched my jaw and let Forin help me with the next hand hold. I fought a sudden obscene urge to glance down the cliff face.

  “Now it is going to be harder,” Forin told me. I looked up and traced the gradual overhang of the cliff with my eyes. It wasn’t very severe, but it was enough that I knew it was going to be a challenge, especially at the end of the longest climb I’d ever completed in my entire short rock-climbing career. I eyed the angle of the rope, debating whether I could work some sort of reverse-rappel. If I pushed off from the cliff face and Vell pulled, I could probably be halfway up the remaining distance before I started my swing back toward the cliff face. There was no way I was going to make it free-climbing.

  “Is the rope rubbing against any rock on the edge?” I asked.

  “Dirt and grass,” Forin replied.

  I outlined the plan for him, talking as quickly as I was able. My legs shook and my arms ached. “The trick,” I finished, gulping in a breath, “is going to be the timing. Vell can’t start hauling on the rope until just after I’ve pushed off or else I’m probably going to hit the side of the cliff.”

  Forin shot up the side of the cliff and disappeared over the top. I eyed the overhang again. There was probably only twenty feet to the top of the cliff. My war-markings twinged with a spark of the Sword’s power. “I don’t suppose you can give me the power to levitate,” I muttered to it. Its amusement vibrated through my bones.

  “Lady Vell says she understands. I will give her the word. She is ready when you are,” Forin reported. “I will watch you from above.”

  I nodded. “Okay.” I looked up at the Glasidhe warrior. “Forin?”

  He turned back toward me, pausing in his upward flight. “Yes, Lady Bearer?”

  “Please don’t screw this up.”

  Forin saluted me gravely and positioned himself at the top of cliff. I took a deep breath and slowly put more and more of my weight onto the rope. My belt creaked but held, digging into my hips. “Count it out for me, Farin.”

  “One.”

  I clenched my jaw.

  “Two.”

  I bent my knees, crouching as close to the cliff as I could.

  “Three!”

  I pushed off the rocks as hard as I could and heard Forin shout to Vell. The rope jerked and pulled and I was rushing up past the overhang, still swinging away from the rock face. As I felt my momentum shift, I tucked my elbows into my ribs and used my forearms to protect my chest and face, reminiscent of a boxer protecting himself from his opponent’s strike. Vell stopped pulling on the rope at just the right moment. I landed on my good leg, the shock rippling up through my bones, just on the edge of pain, managing to keep my upper body from slamming against the rocks. Breathing hard, I found footholds and handholds and looked up. The face of the cliff was only a body’s-length above me. I pulled myself up toward it, and suddenly a face appeared over the edge.

  Vell extended her hand to me, her golden eyes dancing. “Come on then, my little cliff-climber,” she said.

  I hesitated.

  “Merrick’s holding my legs, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she informed me.

  I was too tired to grin but I reached up and took her hand. She pulled while I found another foothold and pushed. As soon as she could reach, she hooked her arms under mine and pulled me up in a sort of bear hug. I scrabbled up over the edge and rolled to one side, panting. I laid on the solid ground and stared up at the marbled-blue sky, chest heaving, not quite believing that I had climbed the cliff out of the gorge.

  “You made it!” crowed Farin delightedly. “That was most excellent!”

  “That was….most….terrifying,” I managed, barely able to speak as all my pe
nt-up fear coursed through me. My bones felt as soft as butter and all my joints felt loose, like a marionette whose strings were cut. I felt something tugging at my belt and I raised my head enough to see Merrick busily untying the knot in the rope, his long fingers working industriously. He knew how to untie the tight knot, I noticed with interest, working it between his hands to “break the back” of the knot and feed one side through.

  “Forin thinks the sirens may be in pursuit,” Farin informed me.

  “What?” I sat up, barely missing knocking heads with Merrick. The Sidhe scout sat back and unthreaded the rope from my belt. Stars danced in my eyes. I blinked hastily and took a deep breath.

  “There is something moving beneath the water. Something big. Something fast,” Farin elaborated.

  I swore under my breath, scrambling to my knees. Vell tested the string on her bow as Merrick finished tying the rope to the tail end of one of her green-fletched arrows. The rest of the rope was coiled neatly on the ground. Forin and Farin disappeared over the edge of the cliff with the bitter end held between them to tie it to the first anchor point. I opened my mouth to tell them to hurry but then shut it again; Vell and Merrick moved with intense and practiced focus. My words weren’t going to spur them to any greater speed. Vell nocked the arrow to her bow and stepped to the edge of the cliff, gazing coolly down to the riverbank. She drew the arrow back in a smooth, practiced motion, the green fletching brushing her pale cheek, her golden eyes intent on her target. The arrow left her bow, arcing into the blue of the sky, the rope snaking out behind it like the tangible tail of a small slim comet.

  I stood, my legs shaking, and edged toward Vell. The plunging cliff looked almost harmless, tufts of grass and pebbles studding the ground until the very edge. Even then, it looked as though it could be just a steep hill, until I got close enough to glimpse the dizzying drop. A wave of vertigo washed over me and I shut my eyes tightly, taking a deep breath. I just climbed that. It made no sense to be afraid of it, when I’d conquered it with my own hands. I felt a tug on my belt and opened my eyes in surprise. Merrick stood beside me with a firm grip on my belt.