Fink tried to wiggle off me. “No, Jaron. Please don’t.”
“Yes, Fink. Close your eyes if you must.”
Kippenger entered the ridge first and swiped at me with his sword. It stung my arm but I was already running. With Fink on my back and screaming in my ear, I ran off the side of the ledge and into thin air.
Over the history of my life, the stupidest thing I had ever attempted was at age seven, when I tested the power of an old trebuchet against a standing target on castle grounds. Darius and I had just had a lesson on how catapults work, and I was curious. However, my aim was off and instead of hitting the target, the boulder put a hole through the roof of my father’s private apartments. Fortunately, the rooms were empty at the time apart from one unlucky servant who saved his life by diving through a latrine into the fetid waters below.
It had been the stupidest thing I’d ever done, that is, until I ran off a cliff with Fink’s arms around my neck and a rope knotted around my waist. In the last second before I jumped, it occurred to me that I hadn’t verified if the knot binding the rope to the tree was tied tightly enough, or how long the rope even was. Would Fink and I crash into the floor of the valley before the rope pulled tight?
However, I had Vargan’s men chasing me, so my fate was certain if we didn’t jump. I only hoped if this failed that my death would be quick. I hated pain.
As it turned out, the saints may have listened when I begged for their help before. Or at least, we didn’t crash to the valley floor. But the devils certainly had their fun with me when we met the length of the rope.
The first thing I felt was the rope pulling tight against my waist and then cinching like a noose against my rib cage. The next sensation was Fink’s arms locked against my throat. It was the only way he could hold on when I jumped, but he was choking me nonetheless. From there, we collided into the side of the cliff wall. I took the brunt of it with my shoulder, which was hardly helpful in keeping hold of the rope — the one thing still keeping us from falling any farther. The rope had been wrapped two or three times around my waist, but no longer. Once we hit the cliff wall, only then did I realize my palms were stinging with rope burn.
We were alive, but our troubles were far from over. We were about halfway down the cliff wall — too high to jump down and too dangerous to climb up. Several of my men had seen what we did and were shouting cries of alarm from below. Overhead, Vargan realized he had been spotted. But I felt vibrations on the rope from above and knew they wouldn’t leave until they had done their best to ruin my escape, such as it was.
“Grab on to the wall!” I yelled to Fink. “They’re cutting the rope!”
I rotated his body in front of mine, then braced against the wall while he transferred his weight from me to the rock. Once he did, I got myself in a better position, but as I moved, the rope from above us fell. I would’ve gone with it if Fink didn’t have his foot tucked around my weaker right leg.
Vargan peered over the edge. “I’m told you haven’t climbed since returning from the pirates. You’ll fall from there.”
I didn’t answer. It took enough of my concentration not to make any move that proved him right.
Vargan growled at me, but by then my archers were taking aim at him and he had no choice but to run. I yelled down that Carthya needed to gather for a quick retreat. I had seen Vargan’s army. We were no match for their numbers.
Orders were shouted in all directions below me, but one voice rose higher than the others. Mott.
“We’ll get you both down from there. Hold on!” he yelled.
“Their army is coming,” I cried. “Go!”
But Mott ignored me and instead called out for help from climbers who could get up to me. It was humiliating. Before Roden had broken my leg, I could’ve scaled this wall in minutes. Now, I was frozen upon it.
I twisted enough to reach a second, smaller knife attached to my boot, and then used it on the rope tying Fink’s hands. Once they were free, he was able to get a stronger grip on the wall, though his knuckles were white and his face was showing the strain on his muscles.
“Listen to me,” I said to Fink. “Climbing up is one thing, but most falling happens on the way down. Every move you make is important. You don’t get to be stupid when stepping down, not even once.”
“Stupid?” Fink cried. “Like jumping off a cliff? Because that’s a really, really big step down, Jaron!”
He was still too panicked to make safe choices. The wall directly below us was too smooth for us to scale down, and the climbers could never get up to rescue us. Far to our right was a tree rooted into the cliff. It wasn’t thick, but it would handle our weight. I still had my end of the rope that I’d used to jump. If I tied it to the tree trunk, it’d get us pretty close to the floor.
I cocked my head at the tree. “That’s where we’re going.” Then I called down to Mott. “I am ordering your retreat! Vargan is bringing his army right into this valley. We’ll be trapped if you don’t get out!”
“Nobody is leaving you!” Mott yelled back.
It put a terrible strain on my shoulders, but I swung around as far as I dared. Although we were at some distance from each other, I tried to make Mott see the earnestness in my face. “Leave,” I told him. “Mott, these are my orders. Make everyone go or they will die. I’ll find a way down.”
This time, Mott nodded. He joined the others who were issuing orders and directed the commanders to move our men out of the valley and away from the lake. Once he had them in motion, he returned to the base of the cliff and called back, “Now you have your way. But I will not leave until you’re with me.”
It was my turn to nod back to him. I handed the rope to Fink and told him what to do if I fell. I hoped my arms and my left leg could keep me on the cliff to move horizontally, but that wasn’t certain. My muscles were significantly weakened from the old injury to my leg and my imprisonment in Vargan’s camp. My hands stung from the jump just now and my shoulder throbbed worse than it should have. I truly didn’t know if I could keep myself up here.
So we took each move slowly. I avoided putting any weight on my right leg, and chose my holds carefully. Then I gave Fink specific instructions for each hold he must make. That was the harder part since he was smaller and didn’t have my reach. We were unimpressive in our speed, but at least we were moving. With a little patience and a great deal of endurance, we would reach the tree. And once there, it would be a simple matter to tie off the rope and slide down to the floor.
But nothing in my life was ever simple. And this time, it wasn’t only me who would suffer. Beyond the well of this valley, exactly where my retreating army would be, the sounds of a great battle had begun. Vargan’s army had met them. We had failed to retreat in time.
Mott was aware of it too, and urged us to get off the cliff as quickly as possible. I pushed Fink to move a little faster, but his muscles were already shaking against the strain. I tried to distract him, asking how he had come to be captured by Vargan.