James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"I hate getting wet," Tarrin growled.

"I do too," she said. "It's a race thing."

Jesmind went first, since she weighed less than Tarrin. But not much. The planks groaned considerably as she put her weight on them, but they held. The ropes creaked just as loudly, but they too held. "Come on," she said after she was about a quarter of the way across.

"Is that wise?" he asked.

"The support ropes are strong enough," she said. "So long as we're far enough apart, it'll be just fine."

Tarrin put one padded foot on the first plank, and he winced when it creaked ominously as he put weight on it. He kept both paws on the handrails as he gingerly stepped out onto the bridge, moving with the sure-footed caution for whom that cats were famous. Tarrin realized that he had absolutely no fear of the height. It was the fear of the bridge breaking out from under him that made him go so slow.

After he was about halfway across, Tarrin suddenly stopped. He realized one simple thing. That this was the perfect opportunity to separate himself from Jesmind. With the Scar between them, she would have to find another bridge to get back across, and that would give him enough of a lead on her to get away.

Tarrin agonized over it for several seconds. He didn't want to leave her. He was afraid that she would be angry with him for his treachery. No, he was sure of that. But the single thought of Jesmind's skin charred and her hair on fire strengthened his resolve. It was for her own good as much as his.

With her back to him, Jesmind didn't see Tarrin flex out his claws, grab the rail rope securely with his other paw, and then shear through the rail with his claws.

The rail snapped like a broken bowstring, popping back towards the walls of the ravine and breaking guideropes that secured the support ropes to the rope lattice holding the footplanks. The floor fell out from under both of them, and Jesmind wildly managed to get her paw on the unbroken support rope, which sagged and suddenly groaned loudly from the sudden extra weight. Tarrin flexed out the claws on his foot, and, holding the support rope with both paws, he set his claws of his foot against it and pushed. They ripped through the sturdy hemp easily, and then the rope bridge separated into two pieces.

Tarrin fell with one section, and Jesmind fell with the other, on opposite sides.

The impact with the wall was bone-numbing. Tarrin almost lost his grip on the rope as he rebounded away from the wall and his hands stung fiercely. He scrabbled on the wooden planks with his claws, then found purchase as they sank into the old wood. Breathing a few deep gasps of air, he put his forehead on the rotting wood and thanks whatever Gods were watching that he didn't take a swim. "Tarrin!" Jesmind called urgently. He looked back and up. She was higher up on her section, hanging on with her paws and footclaws in the same manner as him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright," he replied soberly, then he started climbing up. The rotted condition of the planks made climbing up them dangerous, so he opted to just hand-walk up the support rope, which was still in good condition.

"Don't!" she called.

"What?" he asked, still climbing.

"You're on the wrong side," she shouted to him. "You'll have to drop into the water and climb up my side."

"I'm not getting in that water," he said adamantly, neatly evading giving away his intention for a few precious moments. He had a good rhythm at that point, and he was climbing up the side of the ravine with surprising speed. She beat him to the top, but not by very much. He clambored over the edge of the wall and turned around to face her.

"Well, we can follow along on either side until we find another bridge," she called.

"You're safe now, Jesmind," he called calmly.

"What?"

"I'm sorry."

She was quiet a moment, then her ears laid back. Even from a hundred paces away, he saw her eyes literally flare up from within with an unholy greenish glow. " You did that!" she accused. "You little-"

Tarrin winced at the barrage of sudden graphic curses she threw in his direction. She was incensed, and he was suddenly glad they were separated by an uncrossable barrier. "You're going to Suld!" she shrieked. "You lied to me!" she said with a sudden vehemence that frightened him.

"I never did any such thing!" he called back.

"You said you'd stay with me, and now you're running away!" she accused. "You lied to me, Tarrin!"

"I said I would learn what you had to teach," he called back. "I never said when . You don't understand that I need to go to Suld, Jesmind. I don't have a choice. I wanted you to come with me, but you refused. This is more your fault than mine. When I'm done at Suld, then I'll be happy to go with you. But not until then."

She was totally enraged, and despite the distance between them, he was suddenly very afraid of her. "You had better run far and fast, rogue ," she spat at him. "Because when I catch up to you, I'm going to kill you!" Tarrin rocked back on his heels. She meant it. "And I know where you're going, so you had best hope to every God you can remember that you get there before I do!" She snatched a small rock off the ground, and hurled it at him. Despite the distance between them, Tarrin had to duck to avoid getting his nose flattened by the rock. "I'm going to kill you, Tarrin!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, then she threw a few more tongue-shrivelling curses at him, even as she threw more rocks. He hoped she didn't know what some of those words meant, as he evaded the amazingly accurately thrown rocks.

He gave her a sober, calm look, and she stopped shouting at him. Her face was screwed up into a mask of utter outrage, and she was panting hard from her anger and exertion at throwing curses and rocks. "I'm sorry," he told her. Then he turned and started running south.

Her howling promise to gut him when she got her claws on him followed him into the trees.

It had not gone as well as he had hoped, but it had been necessary. Tarrin sighed at what could have been, then quickened his pace. Jesmind was now his enemy, and he knew that she would kill him without hesitation when she caught up to him. So he had to make sure that she didn't.

It had been a very hard two days.

Tarrin was huddling in a small hollow bole created by a massive fallen tree, avoiding a heavy rain that was soaking the surrounding forest. The only reason he stopped was that he needed rest and that it was so heavy it had reduced visibility to almost nothing. Tarrin had had almost no sleep since leaving Jesmind, pushing himself at a murderous pace that was surely so far ahead of her that his trail would be washed out by the rain. That had been his intent, for rain was a common occurance in Sulasia at that time of year. With enough of a lead and the rain washing out his scent, he could now change direction without fear of her following him.

Then again, he didn't even know if she was. He'd seen no sign of her since he'd left her fuming at the Scar. Since she knew where he was going, he saw her making one of three choices. She would try to track him down, she would get ahead of him on one of the more obvious routes to Suld and head him off, or she would go all the way to Suld and try to catch him there. Tarrin was guessing that, as mad as she was, she was chasing him. And now that the rain was so heavy, it would wash away any trace of his passage, and he could make his planned turn with no fear of her following.

Well, not too much fear.

He waited for a few moments, then climbed out into the rain, getting onto the fallen tree. Now it was important not to get on the ground, where his tracks or scent could sink into the mud. He pulled himself into the trees with a low-laying branch, then turned southeast, away from Suld.