Page 16 of Captive

Chapter 4

Not far down the path, they came to another bridge over a steep ravine. Novikke gave a soft laugh as they stopped in front of it. This one was also destroyed, but not from age and decay like the other had been.

Someone had recently burned it down. All but the ends had collapsed, and what remained was blackened and shriveled. Aruna muttered something that sounded like a curse when he saw it.

“Is every one of your bridges in such poor repair?” Novikke asked.

Aruna glanced over at her to read her face, as he always did when she spoke to him in Ardanian. Often her meaning was clear enough through her tone and expression. He sighed, running a hand over his face.

He peered over the edge, scanning their side of the ravine, down to the river in the center and then the other side. The loose rocks that formed the cliff face looked like they’d slide away the moment you put any weight on them.

“Please tell me you’re not thinking of climbing down that,” Novikke said. It looked deadly. At best. Especially with her hands bound.

He jerked his head toward the ravine, beckoning her. She approached apprehensively.

“Can’t we go around?” She began to point toward where she thought the end of the ravine would be, then realized that there was no end in sight.

He shook his head without even seeming to consider it, but then he started unknotting the rope on her wrists. Maybe she tensed up too much, because he stopped and looked up at her. She tried not to look suspicious.

He picked up a rock to carve into the dirt by the end of the bridge. There was not much room to write. “More animals. Dangerous alone. Don’t run,” he wrote succinctly.

She frowned, but could not argue with his logic. He untied her, then pointed to the cliff.

Novikke rubbed her wrists as she plotted a route down the hill. After she’d hesitated a little too long, Aruna cleared his throat.

She slid carefully to the crook of a bent tree sticking out of the hillside, and then to another one a few feet farther down. When she’d taken a few steps, she heard Aruna following her. With both her arms free, the descent was not so difficult, even with her shoulder the way it was.

She’d almost reached the bottom when she stepped on a rock that teetered and slid under her feet. She stumbled, then fell head first the rest of the way to the base of the hill. Her arms, chest, then head slammed into the ground.

When the world had stopped spinning, she groaned. Her shoulder throbbed with pain from catching herself with her weakened arm. She’d hit her chin in the same place as the previous night. She was going to be completely covered in scratches and bruises by the time they got to wherever they were going.

She rolled to look over her shoulder at Aruna. He’d stopped halfway down the ravine and was watching her, wide-eyed. He raised an eyebrow. Novikke cringed and closed her eyes. The embarrassment hurt more than the fall.

Aruna picked his way smoothly down the rest of the slope, never misplacing a step. Novikke was still on the ground and holding her arm miserably when he reached her. He stopped beside her, looking mildly amused.

“You think that’s funny?” Novikke said.

He looked like he was trying not to smile. He held out a hand. She looked at it for a moment, then took it and allowed him to pull her to her feet. His hand was surprisingly warm considering the cool weather.

He nodded toward a fallen log that lay across the river. It didn’t look stable, but she saw no better way across, and the water was too deep and moving too quickly to wade through.

“This is a bad idea,” she said, watching the swirling foam that gathered on the rougher parts of the river. She looked up at Aruna, hoping he would reconsider. He just crossed his arms, waiting.

She started across the fallen tree. The wood was slick under her feet, and on her first step she slipped, nearly falling. She took another step, painfully slow. The water rushed noisily beneath her. Aruna climbed up after her.

Halfway across, she glanced up at the ledge above them, where the remains of the other side of the bridge stood, charred and broken. She blinked at a strange shape huddled in the shadows just under the bridge. She stared at it, and jumped when it suddenly moved. A pale hand emerged from the shadows, and then there was a flash of fire.

“Aruna—” she gasped, blindly reaching for him. She felt him grab her hand and pull. She stumbled backward into him, and a ball of flame flew past her. Her feet slipped out from under her, and then she was falling.

She stopped short with a jerk, dangling against the side of the log. Aruna grunted with effort. He was still holding her wrist. Somehow, he’d managed not to fall with her.

Both of them looked up at the bridge. There was movement, and then another flame. The person was about to shoot again.

Aruna’s wide eyes went from the bridge to Novikke. He hesitated, then he jumped off the log with her.

The water went over her head. There was a rush of unfathomable cold and then wild motion as the water carried them away like twigs in a whirlpool. Their fingers, locked around each other’s wrists, slipped and separated.

The current threw her deeper before letting her float upward again. She burst through to the surface to gasp a choking breath and then the water pushed her under again. Something solid hit her back and then her side, flinging her back and forth. She tried to hold her breath, only to have it forcibly expelled from her lungs with each thrust of the current.

---