Page 14 of Wicked Prince of Shadows
These looked like vines, but they weren't made of plants at all! As they held me, they sapped my strength and burned.
My fingers wrapped around a jagged rock, and I swung it down with all my strength against the vine on my waist. Theimpact sent pain shooting up my arm and into my side, but the vine only tightened. I struck again and again as I slid closer to the chasm’s edge.
"Let go!" I gasped, my lungs straining for air as the vine around my waist squeezed tighter. A strange pulsing sensation passed into me, making me feel as if my energy was draining.
I kicked with my free leg, and one of the vines snapped up around it to bind it too while the others snaked up to squeeze me at my chest. I barely kept my arms out of the slimy vines. The edge of the chasm was only inches away now, some of the stones and earth crumbling under the weight as the vines pulled me forward relentlessly.
I struck at them with the rock again, but my blows grew weaker as the pressure around my ribs made it harder to breathe. Black spots danced at the edges of my vision.
A pained wheeze escaped my lips as I tried to dig my fingers in.
Help!
I couldn’t even force the words out, I had so little breath left.
DHRRUUUMM-THA-KRAAAK-KRRRUUMMM!
A tremor shook the earth from below. The ground swelled upward in a sudden, violent heave, buckling and cracking. The force threw me backward, away from the edge.
The vines stretched taut, then snapped with the abrupt movement. I tumbled backward and landed hard on my back, the impact driving the breath from my lungs. Dazed, I struggled to roll over as the earth continued to tremble and shift beneath me.
Get up! Whatever had made that would be coming for me.
Ribs and lungs still aching, I scrambled to my feet, staggering away from the edge. The vines writhed where they'd broken, oozing a thick, putrid substance as they retreated back into thedarkness. My instincts warned me there were more down in that chasm.
I didn't wait to see if they regrouped. Despite the burning in my feet and the stabbing pain in my ribs, I forced myself to run, putting distance between myself and those grasping horrors.
"Maker preserve me," I gasped, my hand against my throat. My hands shook violently, my skin crawling with the phantom sensation of those vines on my flesh. The sap burns on my arm ached and throbbed.
Several yards away now, I turned to face the chasm again, my mind racing. I still needed to cross. There had to be a way for someone without wings.
The sun sagged low, its light weak and watery, casting everything in long skeletal shadows. Twilight bled across the cracked land, and the air felt colder, heavier, as if the darkness itself were waiting to swallow me whole.
In the fading light of dusk, I scanned the chasm and its line for any clue. There—about thirty feet away in the center was a sort of column. But it was the only one. And thirty feet was still too far a distance to jump. Even the best jumpers could maybe make it to twenty-six feet. A narrow ribbon of stone connected the landmass to the column and extended to the other side, but it wasn't even a foot across. In this darkness with those vines—whatever they were—was a death sentence.
Panic clawed at my throat as I stumbled along the edge of the chasm, keeping a safe distance from the edge while searching for any possible safe crossing. The blood moon was rising higher now, casting an eerie dull glow over the landscape that made the shadows deeper and more threatening.
I pushed forward, limping on my bandaged feet, each step sending fresh spikes of pain up my legs.
The trees behind me blocked any view of the palace, but I could feel it looming in my mind.
Was the Hollow King searching for me already? Had he defeated the behemoth?
My chest tightened at the thought of him discovering my escape. His threats lingered as the wind picked up, filling my ears and drying the sweat in my dark hair. Based on the damage to the palace, he likely had far greater issues to manage.
The terrain grew rougher. I followed the chasm's edge as tendrils of dark fog clung to the rocks. Strange boulders jutted from the ground like broken teeth, and thorny vines crept along the rocks, their barbs gleaming in the blood moon's light.
I kept my distance, remembering the burning sap from the trees. Sap dripped from the thorns and hissed a little each time it struck the stone, pitting it.
My stomach twisted. I’d seen that wall of darkness and thought it was just clouds or fog on the edge of the chasm, but no. It was a cliff with fog and mist around it.
Something skittered in the darkness behind me—a clicking sound like bone against stone.
I spun around, swearing inwardly as my muscles tensed. I scanned the area. With a sheer wall of burning sap thornbushes and fog on one side, a dark forest of burning sap trees behind me, and the chasm in front of me, I could jump or…
More rocks clattered about a hundred feet away, sending my blood spiking. Nothing seemed to be moving, but it was almost impossible to see more than rough shapes. I turned back to the edge of the chasm, my stomach twisting and curling in knots.
"Twelve feet to the other side," I estimated, my heart pounding. "Maybe less."
