Page 103 of The Traitor Queen (The Bridge Kingdom 2)

Pain ricocheted through her as she hit the cliff, her fingernails tearing as she scrabbled at the slick rocks. One hand slipped, and she screamed.

But the other held true.

She dangled for a heartbeat, but the water roared toward her once more, so she shoved her free hand into a crack and pulled.

Water sprayed her, tugging at her ankles. Lara ignored it and climbed. Up and up, her fingers slicing open on the sharp edges, leaving behind smears of blood in her wake.

She barely felt it.

Higher and higher, the noise of the surf replaced by the shouts of Maridrinian soldiers as they rallied at the top, waiting until they had enough numbers to push up the slope.

Then she heard a rumble.

At first Lara thought it was thunder, but then she felt the rock beneath her tremble and realized what the Ithicanians had done.

Panic racing through her, Lara scrambled sideways beneath a tiny overhang, then pressed herself against the wall even as screams filled the air.

Clenching her teeth, Lara shut her eyes as the soldiers above threw themselves off the cliffs into the water below.

It wasn’t enough to save them.

An avalanche of rock and debris exploded off the side of the cliff, raining down on the boats and soldiers in the water below. Crushing them or drowning them.

Bits of rock clipped her shoulders, slicing through fabric and flesh, but Lara hugged the cliff, arms and legs trembling with the effort of holding the position.

When the noise ceased, Lara relaxed long enough to look down. The surf was filled with blood and broken bodies, all mixed in among the shattered remains of longboats.

Climb.

But her strength was spent, her body shaking, her nails scraping along rock as she fought to keep her grip.

“Climb!” she shouted to herself.

Reaching up, Lara caught hold of a rock, only for it to come loose. A scream tore from her lips, and then she was falling.

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Aren

They were out of arrows.

They fought hand to hand, both forces jabbing weapons through the metal bars in an attempt to drive each other back, and on both sides, bodies bobbed thick in the water. But where Aren was down to a dozen soldiers, the Maridrinians just kept coming.

The rising waves were not helping their cause, the surf making it nearly impossible to keep the boats close enough to the portcullis to fight. The Maridrinians slashed at their hands and arms when they tried to hold on to the bars.

Reaching through the portcullis, Aren stabbed a man in the face, but as the soldier slipped into the water, Aren saw what they had in their boat.

A chain, the links as thick as his wrist.

Just then a wave surged, flinging his vessel backward. The Maridrinian longboat slammed against the portcullis, spilling men into the water, but two kept their feet. And as Aren watched in horror, they looped the chain through the bars.

While his soldiers desperately tried to maneuver back to the portcullis, Aren saw the men passing the chain back through the boats packing the tunnel, the ends disappearing from sight.

His boat finally reached the bars, and Aren grabbed hold of the chain, pulling hard, though he knew it was hopeless.

The Maridrinian longboats retreated out of the tunnel, and a heartbeat later, the chain snapped taut.

60

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