Elder Magic by Arthur Slade

Author:Arthur Slade [Slade, Arthur]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dava Enterprises
Published: 2019-06-28T22:00:00+00:00

11

A Good Time for a Saying

I had enough time to wonder how long the fall would be, and whether there would be stone at the bottom. I hit something hard with my shoulder but continued downwards, tumbling with my limbs flailing. There were several more seconds of falling, water all around me and no way to take a breath.

Then I hit something else hard with my other shoulder and there was a snap of what I thought was bones, until I realized it was a metallic sound.

A grate. I’d hit a grate.

And I touched it, felt the metal. It was here to stop anyone from climbing out of the prison.

It was also ancient. Because it broke under my weight and before I could grab at a bar, I was falling in open air.

But only for a second.

A hand, or something else, grabbed the end of my cloak and jerked me hard, stopping my fall. There was nothing below my feet, but dirty water was splashing along my back.

Cold air hit my face.

A bright light shone in my eye.

The moon! Just enough light to make my heart leap and then force a shudder.

For I’d come through the end of the drainage tunnel and out the opening on a cliff wall. The sewage was splashing hundreds of feet to the lake below. I dangled above it all.

I looked up.

It wasn’t a hand that held me. My cloak had caught in the bars of the rusted grate. And since I was spinning and turning, it could tear at any moment.

It was possible to climb back up my cloak, but the movement might also cause it to loosen. I thanked the Maestrus that they’d chosen such strong material for our assassin cloaks.

There was nothing else to grab on to, and the only refuge was a small shelf of rock several feet away.

I could stand on that ledge. Well, until the sun rose and a dragon spotted me and burned me off the wall.

I’d handle that when I came to it. First things first.

I had to get to the shelf, and I couldn’t just jump there. My feet were hanging in the air. My hands had nothing to grab on to.

So, I did the only logical thing. I swung forward and back, bit by bit building up my momentum, an assassin doing her best impression of a pendulum. I prayed to Bekla that my cloak wouldn’t tear.

And, perhaps for the first time this day, everything worked. My cloak slipped from the bars and I landed on the ledge.

I hugged that wall like it was… well, like it was my mother.

And I took several long breaths and held myself steady. I was alive. If I had my daggers I could carve my way down to the lake. But I had no blades, and Brax couldn’t wing by and pick me up. I got an image of Thord on a swan swooping to my rescue but banished it from my head. He and Megan were a world away.

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