Illengond by Matthew Dickerson

Author:Matthew Dickerson [Dickerson, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480849471
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Published: 2017-07-31T04:00:00+00:00

24

EVEN THE AMANTI FAIL

Bandor stared down the two-hundred-foot cliff face toward the swirl of water and mist where Namha had disappeared. For an instant he stood there, paralyzed. How had his plan come so quickly to ruin?

Then he sprang into motion. “The rope,” he yelled. “Namha will need it to get out of the water. There’s nothing down there to hold on to.”

Braga still stood frozen, staring into the water where his nephew disappeared. Without his instructions, the other Undeani seemed lost. Bandor realized this. He ran to where Braga had left the coil of rope, calling for Theo as he went. “Take this end. Tie it to the tree. Quick, quick!”

Theo raced to Bandor’s side and took an end of the rope, and then bolted toward the tree peeling off coils as he went. Bandor gave Theo some more slack, and then ran back with the rest of the coil to the cliff. He slowed as he approached, careful not to tumble over himself.

The boat still dangled there, a fifth of its length peaking up above the cliff and the rest dangling down toward the distant water below. It was Bandor’s idea to haul it up. It was his fault that Amark had fallen. His fault that Namha was gone also. He had to do something.

Tienna and Theo now both lay on their bellies peering over the edge on the left side of the boat. “Right here,” Tienna shouted over her shoulder.

“There, there,” Theo yellowed excitedly.

Bandor stepped to the other side of the boat knelt down beside them, clinging to hope the same way he had been holding on to the rope only a few minutes earlier. The loss of Amark was tragic enough. The company could ill afford to lose Namha too. “Where are they? I must climb down and help?”

“No,” Tienna said. “Namha surfaced. I saw him. He’ll be okay. But he dove back under again. He must be looking for Amark.”

Elynna knelt beside Tienna though she did not look over the edge. “Does he have a chance?”

“He is Amanti,” Tienna answered, but she had a catch in her voice.

Theo shouted again. “There.”

This time Bandor didn’t see anything. Braga called out in a desparate voice. “How many?”

Theo paused a long moment, then he turned around with a white face. “Only one.”

“What chance does he have in that?” Bandor asked. The water looked black now. A minute later he saw a tiny dot appear on the surface, maybe thirty feet from the cliff. It hovered in the current for a minute. Long enough for another deep breath, and then disappeared. Bandor threw the coil over the edge and watched it tumble and unfurl as it fell to the water. Another minute passed. Again a head and arms appeared. Again it was just one head. One person. Each moment Bandor’s hopes faded.

An hour later Namha emerged at the top of the cliff, pulling himself over the ledge on the rope Bandor had dropped. The last of the Amanti looked tired and defeated.

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