Marked for Death

Chapter 33

“It’s tearing!”

Esprл’s scream rang in Kandler’s head. He looked up and saw her reach out and grab the sheet just past the point where the rip had started.

“Kandler!” she screamed as she wrapped her little ringers around the rough fabric and pulled.

“Get off the rope!” Kandler said as he pulled himself higher. It was bad enough he was going to die here. He wasn’t going to drag his daughter down with him. “Esprл, you’re not big enough!”

Sallah shouldered the girl aside and snatched the tearing end of the sheet-rope from her. “I have you!” she said.

“Who’s got you?” he said. “Let go!”

Sallah ignored the justicar. She pulled on the rope with all her might, but it didn’t come up an inch. He was a full-sized, fully armed man, and he was just too heavy.

Esprл started to wail with fear. Kandler’s stomach turned. The girl had lost both her parents already, and now she was going to watch him fall to his doom. He kept climbing.

“Be quiet!” yelled Sallah.

Esprл’s wail ended as if Sallah had sliced through it with a sword.

“Quick!” Sallah ordered. “Hand me the other rope!”

A moment later Esprл appeared at the window with rope that she and Sallah had been working on. She tossed it down to Kandler. “Here!” she said. “Grab hold!”

Kandler reached out and grabbed the other rope just as the first gave way. He had barely enough time to wrap it around his wrist before he fell. The other rope still had a lot of slack in it, and it snaked out the window after Kandler as he dropped away into the mist.

The rope finally played out and snapped tight, and Kandler felt as if his arm was pulled from its socket. He growled in pain and then felt himself swinging back toward the tower again. This time he was able to brace himself for the impact. He hit the hard stone, and his shoulder burned as if a red-hot brand had been shoved up his sleeve.

Kandler hung there at the end of the rope from his bad arm, trying to recover his strength. He couldn’t tell how far from the window he’d fallen or how close the ground might be. He thought he heard something wet and sticky far below-perhaps a beast smacking its lips over an anticipated meal or the bubbling of a pit full of tar.

“Pull!” Sallah shouted.

Kandler heard something above him crack. The image of a spitting bedpost flashed through his head, and he closed his eyes and thought of his wife.

The sheet jerked as whatever it was anchored to started to give, and pain lanced through Kandler’s arm. The agony jabbed him into action. He reached up with his good arm and started pulling himself up. Each time he used his left arm, his shoulder protested, but he kept climbing through the pain. He used his teeth to hold on to the sheets when his arm hurt too much. The musty smell reminded him of a funeral shroud, and he gagged at the taste.

The air behind Kandler grew warm, and he heard a noise like a crackling bonfire all around him. For a moment, he feared he was already dead, that the heat came from the Keeper welcoming him into the fiery afterlife. He wrapped the rope around his good arm and turned to meet his fate.

A large circle of fire cut through the mist straight for Kandler. Orange tongues of flame crackled as they pushed the ring closer. As Kandler watched, the ring grew larger and larger until it seemed it must be the maw of a dragon come to pluck him from the side of the tower wall.

Kandler grunted and started climbing again. He pulled himself up as best he could with his injured arm, fighting for every inch. He could feel Sallah and Esprл tugging on the sheet from above, but they weren’t able to move it. He heard Esprл screech in frustration, and his heart sank.

When the justicar glanced back again, he saw that it was hopeless. He’d gained a few feet, but the fiery ring looked large enough to swallow his house whole. There was no way to escape it. He clung to the rope with his teeth and hands, hoping to at least make the creature work for its meal.

Something large and heavy struck the tower below Kandler. The structure shook to its foundation. Esprл’s scream punctuated the smash.

The bedpost anchoring the sheet snapped, and Kandler fell, pulling the sheet after him.

“No!” Sallah shouted. Esprл let loose with a long, heartbroken wail.

Kandler kicked off from the wall as he fell, in a vain hope he might find some kind of water below to cushion his landing. After only a dozen feet, the justicar crashed onto something solid and flat. He cried out in agony and surprise.

Kandler reached out around him and felt the wooden planks of a deck swaying beneath him. “What?” he said, then he looked around and was struck dumb.

Half of the ring of fire towered over Kandler like a blazing rainbow, crackling as it burned where it hovered in the air. The flames forced back the mists, and he could see along the length of the ship’s deck on which he stood. The vessel looked like a large cutter but stretched out as if a giant had picked her up and pulled her hard at both ends so he could better hurl it through the air. Instead of sails, the ship had a carved wooden harness that arched high out of the bridge and hooked around the ring of fire at its apex.

Burch waved at Kandler from behind the ship’s wheel. “Ahoy, castaway!” the shifter called.

“Ahoy, the ship!” Kandler said as he struggled to his feet. The deck pitched beneath him. “Permission to come aboard?”

Burch barked out a laugh. “Granted!”

Kandler raced along the ship’s deck and up to the bridge. “How?” he asked. “Where?” He just stopped and stared at the shifter. “There’s a legend in this, I’m sure, but we have to get Esprл and Sallah out of the tower now.”

“Think that bang woke up Majeeda?” Burch asked with toothy grin. “I can’t steer this thing worth a damn.”

“Let me give it a shot,” Kandler said. He took the wheel from Burch and felt the polished wood in his hands. As he did, something poked around the corners of his mind.

“It’s the elemental,” Burch said. “The ring. It’s a creature made of pure fire.”

Although Kandler had never ridden an airship before, he understood the basic principles behind them. He reached out with his mind and urged the burning thing to move the ship higher. At first, it resisted, content to burn away in its mystical, circular cage, but eventually it gave in.

Kandler looked up at the window of the ladies’ bedchamber. He saw Esprл and Sallah gaping down at them, and he waved. Esprл squealed with joy.

Kandler noticed that the wheel didn’t move with the ship. It didn’t turn at all. It was just a conduit by which the ship’s pilot could reach the elemental that kept the thing aloft. He willed the ship to come to a stop at the window, but he misjudged the distance in the mist. The ship came to a crushing stop as the starboard railing caught under the window’s stone sill.

Kandler left the wheel and dashed over to the window.

Burch was already there, taking Esprл from Sallah’s arms. Kandler reached out to help the lady knight over the railing too.

At that moment, the door to the bedchamber burst open. Majeeda came shuffling through as fast as her withered legs would carry her.

“No!” the deathless elf screeched. She reached out toward Kandler with a bony hand, raw energy arcing between her fingers.