A Feast of Dragons - By Morgan Rice Page 0,23

one final wave pounded him on his back and propelled him all the way.

Thor collapsed on the sand, Reese beside him, Krohn jumping out of his shirt and laying down, too. Thor was physically and mentally exhausted. But he had made it. He could not believe it. He had made it.

He sat up and turned and saw his fellow Legion members in the water, all wading to shore, waves crashing on their backs, washing up all around him. Some followed in his footsteps, hopping boulder to boulder; others were just thrown in the waves, bracing themselves and doing their best to avoid the rocks. He could see O’Connor, Elden, the twins, and other boys he recognized, and was relieved to see they were okay.

Thor turned the other way, and looked up at the steep cliffs behind him, rising straight up into the sky, leading to the island, somewhere up there.

“Now what?” he asked Reese, realizing they were stranded on this narrow, rocky strip of shore.

“We climb,” Reese responded.

Thor examined the cliffs again; they soared a hundred feet, and looked wet, covered in the ocean spray. He didn’t see how they could.

“But how?” Thor asked.

Reese shrugged.

“We don’t have much choice. We can’t stay down here. This beach is too narrow, and the tide is rising—we will be engulfed by the waves soon enough if we don’t move.”

The waves were already encroaching, the small strip of beach narrowing, and Thor knew he was right: they didn’t have much time to waste. He had no idea how they would climb this cliff, but he knew they had to try. There was no other option.

Thor stuffed Krohn back into his shirt, turned for the cliff wall, crammed his hands into whatever nooks and crannies he could find, found some crags for his feet, and began climbing straight up. Beside him, Reese did the same.

It was incredibly hard, the cliff nearly smooth, with only small crags in which to place his fingers and toes. Sometimes he found himself having to pull himself up by just the tips of a few fingers, pushing off with just the tips of his toes. He had only gone a few feet, and his arms and legs already shook. He looked up, and saw at least a hundred feet before him; he looked down and saw a ten foot drop to the sand below. He was breathing hard, and did not know how he would make it. Krohn whined inside his shirt, wriggling.

Reese climbed at the same rate, and he rested beside him, also looked down, and shared the same bewildered look.

Thor took another step, and as he did, he slipped. He slid several feet. Reese reached out for him, but it was too late.

Thor went flying backwards, through the air, hurling, bracing himself for a rough impact on the sand. Krohn yelped, jumping out, flying through the air beside him.

Thor heard the crashing of a wave, and luckily, the wave hit the sand just before impact. Thor landed in the water, splashing down, and was grateful that it had softened the blow.

He sat up, and watched as Reese, too, lost his grip and came flying down and landed in the water, not too far from him. The two of them sat there, and wondered. All around them, other boys were arriving on the shore, and also looked up in wonder.

Thor didn’t see how they could make it to the top, how they could ever make it to the island.

O’Connor, wading onto the sand, stood there and examined the cliff for a good minute before he reached back and removed the bow from his shoulder. From his waist he removed a long bunch of rope, and as Thor watched, he tied the rope to the end of an arrow.

Before Thor could ask him what he was doing, O’Connor fired.

The arrow carried the rope, higher and higher through the air, until it reached the very top of the cliff and looped itself around a small tree. It was a perfect shot, the arrow falling cleanly over one end and sliding back down the mountain. O’Connor tugged at it, making sure it was stable; the tree bent but did not give. Thor was impressed.

“I’m not a complete waste,” O’Connor said, with a proud smile.

The other Legion members crowded around him and his rope, as O’Connor began to climb it.

He pulled himself up relatively quickly and easily, climbing higher and higher, until he reached the top. When he did, he tied the arrow