that Hashat had only just managed to do so. Kitai shot Tavi a bright-eyed, angry glance and called something up the cliff in another tongue. A moment later, he, too, began to descend the cliff more quickly.
Tavi used one foot and one hand to keep himself from dragging on the stone and found that it was more effort than he would have expected. He was shortly panting, but a swift glance up at Kitai told him that he had
thought correctly. Doroga's huge muscles had an easier time letting out the rope at a faster, controlled rate than the more slender Hashat's did, and Tavi had gained considerable distance on the other boy as they descended.
As he came down, closer to the lambent green glow of the crouch, he shot a glance up at Kitai and smiled, fiercely.
Kitai let out a sharp whistle, and the line abruptly stopped playing out.
Tavi stared up at him in confusion. Until the other boy drew his knife, reached across to the rope that held Tavi thirty feet over the floor of the bizarre forest below and, with an answering smile, used the dark, glassy knife to begin swiftly slicing through Tavi's rope.
Chapter 33
Tavi took one look at the thirty odd feet between him and the ground below, then reached a hand up, fumbling at Fade's pack. He jerked the flap open and grabbed the first thing his fingers could reach, though all the squirming made him twist and spin on the rope. He squinted up as best he could and then flung it at the Marat above him.
Kitai let out a yelp and jerked back in a dodge. A hunk of cheese smacked into the stone beside the Marat's head, clung for a moment, then dropped and fell toward the wax-covered ground below.
Kitai blinked at the cheese and then at Tavi, his face twisting into a scowl. Doroga hadn't stopped lowering the rope, and so the cut the Marat had begun had already descended out of his reach. Kitai steadied himself against the cliff face, then reached out with his knife and began slicing at the rope again. "Foolish, Aleran. Kinder if you fell, broke a leg, and had to turn back rather than be devoured by the Keepers."
Tavi scrambled in the pack and found cloth wrapped around several biscuits. He grabbed the first and hurled it at Kitai. "So I could be eaten by your people instead?"
Kitai scowled, not deterred this time. A biscuit bounced off his outstretched arm. "We would at least not eat you alive."
"Stop that'" Tavi shouted He threw another biscuit, to no effect A thick strand of the braided rope parted with a whining snap, and Tavi's heart lurched as the rope spun and swung from side to side He glanced below him Another twenty feet to ground He'd never be able to fall that far without hurting himself, possibly too badly to continue
Another strand parted, and Tavi swayed wildly back and forth, his heart hammering high in his throat
Arms and legs shaking with excitement, Tavi took one last glance down (fifteen feet, or a little more?) He slipped his foot out of the loop at the bottom of the grey rope, and as quickly as he could, he slipped down the rope, gripping with his hands, and letting his legs swing below him He reached the loop and with a gulp grasped onto it, letting his legs swing out far beneath him
The rope parted with a snap Tavi plummeted
Between Doroga lowering the rope from above and the few feet he had gained by letting himself farther down the rope, the fall might have been little more than ten feet Not much higher than the roof of the stables, and he had jumped from there several times-always into mounds of hay, true, but he had made the jump without fear He tried to remember to keep his legs loose, to fall, roll if he possibly could
The fall seemed to take forever, and when Tavi landed it was a shock to his ankles, knees, thighs, hips, back, all in rapid succession as he tumbled to the earth He landed on one side, arms flailing wildly out and slapping down with him, and his breath exploded out from him in a rush He lay for a moment without moving, dimly aware that he was on the ground, still clutching the loop in the end of the rope in his fist
He regained his breath in a few moments, becoming aware of a couple