shimmering with silver. A hazy form appears. Ghostlike, transparent. Its wings take shape and unfurl.
The silver owl. The same one I glimpsed for a moment in the secret chamber.
The owl screeches, and a surge of strength flows into me.
“I’m here!” my mother says. I startle. The owl vanishes. So does my newfound strength. I gasp, my mind reeling. What just happened?
“Ailesse!”
I look behind me at the opposite wall of the chasm. The dust thins. My mother’s lithe figure descends. She must have been blasted back to that side of the tunnel from the force of the explosion.
She eases down a rope—the severed pulley rope. She’s extended it to its full length. “I’m going to swing out for you.”
I nod with a steadying breath. This torture is almost over.
She kicks away from the wall and propels across the fifteen feet between us. She grazes my wall, but her rope hangs askew, throwing off her aim. Her momentum pulls her back to her starting point before she’s able to reach me. She tries again, but her body suddenly twists when she’s halfway across. An arrow whizzes by her.
“Careful!” I cry. Jules must be above with her bow.
My mother doesn’t look worried. She hovers against her wall of the chasm, waiting for a gap between the arrows. Jules is firing blindly, so my mother has the advantage. She’ll sense the arrows as they fly.
“Hurry,” I beg, my body trembling with exertion. My fingers feel like they might break if I have to hold on much longer.
More chunks of limestone fall from above. Another section of the tunnel is caving in. My mother scrambles sideways and scales the wall with impressive ability—another grace from her bat skull. She doesn’t wait for the rubble to clear. She launches for me again, taking advantage of the distraction. My chest swells. She must love me, or she wouldn’t endanger herself like this.
She lands closer to me this time and grasps a protruding stone to anchor herself. She’s two feet away, her waist level to my head as she hangs by the end of her rope. I could reach her leg if not for my bound hands.
She scans the nearly smooth wall around me. She can’t find anything else to grab on to. “We need to cut your hands free.”
“How?” The rock I’m clinging to isn’t sharp enough to saw through my rope.
“I have a small knife. I’m going to toss it to you.”
“But I can’t let go to catch it.”
“Find a foothold to distribute your weight, then open one hand.”
My heartbeat thrashes. Blood pounds behind my eyes as I try not to panic. I grapple with my feet once more, struggling to find purchase. Nothing. With one last burst of adrenaline, I pull up a little higher and my right knee knocks against a jutting stone. I wrench my leg up and balance my knee on it. I’m not fully secure, but some of the pressure eases off my hands. “I’m ready,” I say, sweat dripping down my face.
My mother holds her rope by one hand and pulls a thin knife from a concealed slit in her dress. “On the count of three.”
I nod, praying I can grab it.
She exhales in concentration. “One. Two. Three.”
She drops the blade. I lean into the wall. Release one hand from the rock outcropping. Grasp for the hilt.
My mother’s aim is exact, but my hands are bound too tight. The knife glances off me, nicking my skin as it tumbles into the darkness.
Three more arrows zoom by. I clutch the rock outcropping again. One arrow almost strikes my head before it pings off the wall.
My fingers slip off my handhold. They’re down to their last knuckle grip. “Mother!” I cry.
Her eyes fill with pain. She shakes her head. She doesn’t know how to help me. Her rope jerks down a foot before it catches still again. She glances up. “They’re cutting the rope.”
I feel blood drain from my face. My mother can leap a chasm with her bat grace, but she can’t spread wings to fly out of one. How will she save herself? Or me?
We stare at each other. The brief moment suspends. I can’t breathe, can’t think. We’re both going to fall and die. Then my mother’s expression changes. It’s subtle, only a twitch of her jaw. A flicker of remorse in her eyes. If I wasn’t her daughter, I might not notice.
“The bone flute,” she says urgently. “Did he give it to you?”