Leah's Hero - Miranda Martin Page 0,60

He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’m not going to let it go.

My resolve calms the churning of my stomach. This ends one of two ways and knowing that, being fully resigned to it, brings an unexpected calm. I kiss Urukol’s cheek. He won’t know why, but it doesn’t matter. I want him to feel my love, to have some small gesture to know how much I love and appreciate him.

Suddenly he’s sliding to a stop, his feet backpedaling so fast they’re a blur. In surprise, I look ahead. My stomach lurches and I almost lose its contents. We’re on the edge of a cliff, one he barely kept from running off the edge of.

It drops at least a hundred feet. Far enough that I can’t see the bottom in the pouring rain. Urukol spins around, and my stomach drops down seeing the Zmaj of the Order closing on our position. They’ve got us surrounded leaving no way to escape. Urukol says something that sounds like a curse. He turns to the cliff and looks down.

“No, no, no, no,” I say over and over shaking my head.

He can’t be thinking it, we can’t jump, we’ll never survive it. He looks over his shoulder at the Zmaj warriors closing on us. Each of them carries one of their unique weapons, lochabers, with wicked sharp blades that seem to glint in the nonexistent sun.

Watching them approach, time slows. They jump and leap forward, gliding through the air. The encroaching line almost moves in a kind of unison, a musical arrangement of impending doom closing on us. My heart races. I’m panting with trepidation.

Urukol looks at the cliff where it drops away below his feet. One last glance over his shoulder, and I see the determination on his face. My scream hasn’t left my lips before he’s moving. I watch in dawning horror as his foot steps off the edge and hangs over the nothingness.

My stomach lurches, then falls faster than the two of us. He twists in the air and all I can do is tighten my grip and pray. Wind rushes past my ears, carrying away my scream. We drop at least ten feet when he loosens his grip on me and reaches for the rocks speeding past. He grabs one, and we jerk to a stop.

“Ugh,” he grunts in pain.

I stop screaming for the first time since this insane adventure. The only sounds are the wind whistling past and the claws of his feet scrabbling to find purchase. His chest is heaving as we hang, twisting from side to side as the wind buffets against us.

Shouts above us, and I look up. The Zmaj are looking over the edge and arguing with each other. None of them seem willing to follow us, at least not readily. The problem now is what do we do? I have no idea what Urukol’s plan is but no matter what it is, it’s insane. How long can he hold on like this?

He looks up, then down, and then from side to side. As he looks past me our eyes lock for a moment. He grins. It’s a total ‘I’ve got this,’ look on his face. Incredibly, I feel better. My doubts and fears fade in the light of that look. The butterflies storming the ramparts of my stomach ease, and the bile drops out of my throat. I put my faith in the only place I can, him.

He moves his hand down to a different crevasse and then lowers us down as his foot finds a new purchase. One hand, one foot at a time, he works us down the cliff towards a bottom that we can’t see. A thick fog churns below, obscuring the ground.

Small rocks rain down, hitting me in the head. I glance up and two of the Zmaj are climbing over the edge. They’re moving slow but obviously aren’t going to give up. I close my eyes and focus on breathing.

One movement at a time, Urukol keeps working us down. The fact he’s doing it one handed and carrying my weight on top of that is incredible. Obviously a Zmaj looks strong, they’re all buff and muscular, but most human men who are big like this wouldn’t have this kind of stamina to back it up. It’s incredible.

He’s got this. He’s got me. Trust him.

It’s perhaps the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. I’m not only putting my trust in him, or