Leah's Hero - Miranda Martin Page 0,61

my metaphorical heart, I’m putting my actual life in his one good arm. It has to work because what other choice is there? Let go and jump? Not happening. I’ve got too much to live for, I can’t even tell him how I feel yet!

SCREECH!

The screech is deafening. My ears ring, and my heartbeat is pounding in my throat, making the blood in my ears every bit as loud. Terror creates cold chills as my muscles lock, and I can barely force my head to turn to look.

One of those monstrously huge lizard-bird crossbred creatures that Angota fought at our first home dives towards the cliff.

My stomach clenches and I bite my tongue. The thing opens its mouth and another loud screech pierces my head as it opens its massive wings. The span of them looks at big as two Zmaj standing on each other’s shoulders. The wings slow its descent, its clawed feet extend as it barrels towards us.

Urukol looks at it, up at our pursuers, then to the other side. He lets go of the wall and leaps. We’re flying through the air, but I can’t watch. I keep my eyes clenched shut until we jerk to a stop at the same time someone scrapes across the rock wall of the cliff.

I know I’m screaming, but I can’t hear it over the ringing and pounding of my pulse. I force my eyes open when we stop falling. We’re hanging by a vine, drifting slightly back and forth, slowly twisting one way then the other.

The bird-thing is climbing back into the air, but I’m sure it hasn’t given up on its meal so easily. Shouts echo down to us lest I forget that we’re also being pursued by the Order. This gets better and better.

Suddenly we drop a few feet and I scream. We come to a jerking halt as he gets his grip on the vine again. He swings his tail, bringing us closer to the rock wall, and he reaches out with his legs, trying to find purchase with his feet.

His claws scratch on the stone, but we drift away again before he can find a hold. The two members of the Order are making faster time down than we are in getting away. They’re closing in faster than should be possible, except they have two arms each and aren’t carrying a me.

Urukol is watching them, then turns his head at some sound behind us. I look in the direction he is, and the bird-thing drops out of a cloud aiming at one of the Order. The Zmaj doesn’t see it in time or can’t do anything if he does. The monster’s claws snatch him from the wall and it takes off. The Zmaj’s screams fade into the distance.

I squeeze my eyes shut tight and try to block out the sound. Bile rises in my throat. We could be next.

Urukol doesn’t give any signs of letting it bother him. He’s swinging his tail making our swing wider until the cliff wall is coming towards us again. He sticks his feet out, and then the claws of his toes are scraping against the rock, scrabbling for any crevasse.

He doesn’t find one, and we’re swinging out from the wall again. He looks up and I do too. Another of the Zmaj are coming over the edge, and the one that remains from before is making fast progress towards us.

Urukol growls and it rumbles in his chest vibrating against me. He looks at me and something in his eyes frightens me. Resolve and a daring, he can’t be thinking…

We drop.

Fast.

I’m screaming but the wind steals the sound long before I hear it. The fog below races closer and closer. I cling to him with every ounce of strength I can muster. In seconds we pass into the fog and the world is nothing but gray-white nothingness.

Am I dead?

I might be, maybe this is what it is. Nothingness and screams. My lungs burn, my muscles tremble. Surely, I’m not dead. I wouldn’t be clinging to him still in death, would I?

In response, I’m jerked so hard my grip on him slips, and I slide off his neck.

“LEAH!” he screams, his voice cracking.

Desperately trying to grip him, I catch around his waist. Eyes clenched tight, I clench my jaw and force myself to breathe. I’m alive. We’re alive. Thank all that might ever have been holy in the universe, we’re alive. Barely daring, I crack one eye open and look at him.

“Don’t.