Cloudfyre Falling - a dark fairy tale (46 page)

When Hawkmoth tested the skywalk,
he did so with the reclaimed rope tied about him; Gargaron,
standing back from the cliff edge, his boots dug into the grass,
gripped the rope’s loose end, ready to haul in the sorcerer in case
their skywalk should collapse. But Hawkmoth walked its length and
their little footbridge held steadfast. Locke went next with no
trouble at all, refusing to be tethered. When Gargaron walked it,
tethered, it shook slightly, but ultimately he crossed without
incident.

The concern now were for the
larger brutes: Razor, Grimah and the serpent. And how their weight
might affect the skywalk. Locke eliminated some of the problem when
he shouted a command and his Zebra promptly slithered down the rock
wall, splashed around the rapids and then coiled her way up the
furthest bridge pylon to the northern side of ravine.

‘
If only we were all but
serpents,’ Gargaron commented.

6

Gargaron prepared Grimah for his
crossing of the skywalk, tying the rope about his steed’s broad
chest. Once done he tugged it to test its grip. He then pushed his
forehead against the horse’s heads, trying to project a sense of
calm, hoping his dear horse would not fret on its crossing. ‘I go
first. You follow. Be calm now, I have you tethered. If you fall we
will catch you.’

He then turned and made his way
back along the skywalk to the stone bridge, trailing the rope out
behind him, the makeshift span beneath his feet groaning and
creaking.

‘
You hear that?’ he asked as he
reached Hawkmoth and Locke waiting on the stone bridge.

‘
Hear what?’ asked
Locke.

‘
The skywalk
protesting.’

‘
Heard nothing,’ Locke
claimed.

‘
I
heard it,’ came Melai’s concerned voice from
where she were perched on the stone rampart that ran along the side
of the bridge.

‘
Thank you,’ Gargaron said.
‘Hawkmoth?’

‘
I take it the skywalk be merely
settling,’ the sorcerer said.

‘
Settling?’

‘
Aye.’

Gargaron sighed. ‘I hope you be
right.’ He turned now to face Grimah.

His steed stood back near ravine’s
southern edge. Behind him Razor paced back and forth. And behind
Razor, the garetrain cut a ghostly image in the fog.

‘
Right then, shall we do this?’
Gargaron asked Hawkmoth and Locke at his back. Both had gripped the
ongoing length of rope; the idea were to combine their strength,
along with that of Gargaron, and catch Grimah’s fall should the
steed’s weight prove too much for their skywalk.

Yet as Gargaron were about to call
Grimah across he felt the stone bridge shift beneath him. He
slackened his grip on the rope and turned to study the expressions
of his friends.

‘
Tell me you felt
that?’

The looks on their faces told them all he
needed to know.

‘
I
felt it,’ Melai said, standing now, as if the
bridge were about to tumble out from beneath her.

What followed were a brief
discussion about how their combined weight might very well end up
compromising the bridge. ‘We don’t need the rest of it plummeting
down into those rapids,’ Gargaron said.

Once this were pointed out,
Hawkmoth and Locke crossed to the far end, uncoiling the remainder
of the rope as they went. There they anchored the rope to Zebra.
Melai stayed where she were.

7

Gargaron glanced around at
Hawkmoth and Locke, both spaced out along the far end of the rope,
gripping it, digging in their heels, Zebra backed up behind them.
‘You ready?’ he called

‘
Aye,’ Hawkmoth called
back.

Gargaron faced Grimah once more,
and gripping his segment of rope, coiling it around his fists, he
said, ‘Right then, Grimah. Let us get you across.’

Grimah, who had been standing
there watching Gargaron, looked keen to get on with this. And
needed no words of encouragement from Gargaron to set
out.

Gargaron eyed his steed step out
upon the skywalk, surprised that their narrow makeshift bridge held
as well as it did. There were a slight sag beneath Grimah as he
reached middle part of the crossing, though Gargaron, pulling in
the slack of the rope as his steed advanced, were confident Grimah
would make it the rest of the way without incident.

Though, as soon as he’d had that
thought… things went sour.

8

Grimah took three further steps
before a noise of protesting metal cut through the air like the
squeal of a cat and the footbridge lurched. Grimah dug his hooves
against the steel and Gargaron gripped the rope with white
knuckles.

Gargaron heard Melai gasp and hold her
breath.

For the moment, the skywalk held,
albeit on a slight angle.

Gargaron did not relax his grip on
the rope; behind him Hawkmoth and Locke dragged in the slack that
he’d collected. ‘Easy now,’ Gargaron called gently. ‘Easy. Easy.’
He eyed the footbridge, watching for any slight movement. But for
the moment, it had steadied.

‘
Right then, Grimah,’ he called.
‘Come again now. Nice and slow. I have you.’

Grimah, trusting Gargaron, walked
two further paces… and here’s when their skywalk
collapsed.

The strut against the ravine wall
buckled; the other struts held for a sunflare but would not absorb
the sudden weight. The skywalk bent sideways.

And took Grimah with
it.

Gargaron braced himself, gripping
the rope, and leaning back. But when the rope took the horse’s
weight, it hauled Gargaron over the lip of the bridge.

9

Melai leapt into the air, half
expecting to see Gargaron go plummeting to his death, following
Grimah down onto those spiny stone stacks far below.

But when she reached him, she saw
him hanging to life from the rope.

Forty feet below him Grimah
dangled, squealing in pain, the rope coiled tight below the armpits
of his forelegs, digging into his skin, constricting his ribs. And
back there on the northwun side of the ravine, gripping the far end
of the rope, Hawkmoth and Locke hefted and grunted and tried to
keep their boots grounded against rock and gravel and
grass.

Melai swooped down and braced
herself against a builder’s rung on the pylon, holding Gargaron
with her tiny hands. ‘Don’t you fall!’ she scolded him. ‘Don’t you
dare fall?’

Hanging there, he looked across at
her, smiling. ‘I shan’t. If I can help it.’

He looked around for something to
grab onto. The bridge itself were over twenty feet above him; below
him, the remains of their footbridge had smashed and disintegrated,
strewn around rock stacks and rapids. Gargaron’s hands, his
knuckles white as bone, were beginning to slip. He considered the
builder’s rung, the rung put in place during construction in order
to aid workers to scale pylon from ground up; but just looking at
it he knew his fingers were too thick to gain sufficient purchase;
it would’ve been like a bog troll trying to get its huge fingers
through the handle of a tiny tea cup.

‘
Pull!
’ Melai screeched.
‘
Hawkmoth, Locke, pull damn you, he’s
slipping
.’

‘
Should have tied myself on,’
Gargaron grunted, grimacing, the pain in his hands ratcheting
up.

‘
Shoosh,’ Melai told him. ‘Shoosh
now. Concentrate all your strength. I order you.’

Back on the southwun lip of the
ravine, Razor, watching this, were in obvious distress, trotting
back and forth, making noise, fretting.

Melai would not let Gargaron go,
she had one arm wrapped around his sword belt, the other clasped to
the small rung. She feared if she let him go, he’d fall, that even
her tiny effort were helping to keep him there.

She gazed down at Grimah, who
kicked occasionally; the rope were digging into his flesh, his
forelegs jutting up awkwardly. Gargaron tried looking down. ‘Be
Grimah fine?’ he asked.

‘
Yes.’ But for
how much longer she could not tell. She looked back in the
direction of sorcerer and crabman, although she could not see them
for the pylon and the bridge. She called out again.
‘
Haul them up!
’
she yelled. ‘
Gargaron may not hold much
longer!
’

There were a dilemma in giant’s
mind. If Locke, Hawkmoth and Zebra were having trouble pulling him
and Grimah to safety, well, ought he to just let go, fall away to
whatever fate awaited him at ravine’s rocky base and have Grimah
saved?

You have work here
first.

Or… there were his knife. He could
have Melai cut the rope beneath him.

No. How would he live with himself
to have his steed plummet to death?

He grimaced, and grunted.

‘
Hold on,’ Melai told him sternly.
‘I do not care how much you’re hurting. Do you think your Veleyal
would have you giving up on her if your holding on meant her life?
No, she would not. So hold on damn you.’

‘
Melai. I fear it be me or
Grimah.’

Again Melai
yelled to the others. ‘
What be wrong with
you pair? Pull before you have death on your
hands!
’

Though Gargaron had a new thought
then. One that might save him and Grimah both. Shimmy down the
rope, climb passed Grimah, reach rope’s end and survey how far the
drop to the river from there might be. If it were not too great he
might perhaps survive the fall. If he were unlucky he may break a
leg on rocks. Maybe both legs if things did not entirely go his
way. Perhaps some ribs. At worst his back. But surely the sorcerer
would have some nifty remedies to put him back together.

He opened his mouth to ask Melai
if she could catch sight of rope’s end, to tell him if she could
gauge how far the drop were to the river rapids. But suddenly the
rope yanked upwards five feet and the sudden jolt made Gargaron
slip down the rope’s length, friction burning his fingers, dragging
off skin.

He had barely a moment to
appreciate what were happening when again without warning, the rope
hauled upwards. With all his remaining strength, Gargaron clung to
it and he were drawn headfirst into the chin of the bridge,
catching him beneath the overhang, the sound of the dragging rope
zinging against edge of bridge harsh against his ears.

Gargaron kicked himself free of
the overhang and were pulled up rough and unceremoniously onto the
stone bridge. Still the rope did not stop, continuing to slide up
and over the edge, beginning to fray now, almost
smoking.

Up came Grimah snorting. Despite
his burning fingers, Gargaron grabbed hold of his steed’s front
legs and put his weight behind his efforts, dragging horse up onto
the bridge. Once Grimah were safely on the span, Gargaron dropped
to his back and lay there panting.

10

Melai fluttered up and landed
beside the giant. He gazed at her, looking relieved. She reached
out and held him, her small face against his huge, rough, unshaven
cheek. He put his enormous arms around her, like a father clasping
a wee babe. ‘Thank you, Melai,’ he murmured. And then he laughed
through sheer relief. ‘I were about to fall. No doubt about it. You
gave me the strength I needed.’

As Gargaron lay there catching his
breath, Grimah bent low nuzzling his neck, leaving a thick wet
slick of slobber across his neck and chin. That both he and horse
were safe, Gargaron were too relieved to care, and simply laughed,
rolled his face to the side and gently warded his steed’s mouth
from his neck. ‘Grimah,’ he said laughing. ‘I am glad to see you
too, but hurry and fetch yourself to yonder bank before this bridge
should tumble beneath us.’

11

Attention turned now to the
problem of getting Razor across. Though Gargaron felt his first
duty were to bid sorcerer and crabman his thanks. As he and Melai
made their way to the northwun side of the ravine he did just
that.

‘
Thank us not,’ Hawkmoth told him.
‘It were the serpent who pulled you to safety.’

Gargaron eyed Zebra, where Locke
were unhitching the rope from around its wide girth. Gargaron
stepped over to the snake beast, and reached his large hand out to
it. She let him scratch her scaly neck. ‘Thank you, Zebra,’ he
said. ‘I shall fetch you more of those apples you like once we are
done here.’

‘
Oh? What be this about apples?’
Locke asked with a suspicious grin. ‘As far as I know, Zebra enjoys
no such thing.’

Gargaron clapped the crabman on
his shoulder. ‘Mine and Zebra’s little secret, I’m
afraid.’

12

Hawkmoth strode along the stone
bridge, communicating with Razor via hand signals.

‘
Are you talking with him?’ Melai
enquired intrigued, as she flew up behind him.

‘
Aye, and he is being stubborn,’
came Hawkmoth’s reply. ‘I tell him to head for Choner’s Crossing,
to find us at Sanctuary. He will be two days catching us up if he
leaves now. But the stubborn brute won’t have it. He claims there
be monsters on their way.’