Behind me the scorpion shrieks, but as far as I can tell, it doesn’t fall.
I slice at the remaining rope, but this one is more secure, and in the seconds it takes me to saw through it, I sense the scorpion gaining on me.
The rope is rubbing blisters into my left hand now. Sweat beads at my fingertips, loosening my grip. Still, the rope only frays, rather than snapping. I can’t get a good angle on it, not while I’m trying to keep from plummeting.
The scorpion snaps at my foot. I have to swing it out of the way, and only barely succeed.
My abdomen feels as though it’s going to rip in half.
“You have to climb, Nox!” Zora screams down at me.
I want to shout that I can’t until the scorpion falls. That if it reaches steady ground, it will chase her down and kill her, but I can’t find the breath for it.
It’s then that I hear the sawing.
I glance up to find Zora shearing at the rope with a second knife she must have just pulled out of her boot.
“I said climb,” she practically spits.
I stuff the knife into my belt and do as she says.
My muscles scream at me during the ascent. I’m not going to make it. My head is still swirling from the effects of the venom, and even if it weren’t, the scorpion would still get to me before I reached land.
But I climb all the same.
I can’t help but notice that Zora is on the last section of braids.
She glances at me, her knife hesitating at the last braid. Her eyes widen in horror.
“Just do it,” I whisper. It’s all the breath I have left, anyway.
She glances between me and the scorpion behind me.
Zora grits her teeth.
“Jump.”
And then she brings the knife down on the rope.
In the half-second while it’s still swinging, I yank myself up on the rope with all my might and launch myself skyward.
The rope slices in two, and for a moment, I’m weightless again. Zora’s knife goes hurtling past my face, slicing me on the cheek on the way down as she drops it.
Time stands still.
And then Zora’s hand clamps around mine.
She lets out a shrill cry, and something pops. My body slams against the side of the chasm, but still she doesn’t let go, holding herself to the stake that once held the weight of the bridge.
I use the last of my strength to climb up her arm. I have to grit my teeth at the sound of her whimpers, but still she doesn’t let go.
When I pull myself onto the ledge, I find I’ve never experienced ground so soft.
And when I listen for the sound of the scorpion hitting the ground to help judge how deep the canyon is below the fog, the sound never comes.
CHAPTER 34
NOX
“I didn’t hear it hit the bottom,” says Zora.
We’re both lying on our backs on the earth. I’m fairly sure both of us are content never to get back up, so long as we can feel solid ground underneath us for the rest of eternity.
“What?”
“I didn’t hear it hit the bottom,” she repeats. “For all we know, it’s just lurking on the edge of the chasm wall waiting to pounce on us.
I don’t bother stifling my groan. “Well, why don’t you take a look and see?”
“What if it’s waiting for me to do that, and as soon as I look over the edge, it plans to chomp off my head?”
I let my head flop over to the side so I can stare at my sister. She’s already staring at me, looking perfectly serious.
“I’m not going near that cliff again,” I say.
“Why not?”
“Because that’s like flirting with death. You don’t survive what we just survived, then go peeking over the edge of a chasm. It’s just asking to have the ground crumble out beneath you.”
