“Are you, now?” he calls over his shoulder.
Not really.
“We’ll take a shortcut. Two days, and I’ll have you inside the city. Alive.”
“Two days?” I groaned. Measuring travel in days is commonplace here, although it’s not a very scientific system. Two days can mean traversing twenty kilometers of rough terrain, or it can mean sixty kilometers of good road. Generally, though, people are good at estimating how long any given trip will take. Especially if they’re experts in their District, which I am not, here.
“One, if you hurry.”
As tired as I am, I push my short, aching legs to move faster.
#
Dusk falls fast. Shadows turn deep gray, fade into midnight blue and then suddenly, pitch black. The jungle canopy blots out the stars.
“Here we go. Up, Sunshine.”
“Up, where?”
Tovian takes my hand and presses it to the warm rock. My fingers curl into a niche. A handhold. He takes my other hand and reaches a little higher, tucking it into another niche. The only thing preventing him from pressing against my back is the bulk of my small pack. I shiver. Not from the cold.
“Got it.”
I climb.
The small holes are evenly spaced, carved into the volcanic rock wall. I keep going, remembering to use my legs. Up and up. Above the canopy of trees, into cooler air. Abruptly, they drop out. I place my palm on a ledge and climb the last few inches with shaking legs. I roll over and sit up.
A cave.
The only predators that could get this high into the cliff face are the smallest of dragons. Tigers and wolf-bears can’t climb. We’re safe. Brilliant.
Tovian hauls himself over the edge a minute later. I scoot over to make room for him.
“All right?” he asks.
“I’m good.”
We sit there, feet dangling over the edge, looking out over the treetops, listening to the sounds of the night. Birds sing. Insects chirp and whine. A harsh cry in the distance must be from a dragon. The sky above is pale blue, fading fast. Stars shine in the unblemished canopy above us.
It’s the first time I’ve seen my country at any kind of peace in weeks. My soul hurts to think of the destruction down below, just out of sight. The only indication of war is the plume of smoke rising far in the distance, in the direction of the Grasslands District where fires rage out of control. From here, the island’s sloping volcanic rock wall is clearly visible as it descends down to the curling hook that conceals our port town from view.
“Tomorrow, we’ll continue climbing,” Tovian says after a few minutes of companionable silence. He points to the long cliff. “We can make it by early afternoon if we move fast and go overland.”
“Won’t we be exposed to gunfire up there?”
He shrugged. “You will be. I blend in.”
“How reassuring,” I grumble. My stomach chimes in right then with a loud gurgle.
“Come on.” Tovian pushes up, smiling. “I want to show you something.”
“Does it involve food?”
The look he casts me over his shoulder makes my insides go slippery and hot. The warm humor in his expression only enhances his good looks—not that he needs any help in the hotness department.
Whereas Lorcan…I really need to stop comparing him to Lorcan. Still, I can’t help it. My friend’s good looks are severe and stoic. I can hardly picture him smiling, or laughing. Intent and focused, yes. Deadly and beautiful.
Lorcan’s sense of humor runs to flashes of insouciance and occasionally biting wit. He hides so much. Whereas Tovian is more like me: an open book.
