down.'
The men still leaning into the rope nodded. Asayaga slowly motioned with his hands and a few feet were surrendered. Then he barked a command and those pushing on the root-end gained a bit of ground. The log suddenly stopped and Dennis could see where one of the slings had slipped backwards several feet.
Asayaga saw it as well and cursed under his breath.
'Cut the supports for the hoist,' Dennis said, 'As it pitches forward run the log out.'
Asayaga looked over at Dennis with an icy glare. 'I'm running this.'
Dennis was ready to flare back but saw that all around the men were watching them, the tension ready to explode. He sensed that if the log tumbled over and went into the river a blood-bath would ensue.
He slowly extended his hands. 'You are the engineer, Asayaga, but if we are to save those children we have to do this now.'
Asayaga looked at the children manning the ropes and then back at the sling. He quickly stepped up to the edge, studied the log and the hoist, then stepped back. 'Get off from up there!' he shouted, and the man with the butter threw the bucket aside and slipped back down.
'All right, Hartraft, but if it all goes over the edge it's your decision.'
'Our decision, Tsurani.'
Dennis picked up an axe and went to one side of the hoist, Asayaga doing the same at the other side. Both ends of the hoist were resting on the bridge. If they cut them loose at the same time, he reasoned, the entire affair should pitch forward, dropping the log on the far side.
'Get ready,' Asayaga cried and raised his axe. 'When it starts to let go, you men on the log push forward. On the ropes, let go when you can't hold it any longer and don't get tangled.'
He looked over at Hartraft, then nodded and brought his axe down.
Dennis struck at nearly the same instant and the ropes snapped free, parting with an audible crack. Groaning, the hoist began to pitch forward, slowly at first and then in an instant crashing over.
The men on the end of the log shouted and ran forward, throwing their weight in.
Dennis looked up and saw the far end of the log slam down on the opposite span, bounce, hold precariously and then roll, as if about to go over the edge. A groan rose up even as the men on the root-end continued to strain, driving forward. The log snagged against the side railing of the bridge, barely a foot of its length secured to the other side.
No one moved for a moment, as if all feared that an errant step, even a word spoken, would cause the log to roll and fall. The hoist, like a crudely-fashioned necklace hung to either side.
'We need a man across there,' Asayaga hissed. 'Someone light. Get Osami.'
The boy stepped forward, nodding as Asayaga explained what had to be done. He pulled off his cloak and tunic, looked at the log, then sat down and yanked off his boots as well. Barefoot, he took a long coil of rope and slung it over his shoulder while Asayaga tied another rope around his waist. Asayaga grasped the boy by the shoulders, then let him go.
The boy stepped up onto the log and everyone fell silent. He swallowed hard and looked over at Dennis. 'I save Richard friends,' he said calmly, and then he was out over the chasm, walking slowly, upright, arms extended.
No one spoke as he placed one foot in front of another. The log sagged in the middle and it shifted slightly and a gasp went up as the boy seemed to sway, then regained his footing. Reaching the middle, he climbed over the ends of the hoist, advanced half a dozen feet then stopped. The rope trailing behind him had snagged on the hoist. Gingerly he reached down and started to untie the rope around his waist.
'Go back and unsnag it, Osami!'
Osami shook his head, untied the safety line and let it drop.
Dennis looked over at Asayaga and could see the tension in him – not just for what had to be done, but for the boy. Loosened from the tether, Osami started up the final length, the angle of his climb steepening so that he had to lean forward. Again he almost lost his footing and this time a cry went up from everyone watching.
Regaining his balance, he scrambled up the last six feet and flung himself onto the far side.
A wild cheer went up, and Dennis looked back to see more than one of his men slapping a Tsurani on the back, exclaiming over the bravery of the boy.
Osami did not hesitate. He deftly wrapped an end of rope over the log, moved back a way and flung it around a stone abutment, then ran the rope back, weaving half a dozen lengths back and forth, throwing what little weight he had into each weave then finally tying it off. Then he slid back down the log and grabbed hold of the end of the rope snagged on the hoist. Turning, he started back up, the men cheering him on.
He started to look back, smiling, and his feet slipped out from under him. Before Dennis could even react the boy plummeted, swinging in a long arc downward, desperately trying to hold on to the rope.
Asayaga braced himself, holding the other end, coiling it up over his shoulders and stepping back, screaming for Osami to hang on.
Still holding the rope, the boy swung down like a pendulum, arcing under the stone span until the rope snapped taut, nearly dragging Asayaga over the side. Dennis leapt on top of Asayaga as he lost his footing on the icy pavement and the two of them crashed down together, Dennis grabbing the rope as well.
He heard the sickening thump of the boy hitting the rocky slope under the bridge and then Osami swung back into view.
Half a dozen men were now on top of the two commanders, grabbing hold, helping to pull the boy up, and at last Dennis was able to reach over the side and grab Osami under the armpits even as the boy started to lose his grip. Other hands reached out, pulling Osami up over the side, a couple of men nearly plunging over into the precipice in their eagerness to help.
Eventually, the group collapsed back from the edge and Asayaga reached out and cradled Osami.
Gasping the boy looked up and smiled. 'I did it,' he whispered.
'Yes you did.'
Dennis could see he didn't have long to live. His face was a bloody pulp, his skull was fractured, blood pouring from his ears, and one shoulder was caved in. How the boy had managed to hang on was beyond him. He knelt down, fumbling in his haversack, and pulled out a piece of cloth to wipe the boy's face clean.
Osami's eyes were already going dark. He looked up again at Dennis and smiled. 'Saved friend, yes?'
'Yes boy, you saved us,' Dennis whispered, and then Osami was gone.
Dennis sat back as Asayaga held the boy, struggling to control himself. Then he stood up. Eyes distant he looked across the span.
'Another volunteer, take the rope across,' he said. 'Once secure, I want twenty men over to help haul the second log across: that should give us good enough footing.'
Another Tsurani already had the rope which Osami had clung to, and tying it around his waist he leapt up on to the log and started across.
Asayaga turned away. Going over to the railing, he looked over the side.
Dennis went up to join him. 'I'm sorry,' he said.
'He was my elder sister's boy. Joined us just before we set out on this insanity. It was his first mission.'
Stunned, Dennis said nothing. This was the same boy that Asayaga had been willing to kill back in the retreat long ago, the boy that Richard had insisted on saving, and who the cursed Corwin had helped as well.
Dennis put a hand on Asayaga's shoulder. 'I didn't know.'
'There was no reason to tell you. In our way, we are all of the same family, all who serve our house, so his ties to me gained him no favouritism. Even Sugama would not have thought to go after the boy to strike at me.'
'Sugama?'
'Don't you understand, don't you see anything? Haven't you learned anything of us in all this time? Sugama was my enemy, as much as you are. His clan seeks to destroy my clan; he was sent here as much to spy on me as to replace the Tondora officer who had died.'
'But you were willing to defend him back at Wolfgar's.'
'To preserve my command. I could not let you kill him like a wounded pig when he was already dying. All of us would have lost face.'
Dennis turned away and saw that the volunteer was already across, securing the second rope as a handrail for the next man to follow, and that another Tsurani was already up on the log and stepping out.
'I never could thank your Richard for what he did in the way I wanted to, as an uncle and not just as Osami's
