'Machaendranathar must be beneath here.' Kosala hurried to the central ring-bolt. 'There is a single slab here, but it's heavy, Bradan. I need your help!'
Even working together, they could hardly budge the central slab. They turned the ring bolt and heaved, with the slab moving about a finger's width from the floor and slamming back down as their strength failed.
'There must be a knack to this,' Kosala said. 'I'm as strong as any man, and you're no weakling.'
'We'll have to lift it and wedge it open with something,' Bradan looked around the covered bridge. 'We'll have to hurry. Bhim's army could return at any time.'
'We'll try this!' Grabbing a spear, Kosala hurried back to the slab. 'Now, on the count of three. One, two, three!' Again they managed to lift the slab a crack before Kosala thrust the spear butt into the small opening. 'Now rest and gather your strength.'
Bradan nodded and relaxed his grip. Immediately he did, the slab slammed back into place, snapping the spear-butt as if it had been a twig. 'That didn't work. There must be another way.'
'Two spears?' Kosala asked. 'No…'
'The other slabs are smaller,' Bradan said. 'If we can lift one of them, we might use it as a wedge.'
It took them only a minute to lift the much smaller slab nearest the northernmost tower and carry it back.
'Lift!' Kosala said, and for the third time they hauled the central slab up. 'I'll hold it.' Kosala's muscles trembled with the strain. 'Hurry!'
Bradan scraped the smaller slab into place. 'There!'
Kosala relaxed. They looked at each other, sweat dripping from their faces.
'If we twist the smaller slab onto its side,' Bradan suggested, 'it will force the larger one higher, and then we can maybe push it all the way up.'
Twisting the smaller slab was easier than expected, and gradually they created a sufficiently wide gap for them to grab the central slab and scrape it free. The gaping hole revealed the dizzying drop beneath.
'Maybe you're not a spy for Dhraji!' Kosala was gasping with effort.
They looked down on the iron cage that swung slowly back and forth. 'How do we get down there?' Bradan asked.
The cage was a good thirty feet below them, suspended by a single chain attached to the underside of the bridge by an arm-thick staple. As it rubbed against the staple, the chain creaked ominously, with fragments of rust falling every few seconds. Sitting cross-legged inside the cage, Machaendranathar looked up, his eyes quiet above a long beard. 'You don't get down,' he said. 'The other guards lower food and water by a rope. There is no other way.'
'How did you get in?' Bradan asked.
'They put me in when the cage was on the bridge,' Machaendranathar said. 'Twenty men and the rakshasa that pretends to be Dhraji lowered me down.' He sounded as calm as if he were sitting under a tree in the centre of a village.
'We're going to try and rescue you,' Kosala said.
'I know.' Machaendranathar did not move.
'Do they ever let you out?' Kosala asked.
'No. This is where I am.' Machaendranathar continued to sit cross-legged on the bars that made up the floor of his cage.
'Hello, man in the cage!'
Even Machaendranathar seemed surprised as the female voice interrupted them.
'Who said that?' Kosala spun around with his sword ready. There was nobody else on the bridge.
'I said that.' Melcorka climbed on top of the cage and sat there, smiling, as it swayed hundreds of feet above the ground.
'Mel! How did you get here?' Bradan stared at her.
'I climbed.' Melcorka sounded surprised at the question. 'How else could I get up? I can't fly like the birds. I climbed up the cliff and hand-walked along the underside of the bridge.'
Bradan looked down the vertical cliff with its meagre patches of vegetation and stretches of ice-smooth rock. He remembered that Melcorka had grown up on a small Hebridean island where much of the diet comprised birds' eggs retrieved from the cliffs. 'You have to be careful, Mel!' Bradan tried to still the hammering of his heart.
'It's fun,' Melcorka said and proved it by pushing with her feet, so the cage swung harder. 'Do you want out, man?'
'I do,' Machaendranathar said. 'And so do you, I believe. You want to be released from the cage that is trapping your mind.' He looked at Bradan. 'I see you know this young woman.'
'That is Melcorka from Alba.' Bradan made quick introductions. 'A witch or a demon cursed her to lose her strength and her mind.'
'I thought as much.' Machaendranathar remained calm.
'Where is the door to your cage?' Melcorka asked.
'There is no door,' Machaendranathar said. 'The whole bottom swings open. One day they will open it and allow me to drop.'
'If I open it, you will be free,' Melcorka said.
'If you open it, young woman, I will fall to the ground.'
'Not if I catch you,' Melcorka said.
'You haven't the strength,' Machaendranathar said.
'Bradan has.' Melcorka looked upward. 'Bradan carried me for miles.'
Bradan glanced at the fearful drop to the ground and looked away quickly. 'I can't come down there. I am dizzy even looking down.'
'Yes you can, silly.' Melcorka hung over the edge, balancing with one hand. 'See? It's safe unless you let go.'
'It has to be you, Bradan,' Kosala said. 'I am not built for climbing, and the woman doesn't have the strength. Hurry, before the garrison return.'
If he did not free Machaendranathar, Bradan reasoned, the nine Siddhars would never be together and the world could not be balanced, which meant that Melcorka would be cursed forever. He had to try.
Oh, dear God, give me strength.
Taking a deep breath, Bradan gathered his nerve and swung over the gap. Taking hold of the chain, he lowered himself cautiously down, one link at a time. The wind grabbed at him, pushing him this way and that until his feet made contact with the iron
