Chunks of flying rock pelted my face. Choking dust clogged my nose and coated my tongue in a layer of grit. The concussion battered my ears, filling my head with a high-pitched ringing that made it hard to think and impossible to hear. I staggered back to my feet and saw just how close I’d come to death. The rock had landed less than a yard from where I’d tumbled to a stop. If I’d been even a half-second slower, there’d be Jace jelly all over the place.
The light from the hole in the ceiling had banished the shadows, but the dust was too thick for its rays to show me much. Other than the rock that had nearly crushed me, my surroundings were obscured by a thick veil of crushed stone and falling sand. There was no way for me to tell if my friends were all right, had been crushed by the rockfall that had almost killed me, or plummeted into the ravine. Calling out to them wouldn’t help. I was still deaf from the near fatal rockfall. If I made any noise, it was as liable to draw my enemies as allies.
Silently cursing, I crouched down and felt along the floor for the edge of the chasm. Every foot I moved without finding one of my friends or the ravine added to the dread in my heart. It was impossible to bear the thought of losing my allies when we were so close to the end of our journey. They couldn’t be dead.
I wouldn’t allow that.
The dust cloud finally thinned enough for me to see the chasm. It lay a few yards ahead of me, gaping so wide I was amazed I’d made it across. The real question was whether my friends had been as lucky. I crawled to the edge of the abyss, frantic for some sign of my allies. The stony lip crumbled under the weight of my hand, forcing me to drop prone and ease back to avoid plummeting to my doom. There was no sign of the three most important people in my life below me. Nothing as far as I could see to my left, either. I prayed that was a good sign and shifted my attention to the right.
My heart stopped.
Eric hung from a fallen chunk of the ceiling that had landed near the edge of the abyss. He’d dug his fingers into the soft stone up to the second knuckle to support not only his weight, but Abi, who clung to his left wrist, and Clem, who dangled from Abi’s right ankle. The three of them were precariously balanced against the weight of the sandstone Eric had grabbed. The slightest shift in their balance would send them all plunging into the darkness.
There was no time to figure out the best way to approach this problem. My friends were one wrong move from death, and the only solution I saw involved brute force. I scrambled over to them, yawning wide to clear the ringing from my ears, and slid to a stop next to the stone that had saved their lives.
“I’ll pull you up,” I said.
“Hurry,” Eric said, though I read his lips more than heard him.
A chunk of sandstone broke off from the rock, and Eric’s index finger lost its grip.
Silver flashes flickered through the ruins, a sure sign that the battle between Sanrin and my mother’s forces still raged. I hoped they fought forever. I could use the time.
My first plan had been to grab the stone and lift my team out of danger. Up close, though, I saw how badly fractured the support was. Move it the wrong way, and the whole thing would shatter and send my friends plummeting to their deaths.
Bad idea.
Instead, I summoned my serpents and activated the Thief’s Shield. I drained strength aspects from the stone further back from the edge of the ravine, well away from the area that supported my team. My serpents were adept at that work and quickly stockpiled steely gray motes in my aura. I took far more than I thought I’d need, because this was the time to be greedy. Satisfied with the aspects I’d harvested, I hurried back to the ledge and went to work saving my friends’ lives.
The first step was to stabilize the weakest points in the slab’s aura. The strength aspects slid easily into those gaps, pushing out the weakness. It took longer than I would have liked, but after a minute I’d transformed the crumbling sandstone into a much sturdier hunk of rock. I then turned my attention to Eric’s aura, which was riddled with fatigue aspects that were leaching away his strength. I dislodged as many of those as I dared and replaced them with strength, careful not to implant too many. I’d need a bunch for myself, too.
“Jace,” Eric said as I worked. “Not trying to rush you, man, but we need to wrap this up, like, immediately.”
There was no time to ask Eric what he meant, and I couldn’t spare any attention to look. I’d reached the most delicate part of the whole operation, and I needed all my focus to find exactly which part of the stone to grab. The slab’s balance was so close to tipping into the abyss I had to get it right the first time.
“Jace!” Eric shouted.
I pushed jinsei into my channels and grabbed the massive chunk of sandstone at the best spot I’d found in my limited time. It wasn’t perfect, but I hoped it would be good enough. I held on for dear life and dragged the massive slab backward. My arms and legs screamed in protest. My spine creaked like a tree about to fall. I ignored the pain and dug in my heels. One step back, two steps back,
