25
Look out!” Maryam shouted as she leaned toward the end of the small ledge. With only an instant to think and with Robard almost on top of me, I reached up and grabbed his left arm. He slammed into me, and I tried to take the blow with my back and shoulders so as not to crush Angel.
The force of Robard’s impact knocked me to my knees. I struggled mightily to hold on to him in fear of what happened next. His momentum pulled us, and though I strained to keep him on the ledge, the space was too small and he was too heavy.
“Hang on!” I shouted.
I didn’t need to tell Robard twice. As he fell past me, he threw his arms around my waist, and we continued to tumble down the side of the mountain until we jerked to a stop and crashed into the wall, knocking the wind out of me. My back ached as though a giant had used it to scrape the mud from his boots.
“Are you all right?” I asked Robard.
“When we get down from here, I am going to kill you,” he replied calmly. So he was not seriously injured.
“Are you hurt?” Maryam shouted from the ledge above us.
“No,” I answered back.
“Yes!” shouted Robard. Our plunge had woken Angel, and she squirmed against my chest.
“He’s not hurt,” I said. “He’s just mad.”
“I just fell off a mountain!” he squealed. “Mad doesn’t even begin to describe it! I told you this was a bad idea!”
“Tristan!” Maryam shouted.
“Yes?”
“I think we better do something quickly. There’s no telling how long this bush will hold your weight!” She sounded nervous.
“Robard, I’m going to let you go,” I said gently.
“What? Oh no you aren’t!” he demanded.
“I have to. I can’t hold you much longer, and Maryam thinks the bush is going to give way. Don’t worry, I’m still tied off, and if we hurry, we can get you the rest of the way down.”
“No!” he said.
“Do you have a better idea?” I asked.
“We wait here until help comes,” he said.
“Robard, there is no help coming. Maryam is going to need us to get her down. If we hang on like this much longer, the bush
Robard didn’t move at first, but then one of his hands released the iron grip he held on me and he threaded the rope around my waist.
“Are you ready?” I asked when he had tied his rope to me securely.
“Yes. No. Not really, but I am still going to kill you when we get off this rock,” he snarled.
Muttering under his breath, he pushed off with his legs. There was a tremendous feeling of relief at the temporary release of his weight, but when the rope caught again, I wasn’t prepared for the strain. I let out an anguished yell as the rope dug into my body.
“What’s wrong?” Maryam and Robard both shouted at once.
“Nothing. Keep going!” I said through clenched teeth.
Robard’s feet scrabbled at the side of the cliff, but he reached a foothold and rested his weight on it, giving me some relief.
“Ready?” he asked the moment his feet hit the shelf. I was most definitely not. When had Robard become such an eager mountain climber?
“Yes. Go,” I said, taking a deep breath.
This time he dropped a few more feet. He was now ten feet below me, and I continually let out more rope. Fifteen feet. Now twenty. He found another resting place, and I nearly cried with joy as he took the weight off the line.
He finally reached the bottom of the cliff. When he stood on firm ground, he let out a whoop, and I pulled the rope from around my waist and hung my head.
A noise from above startled me. Looking up, I almost fell myself, for there was Maryam, her rope tied around her waist, climbing down the cliff. Her feet and hands instantly found every obvious foot- or handhold, and she methodically made her way down.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “What are you tied to?”
“Climbing down. The bush will hold my weight fine,” she answered. “I could tell you were in no shape to help me.”
Maryam pushed out from the cliff wall, and having twisted a length of the rope around one leg, she let herself down until she was almost even with me.
“Now what?” I asked. She was nearly at the end of her length of rope.
“You concentrate on getting down yourself. I can make it from here on my own.”
“But you’ll run out of rope,” I said.
“No, I won’t. We’re almost down now. This is easy,” she replied.
“How did you learn to do this?” I asked.
Maryam looked at me and smiled. “Hashshashin have many mountain strongholds. There was no doubt I would make it. It was you two I was worried about,” she said as if it answered my question.
“Hey, you two! Hurry up,” Robard shouted up from below.
I pushed and clawed with my feet at the cliff face. I went slowly-too exhausted and worried my next mistake would be my last. But we had beaten the mountain. Before long, I reached the bottom with Robard and Maryam and collapsed to the ground, leaning my sore back against a convenient boulder. Every part of me ached. I untied the knots in Martine’s cape and Angel broke free from her cloth prison. I pulled my tunic over my head. Maryam checked the scrapes and bruises on my back.
“You’ll heal,” she said. When it came to injuries, Maryam was not overly sympathetic.
Robard’s near brush with death had taken a little of the edge off his anger. After five minutes he stopped threatening to kill me “as soon as I was able to stand and face him like a man,” and then we all laughed.
“Why are we laughing?” Robard asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It just feels good.”
The laughter petered out, and we sat there letting the late morning sun warm us in the face of the cool wind blowing everywhere on the mountain. After a few minutes of rest and some water from our skins, I staggered to my feet. If I sat much longer, I would never get up again, and I wanted to put as much distance between us and Sir Hugh as possible. He would have to go a long way around to reach us, but he was mounted and we were not. There was no time to waste.
The ground was steep here, but we could pick our way through the boulders and rocks lining the way. We were careful, because a fall would still mean a quick tumble down the sharp incline, but we no longer needed the ropes. Two hours later, we reached the valley floor and were once again surrounded by trees and the sounds of the forest.
I looked up at the sun and headed deeper into the woods. Maryam, Robard and Angel fell into step alongside me.
“Which way?” Maryam asked.
“North,” I replied. “We’re going home.”
26
