Battle For Tristaine Part 25

"Always." Jess's eyes sparkled at her. "But do I need you immediately? No, not until I'm fi nished on the platform. I'll make it back up faster with your help."

"I'll be there in fi ve minutes. Jesstin, do not get hurt!" Brenna ordered.

"Yes'm." Jess shouldered the rope again and jogged toward the catwalk that topped the dam.

Then she turned around and jogged back. "La.s.s?"

"What, is anything wro-?"

Jess bent Brenna over one arm and kissed her, long and sweet and deep. Then she set her on her feet again and tapped her nose with one fi nger, gently.

"Wanted to make sure we took time for that," Jess explained, and jogged back toward the catwalk.

"Good. Thanks. Yes. Good idea. Okay." Brenna closed her mouth, unzipped her inner pocket, and scanned the rocky area around her. "Somewhere safe," she muttered.

She looked out over the lake, an ominous blue expanse in the twilight, then at the dam. This ground where she and the horse stood now was out of the projected path of the fl ood. Brenna spotted a sapling that seemed pretty well anch.o.r.ed to the bank.

She opened her journal and checked the last page to read Shann's note again, then scanned the map below. She made sure the folded paper was carefully inserted and wrapped the notebook in Jess's waterproof jacket. The bright red color would be eye-catching. Brenna fi t the bundle securely in a "V" of branches and tied the sleeves tightly around the strongest one.

She took a step back, whiffi ng her bangs off her forehead, and studied the parcel that contained Tristaine's greatest treasure. It looked safe, and it was the best she could do. Brenna whispered a benediction of her own as she turned toward the lake.

The catwalk that spanned the top of the dam looked perilously narrow, and Brenna found, to her displeasure, that the urgency of their mission hadn't zapped her hatred of heights. Hatred, she reminded herself, as she trotted toward the center of the dam, not * 188 *

fear. She just didn't understand why Amazons who could design pyramids couldn't build a simple railing on a catwalk.

Jess was crouching on the platform halfway down the dam's face. She shaded her eyes to see Brenna above her. Brenna knelt and checked the rope that tethered her to the catwalk.

"We're set, Bren," Jess's voice echoed strangely in the silence.

"Say a prayer, please."

"What? What prayer?"

"Doesn't matter. We're drowning our land, la.s.s." Jess knelt and touched the switch of the timer. Then she looked into the canyon before her-the channel of the fl ood to come-and beyond it. They couldn't see Tristaine from here, but Jess gazed in that direction.

Brenna waited, in case any spectral voice wanted to whisper the right words to her. She couldn't hear what Jess was saying to the valley and to the village that was her childhood home. No words sounded in her mind, but she found she didn't need coaching.

"Thank you," Brenna whispered, "for Jesstin and for giving me this life with her."

Jess fl icked the timer's switch. She climbed to the top of the dam in record time and without incident with Brenna's help. Jess still looked like she hadn't slept in a week, but she moved as effi ciently and gracefully as ever.

"Twenty minutes until the blast?" Brenna took Jess's hand as they started back for the bank. "Then ten more before the fl ood hits the village?"

"More or less," Jess replied, and Brenna almost throttled her.

They walked the dam's catwalk quickly but carefully.

"Are you sure you can't be just a wee bit more specifi c about that timer?" Brenna asked.

"Shann and the others should be out of Tristaine by now,"

Jess said. "But not out of the valley. So aye, querida, we're counting on a solid twenty minutes."

Brenna didn't see the quarrel from Patana's crossbow, but she heard it. It fell short, shattering the edge of the beam an inch from Jess's boot. Jess stiffened instinctively and lost her balance.

* 189 *

Jess barely had time to shake Brenna's desperate fi ngers loose before she toppled off the dam and fell fi fteen feet, to hit the cold water of the lake below.

"Jesstin!" Brenna almost followed her off the catwalk.

The deep lake swallowed Jess whole for a horrifi cally long time. Then she burst up heaving for air, and Brenna remembered winter, and mountain lakes, and hypothermia- Another crossbow quarrel ricocheted off the face of the dam, yards from Jess's right arm. Brenna whirled and saw Patana at the other end of the catwalk, already inserting a fresh bolt into place.

Her small eyes were pinned on Jess, her square jaw clenched.

Jess surged up out of the water; her hands scrabbled for any purchase on the smooth surface of the dam.

J'heika, rise!

Brenna swiftly tied the rope to one of the brackets on the side of the catwalk and tossed the other end down to Jess. She would become too weak to climb if she stayed in that water another second.

She could be too weak even now, but Brenna had to stop Patana before she could worry about that. Once the rope left her hands, she shot to her feet and ran.

Patana didn't even glance Brenna's way at fi rst. She fi red another quarrel, then fi nally looked up. A wave of shock pa.s.sed over her fl ushed face, and she fl ipped the crossbow into the sling on her back and faced her.

A calm voice whispered to Brenna. Don't worry about Jesstin now, la.s.s. You've achieved your fi rst goal. Your enemy stopped shooting. Now, listen well.

Brenna ran, staying to the center of the narrow catwalk, and listened. Take her down. You can't win standing. She'll knock you off your feet. She'll fi ght to keep from falling off the dam. You fi ght to get her down and hold on to her until Jess can reach you.

It wasn't the same inner voice that kept calling for J'heika, but it offered the sanest, most thorough advice she had received from Wherever yet, and Brenna intended to follow it. She adjusted her speed, aimed for Patana, and just kept going until she plowed into her.

* 190 *

Patana barked in surprise and fl ew backward to land on her back on the catwalk. Brenna sprawled on top of her and held on, and, so far, she was letter-perfect.

But Whoever was advising her should have taken into consideration that Patana was the second-best wrestler in Tristaine.

Grunting, Patana fl ipped Brenna off her with a sharp jerk of her hips and used the momentum to wrench her to one side. Brenna scrambled in terror, already feeling the abyss of the canyon that yawned below.

Patana kneed Brenna in the stomach and kicked her over the side.

Brenna fi nally stopped falling off the catwalk when she was caught short by a vicious jerk around her waist. The blue shawl Dorothea had given her had snagged on one of the catwalk's cleats.

She dangled by it, the edge of the catwalk a good two feet over her head.

Stop kicking, young dolt! The voice roared, but Brenna's primal mind ignored the brilliant advisor who had gotten her into this. She fl ailed in helpless terror, expecting any second to hear the sickening rip of fabric tearing, then her own scream as she plummeted.

Stop kicking, the voice suggested calmly, and Brenna forced herself to hold still. She could hear the dry creaking of her makes.h.i.+ft sling. She stared down at her boots, rocking back and forth above the dizzying drop.

"This is not how to get me over a fear of heights!" she screamed to no one.

Brenna heard footsteps come to the edge of the catwalk, and Patana's breath rasped above her. She couldn't see her, so she didn't know if the Amazon had reloaded the crossbow. She a.s.sumed she had.

"We'll all die in a few minutes, bruja." Patana was breathing hard. "I'm just sending you and, more important, your smug b.i.t.c.h of a wife into the arms of our Grandmothers a bit early. I'll give you a moment. Tell your G.o.ds you're coming, Brenna."

Jess's face fl ashed through Brenna's mind, and then Shann, Kyla, Camryn, Sammy. But Brenna had no more time for preparation * 191 *

or anything else. She heard the distant tw.a.n.g of a bowstring and tightened spasmodically as she heard the arrow strike home.

She didn't know it was an arrow instead of a crossbow bolt until she heard Patana's guttural cry. She toppled off the catwalk and fell past Brenna, the feathered shaft of an arrow protruding from her neck.

Brenna instinctively lunged to try to catch Patana before she vanished forever, and the shawl securing her to the bracket ripped.

She dropped a full three inches before very cold, wet fi ngers s.n.a.t.c.hed her wrist.

"Brenna." Jess grunted with effort as she caught her full weight.

Soaking wet, she was lying on top of the dam, one arm extended, her fi ngers locked like a vise around Brenna's slender wrist.

Jess is alive. The second bolt Patana fi red didn't kill her. She's out of that freezing water. Brenna registered all of that fi rst. She wondered, briefl y, who had shot the arrow that killed Patana since Jess had no bow. But, mostly, she clung to Jess's wrist and turned to brace herself as well as she could on the surface of the dam. There were virtually no footholds. She looked up and saw Jess's white face.

"I've got you, Bren." Jess sounded insanely calm. "I won't let go."

"Good," Brenna gasped. She resisted a powerful urge to look over her shoulder at the canyon below. "C-can you? Hold on? But you can't pull me up, Jess."

"Help's coming," Jess said. Myrine's ashen face appeared beside her.

Myrine lowered herself to the catwalk beside Jess and reached down to grasp Brenna's arm. "All right, Jesstin, pull!"

Together, the two warriors pulled Brenna up, by inches.

Gasping and struggling, Brenna made it over the top of the catwalk and sprawled on its cold plywood surface beside them.

Brenna groped for Jess and found her, then folded her into her arms.

Myrine got to her feet and looked down at them silently, her eyes fi lled with tears. Then she stepped to the edge of the catwalk * 192 *

and gazed down into the canyon below. For a horrible moment, Brenna thought she would jump.

"I knew why she was coming here when I saw her ride out of the village," Myrine said quietly. "I followed her as soon as I could fi nd a horse."

Brenna looked past Myrine and saw two other horses cropping gra.s.s beside Hakan's Valkyrie.

"Myrine," Jess said. "Adanin-"

"Patana loved Tristaine, Jesstin, in her way." The scar on Myrine's face was livid against her pallor. "She loved me, in her way."

"Myrine," Brenna murmured, "I'm so-"

"We have fi fteen minutes tops!" Jess yelled.

Myrine helped them up and they dashed for the three horses.

By the time they rode back into Tristaine, Brenna fi gured they had less than fi ve minutes before the blast. She was plastered against Jess again, and no doubt her arms squeezed far too tightly, but Valkyrie's speed coming back down the mountain had been almost as frightening as dangling off the catwalk.

No. Untrue. Nowhere near.

Rifl e fi re still rose from the village, but the volleys were becoming more isolated. Brenna saw people running. Too many people. Some were Amazons, and her stomach did a sickening fl ip.

Most of Tristaine's horses had gone with the migration. It was too late to get out of the valley on foot.

The fl ood would kill more than animals and trees.

The three horses clattered into the stadium, Myrine leading Patana's mount. The arena was all but deserted, but it wasn't empty.

Brenna saw Theryn just as Jess veered Valkyrie toward her. She knelt in the dirt of the fi ghting fi eld beneath the empty review stand.

Grythe lay before her, covered to the chin with a beautiful blanket, her limbs peacefully arranged.

"Theryn, come on!" Jess pulled Valkyrie to a dancing stop.

"Patana is dead. Take her horse!"

"Caster's alive, Jesstin." Theryn looked up at them. "She's probably in the main lodge, directing her mercenaries from there.

* 193 *

Some of her soldiers left, but some stayed. Some of my Amazons stayed, too, to fi ght them. And some of yours."

"Theryn," Jess was obviously struggling to match her calm tone, "we have no time! Get on your horse."

"If by some miracle Caster makes it out of here, you know she won't give up, Jess." Theryn rose and gazed down at Grythe's wild, beautiful face, peaceful at last in death. "We can't risk her survival.

Caster would come for Shann, no matter how deep in the mountains she builds our new Tristaine. I'm staying to see Caster dead."

"Oh, Theryn, please don't be an idiot!" Brenna realized she was being less than diplomatic. "You'd be throwing your life away!"

"My life is over." Theryn looked down at Grythe. "I won't fi nd a new one, not in Shann's Tristaine, where I'd be reviled as a traitor."

A fl at, ugly percussive sound reached them. It was faint, but it shook Brenna to her core.

"Jesstin..." she whispered, and Jess's cold hand covered her own.

The dam was crumbling. Ziwa was free.

Brenna saw it happen, in her mind's eye.

The impact of the explosion shattered the main support beam and blew a substantial hole through the dam. The ma.s.sive lake began surging through the breach in the wall that had held it back for generations. The crus.h.i.+ng velocity of the water widened the hole, then shattered most of the dam, surging into the canyon below.