She and Keris raced toward the bridge, Bermin’s boots pounding in pursuit. Ahead, the last few injured were struggling onto the far side. Keris’s feet hit the bridge, then hers. They just needed to get across it—
A weight slammed into her back, crushing the thought and what hope she had of escaping this alive.
ZARRAH SLAMMED INTO his back, knocking him from his feet and sending the bridge swinging
sideways. Keris rolled, and suddenly there were no longer planks of wood beneath his body.
Only open air.
He grasped wildly, hand latching on to a rope and his shoulder nearly dislocating as he fell to dangle from one arm beneath the bridge. Below him was only blackness, but Keris could hear the water. Knew that the prison was doing its best to pull him back to its heart.
It was going to have to try harder.
Reaching up, Keris caught hold of the rope with his other hand. Through the planks, he could see Bermin had Zarrah pinned beneath his tremendous bulk of muscle, close to triple her weight and crushing her.
Anger chased away reason, and reaching up, Keris caught hold of Bermin’s sword belt. Then he allowed his weight to drop. The other man grunted in surprise as he was pulled sideways, catching his balance with a rope. But not before Zarrah took advantage.
Wriggling out from under him, she rolled onto her back and kicked, heels catching Bermin in the face even as Keris heaved, using the man’s belt to pull himself back onto the bridge.
“You bitch,” Bermin shrieked, reaching blindly. Zarrah scrabbled backward.
But not quick enough.
Bermin caught her ankle, spinning her sideways so that she was dangling upside down from the bridge.
“I’ll drop her,” Bermin said. “Don’t think that I won’t.”
Keris went still.
Behind him, Bermin’s soldiers were easing onto the bridge, and once they reached the skirmish, this was over. They’d throw Keris over the edge and take Zarrah prisoner, then cut the ropes to keep the others from coming to their aid.
He needed to take away that option.
Ripping the knife in his boot free, he sawed at one of the mooring ropes. As it started to fray, he shoved the blade between his teeth and swung beneath the bridge.
The mooring rope snapped, the bridge tipping sideways and spilling one of the soldiers into the water. Bermin shouted, scrambling for a handhold.
And letting go of Zarrah.
She screamed, but Keris caught her with his legs, her weight nearly pulling him loose. Her hands clawed at him before latching on to his belt, her ankles hooking around his neck. Upside down, she clung to him. “Hold on,” he shouted, the blade between his teeth cutting his tongue.
“As though I have a goddamn choice!”
The bridge swung from side to side as Bermin’s soldiers struggled to keep their grip on the tipped planks, Bermin clutching the mooring ropes with one hand and reaching wildly for Keris with the other. Keris edged away from him, his arms shuddering from the strain of supporting his own weight and Zarrah’s as the bridge swung back and forth.
Bermin crawled after him. “I’m going to kill you both,” he snarled. “Rid the world of you, to hell with what she says. She doesn’t control me!”
A thousand quips about mothers, sons, and apron strings filled Keris’s head, but he couldn’t speak clearly with a dagger clenched between his teeth.
Zarrah abruptly heaved on his belt and unhooked one of her ankles from around his neck. Keris shouted as his trousers edged over his hips, but then she had a leg over one of the mooring ropes, her ass hitting him in the face each time the bridge bounced.
“Climb!” he shouted, again cutting his tongue, blood dripping down his chin. But it didn’t matter as Zarrah’s body strained upward, fingers latching on to the rope.
“Got it!”
Her weight disappeared from him, and letting go with one hand, Keris took hold of his knife.
Spitting blood, Keris sawed at one of the three remaining moorings, laughing wildly as it snapped and the whole bridge twisted, spilling two more soldiers into the water, though the Prince held on.
Only two ropes to go.
Bermin’s face twisted, seeing Keris’s plan, and he crawled along the bouncing length of boards and rope, reaching.
“Get to the other side!” Keris shouted at Zarrah.
But Bermin was moving faster.
Ignoring Keris, he reached for Zarrah’s ankle, cursing when she kicked him but then catching hold of her boot.
Keris let go with one hand to use his knife to slash at the Prince, but the weapon only glanced off the man’s leather armor.
“Cut the ropes!” Zarrah shouted, struggling to get free of her cousin’s grip. “Hurry!”
Keris sawed at another rope as Zarrah warred with Bermin over her boot above him, the bridge jerking from side to side, doing its best to spill all three of them into the water below.
The rope abruptly snapped, and everything dropped with a jerk, a single remaining mooring
stretched between cliffs the only thing holding them above the water.
And Keris hanging nose to nose with Bermin.
“Stab him!” Zarrah screamed from where she dangled, but his knife had been lost to the water below.
Bermin reached for Keris, fingers catching hold of his sleeve. “You’re going to kill us both, you idiot!” Keris shouted, but Bermin only grinned.
“I will go to the Great Thereafter with honor because I do so sending you to hell.”
His fingers tightened on Keris’s sleeve, clearly intending to use his weight to rip both of them from the bridge and send them plunging to their deaths.
Then an arrow sliced between them, severing the last remaining rope.
For a heartbeat, Bermin’s grip on his sleeve kept them together; then the fabric tore.
Keris sucked in a desperate breath as he and Bermin fell away from each other, his fingers squeezing the rope as he dropped with terrifying speed toward the water below.
His fall ceased with a jerk that nearly pulled his shoulders from their sockets, his body swinging into the cliff wall, the impact nearly breaking his grip on the dangling end of the bridge.
Zarrah.
His eyes shot skyward, finding her clinging to the tangled ropes and boards of the bridge just above him.
A roar of fury stole Keris’s attention. On the opposite side, Bermin hung from the other half of the bridge. He was climbing, massive arms bulging as he raced toward the top, where his two remaining soldiers peered over the edge.
“Climb, Keris!” Aren yelled from above. “We need to get off this damn island!”
Ignoring the pain in his arms, Keris dragged himself up.
Thunk!
Zarrah cursed, and Keris risked an upward glance to see an arrow embedded in the wood next to her hand.
“Climb!” he shouted, again cutting his tongue, blood dripping down his chin. But it didn’t matter as
“Bermin is pulling arrows out of corpses,” Aren shouted. “Shoot the soldiers, not the Prince!”
Faster.
The rough boards tore the skin from his hands, but Keris didn’t feel the pain. Felt only the fear of having gotten so close, only to lose her in a way that there would be no chance of rescue.
Spitting blood, Keris sawed at one of the three remaining moorings, laughing wildly as it snapped and Thunk!
Another arrow sank into the planks, nearly striking Zarrah’s hand. She lost her grip, dangling from one hand as Keris climbed up beside her. Bracing his shoulders against the smooth rock of the cliff, Bermin’s face twisted, seeing Keris’s plan, and he crawled along the bouncing length of boards andhe twisted the bridge so that the boards obscured their shots. “Climb. Keep behind the boards.”