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The skin on my palms and legs burned before I reached the midpoint. Adone waited on the platform, probably to avoid rocking the rope and sending me down to get up close and personal with the lizards.
By the time I’d reached the other side, my arms shook, and my legs ached. I swore I had rope burns on my ankles.
The platform I had to climb up onto appeared a mile away. “How do I get up there?”
“Ease yourself around and climb,” Adone said. “You can do it.”
That, I doubted. I wasn’t strong enough, and I wasn’t anywhere near brave enough.
“Wait there,” Adone said. He quickly walked across and jumped when he got close, landing on the platform. Reaching down, he latched onto my wrists. “Let go. I have you.”
I didn’t hesitate. He’d never let anything hurt me.
He tugged me up. When my feet landed on the platform, I collapsed against him. I hadn’t realized how scared I was. Pain licked through my body, and muscles I hadn’t realized I possessed spasmed.
“We need to keep going,” Adone said. “Can you do it?”
I struggled to give him a smile. Did I feel like continuing? No way. Would I? Hell, yes.
We turned to see what waited for us behind the barrier. They’d diverted the river to flow through this section, and from what I could tell, we had to make our way across on foot-sized rocks to reach the next platform. It looked easy, which meant it wasn’t.
“Beware,” Adone said. “I bet some of the rocks are unstable.”
I pointed. “And there’s something in the water.” Ripples coasted across the surface. Something big moved down there. “We need to go fast. Stopping to test a rock could call them to us.”
“I believe you are right. I will go first.”
I squeezed his arm. “I’ll be right behind you.”
He leaped to the first rock, and it sunk down fast, plunging into the water. But by then, he’d landed on the second and then third rocks, hopping across. As he took on each challenge, I tried to remember which one had dropped down or shifted to the side or tilted, but I lost track. There had to be thirty or so between me and the other side.
Growling, I leaped off the platform, skipping the first rock that had sunk when Adone stepped on it. I expected the one I landed on to remain stable like it had been for Adone.
It toppled, and I fell into the water.
