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“A bush will do.” Lara giggled, pushing the lantern at him. “Can you hold this for me?”
Relieving herself behind the cover of a tree, Lara returned to the guard and retrieved the lantern. Holding it up, she marked how he squinted and blinked from the brightness. “Do you suppose she’ll be all right?” Lara gestured to the outhouse. “Do you think we should . . . ?”
“No!” The thought of interrupting Nana in the toilet was clearly not something he cared to risk. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“I hope so.” Lara gave him a winning smile, then retreated to the house. Nana would be shitting for hours, but she’d be fine come morning. Snuffing the lantern, she hung it on the hook and went inside.
But she didn’t shut the door all the way.
Counting to five, she eased it back open, greeted by nothing but blackness. Her eyes hadn’t adjusted from the brilliant light of the lantern, but that meant neither would have the guard’s. Moving blind, Lara edged around the corner of the house where she waited until she could make out the shadows of the trees, then she dropped to the ground, crawling silently next to Nana’s garden wall until she was in the jungle.
The trees on this island weren’t nearly as thick as they were on Midwatch, faint moon and starlight filtering through the leaves, allowing Lara to move at a slow trot up the path toward the bridge pier. Any sound she made was covered by the ocean breeze, but she paused occasionally to listen for sounds of pursuit. There were none.
The faint scent of wet rock drifted over her nose, strange and yet familiar, and after a heartbeat, Lara recognized it as the unique odor of the bridge stone. Moving more cautiously, lest there be guards, she crept up the path until, through the trees, she made out the large shadow of the pier rising up into the night. A shadow that spread out north and south: the bridge.
Picking her way through the trees, Lara searched for any sign of a guard, but there was none, so she made her way to the base of the pier. It was constructed from the combination of a natural rock outcropping and bridge stone, and it held the bridge perhaps twenty feet above the ground. The terrain around it was rocky, so there was no obvious path leading to the entrance she knew was there. Lara ran her fingernail against the expanse of bridge stone that made up the pier, searching the base for the outline of the door, but she soon gave up. There were too many scratches and marks, and she didn’t have that much time. So she resorted to pushing on the surface, throwing her weight against the stone in the hopes it would open.
Nothing.
Swearing, Lara went to the part of the pier that was natural stone. Kicking off her heavy boots and tucking them into a shadow, she started climbing. Higher and higher she rose, back and shoulders burning from the effort. She reached the bottom of the bridge, feeling along the side of it and smiling as she found linear striations in the stone that provided just enough handholds for her to climb. Her fingers screaming at her, Lara scrambled up the side of the bridge, rolling onto the top.
Darkness spread out beneath her in an endless sea of night, only a few pinpricks of light from the island’s interior breaking the velvety blackness. Moving slowly, Lara trailed her fingers down the middle of the bridge, knowing that she’d eventually find a mile-marker twin to the one inside.
Sweat dribbled down her back, her internal clock telling her that she needed to get back to Nana’s house, but she pressed on until she found it. Then she strode back to the pier, counting her carefully measured paces.
Only to hear voices coming from the opposite direction.
“Goddamn idiots. What were they thinking parking a whole merchant party above Gamire for the night?”
It was Jor. He and who knew how many others were on top of the bridge with her.
Heart thudding, Lara dropped to her stomach, crawling to the edge and peering over. Below, a group exited from the trees, one of them carrying a jar of a faintly glowing substance.
“They don’t know they’re above Gamire, Jor.” Lia’s voice. “That’s the whole damn point.”
“Doesn’t make it less of a pain in our asses.”
Lara rolled to the opposite edge from the party below, then carefully lowered herself down the side, her sweating fingers quivering from the effort.
“Are you two about finished up there?”
Aren’s voice. One of Lara’s hands slipped, and she gasped, dangling from one hand until she regained her grip.
“We had a look. There’s a merchant party camped for the night right below us, and the topside hatch is too close for us to enter undetected. It’s a three-mile walk either direction to the next hatch, and with those winds blowing in, I wouldn’t advise it. No one is looking to spend the night tied to the bridge top in the pouring rain.”
Aren let out a weary sigh. “By boat it is, then.”
“And rough waters. I hope whatever Nana gave your lovely bride will settle her stomach enough for the journey. Though something strong might be in order to deal with her damned panic.”
“Leave Lara alone.” Aren’s voice wasn’t amused. “She was raised in the desert, and she can’t swim. Falling in the water is a valid fear.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jor muttered, and Lara used the sound to clamber down farther. When she was ten feet from the bottom, she jumped, her bare feet making only the faintest slap as she hit the ground and rolled, taking five long steps until she was out of sight in the trees. Mud squished between her toes as she circled around, watching as Aren rested his hands against the pier, one above the other, and pressed twice. A faint click, and a panel of rock swung open. He went inside.
Above, Jor and Lia had looped a rope through one of the many rings embedded in the bridge and were climbing down the pier side by side. Lia was pulling the rope through the loop when Aren reemerged and said, “There’s someone sleeping right against the bloody door.”
“Like I said,” Jor replied. “Idiots.”
“It is what it is. Let’s go.” Aren started down the path toward Nana’s home. To retrieveher,she realized.
