110 - Whispered Curses

“Oyuck eatin’, glasschewing, snake sucking, sand eatin’, boy buggerin’, blood drinkin’...” Kyrus’s whispered curses, his lips and chest were the only part of him moving, to pull enough air to hiss imprecations.  The rest of him was still as he could make it, poised over the drop as he was.  His curses were directed generally, though he turned his ire on the rising wind as it tugged at feathers and veils and sashes and threatened to send him and Pikro’s corpse tumbling down.

“Reach up one hand very slowly, son.” Both Ilax and Kyrus were behind him now.  They’d strung a pair of lines over his head and just now had them secure between the two anchor points of rock. The broken spire hung bridged in the chimney, so far unmoving.  Maya stood on the broken neck of stone, her rock-lizards seething around the ends to make it as much a single piece as one person’s mandery could.

Ky unclenched one hand slowly and raised it up over his head to where he could see the rope. Bees surrounded him and his hand and the rope fell into his palm.  He licked his lips, behind his veil.  “Now on the other side.  Once you have a rope in both hands everything could slide and we’d still have you. Don’t yank, Kyrus.” Da said.  “Slow and steady, please.”

Sweat burst out on his body as he gently raised his other hand, the sun glare made it impossible for him to see the rope but the insects brought it to his grasp.  He raised one foot slowly, braced himself against the corpse and as slowly as a sand-sheet smothered someone, began to rise and put pressure on the ropes.

The dead bird didn’t shift and once he was clear he pulled his legs up to hook his knees around both ropes so he dangled under them like a gourd full of water. He tipped his head back, saw his da and Ilax anchoring the ropes on their end upside down.  The dizzying fall swayed below as he swung back and forth, stone bridge and dead bird, drop, stone bridge and dead bird. He swallowed, suddenly nauseated, swinging.

“Steady.  Just hand over hand and hitch the knees, nice and easy.”

“Easy for you to say, Stepda.”

He swallowed hard, and levered himself along the two ropes, now pulled together so he could crawl along, like a fluffy hanging under a vine.  He was clear of the corpse, suspended over the drop itself, expecting the stone to shift or the corpse to go ‘thup’ and break the suction of its impaling to drop.  Neither happened and he focussed on the leather rope that was greasier than he liked in his damp gloves.

His da’s and his stepda’s hands grabbing his shirt and pants almost startled him as they hauled him in to safety on the bare lip and he tumbled down onto flat stone that showed no signs of crumbling.  He so wanted to do something silly and dramatic and faint, but he just got hauled up to sitting and had his da’s arms wrapped around his stinky, sticky self, and Ilax’s arms around the both of them, even in the brutal hot sun.

“Aw, da, come on.  I’m all right.”

“Shut up, ya klunk. Sneezin’ s all. Sneezin’ yer lights out.”  Ky blinked as his oh so proper father degenerated into the lowest dialect.  ‘Sneezin’ was the slang for hugging.

“No hissin’ tho,” he answered his father, grinning a little.  His veil was torn and he was filthy from head to foot. Kyrus let go enough to accept a water bottle from Maya over his da’s shoulder. It was pretty crowded on this ledge with all four of them.

“Let’s get you cleaned up, young man.  We need to talk about who just tried to kill you,” Ilax said grimly, clapping his husband and his stepson on the shoulders as he stood up.

**

“Birds just go nuts and run sometimes.  It wasn’t necessarily an attack.”

Ilax and Kyrus both stood like arms-crossed statues, staring at Ky.  The other zon sat or stood around them, and the Emir-al and the Amir stood next to them, shaking their heads in united disagreement. Kyrus sat with his back against a pack, Hara had her arm around his back, warm and strong.

They’d reached the cave camp that Ky remembered from his walk north.  It was cool and dim and green in the setting sun’s light, the slanted sunlight coming through the side holes in the rock, while the roof holes already showed dark blue and stars.  The moon was not up yet, no glittering ice ball to twinkle down at them. From this angle the falling stars weren’t visible yet.

The Amir spoke up.  “When your bird went feather-fucked... beggin’ yer pardon fer th’ language, all,” he nodded at the women who snorted at him.  “An’ yer illustri’s selves went tear-assin’ after, I figured I’d do ma best in the data, try ‘n stop it there.”

The Emir-al raised a sharp eyebrow, almost enough to disappear under the roll of his sarband.  “Rather audacious of you, Amir, but well thought.”

While Werfas and Hara had held their riding birds steady and the zon all went pelting after Ky and his mad bird, the Emir-al and zon Merzhad had controlled the rest of the caravan so they hadn’t lost all their gear all over the near desert.

Ky sat up, staring at the Amir.  “You have that kind of access, Naser?  That’s odd.”

The Amir smiled blandly behind his veil.  “Special missions.  Special permissions.”

Ky settled back and everyone looked at the Amir.