8 Gone is the Witch (25 page)

“Okay, fine. Ursula, just
take your time. Go slow and good luck.”

She didn’t reply, but that was okay. I
had rather she devoted her concentration to the task at hand than on my words.

She took
a deep breath and stepped out onto the bridge. As she crossed those first few boards, I thought of Dominic, how he would just as soon carry Ursula across the bridge himself than to let her do it on her own. Sadly, she would probably let him.

But
I sensed that Ursula’s time was coming. I could see it. Change was in the wind. She had come far in her short time on Earth, on our Earth, and no thanks to Dominic.

I
sometimes believe that Dominic would prefer I sent them both back to the seventeenth century if I could. He seemed to revel in the idea that a woman’s place was in the home.

What he fail
ed to see, and what Ursula was beginning to realize, was that by stifling her thirst for shared independence, he risked surrendering it to her altogether.

“That’s it
!” I yelled, as she neared the one-third point. “You’re doing great. Remember those rotten boards!”

“Aye!” she hollered back. “Thanks be for thy warning, lest I
forget and dance the steps yet taken!”

“Wha...
what was that?” I turned to Carlos. “Did she just smack sarcasm down on me?”

“What, Ursula? Noooo.”

“All right. Now that was sarcasm.”

“Ooh, look! She fell
!”

I spun
about on my heels with my heart in my throat.

S
he was fine.

“You ASS!”
I screamed, hitting him on the chest with my open palm. “Why did you say that?”

He grabbed his chest and staggered back
to catch his balance. Jerome saw what was happening and quickly scooted behind him, palmed the small of Carlos’ back and propped him back up before he fell. I grabbed his arm to help steady him.

“Carlos, what the hell? Are you all right?”
Jerome and I both helped him take a seat on the ground. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean––”

“
It’s okay. I’m all right. You knocked the wind out of me. I’ll be fine. Just let me catch my breath.”

“Carlos, I
didn’t mean it. Honestly, I didn’t think I hit you that hard.”

And I didn’t. I kne
w I didn’t. That is, it wasn’t a hard hit for a healthy old ox like Carlos. The problem was that he wasn’t a healthy old ox anymore. He was just old. Ursula thought Carlos was aging much faster than the rest of us. Looking at his face, really looking, I knew she was right. For the first time since arriving in the ES, I began to think that not all of us were going to make it out alive.

“Hey!” Tony
called over from the other side. Ursula made it across, and they could see that something was wrong at our end. “What’s going on over there?”

I stood up and hollered back, “It’s Carlos. He––”

“Fell down!” said Carlos, loud enough for Tony and Ursula to hear. He managed to get back on his feet without help and brushed himself off. “I’m fine. Just fell down, is all.” He dismissed the incident with a wave. “No problem.”

“Are you sure?”
I said.

“Yes
. Now come on. Stop worrying about me and get your butt across that bridge.”

“Maybe you should go next.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Just saying.”

“No, you go. Besides, I gotta keep my eyes on poco culo here. Make sure he doesn’t touch the ropes and collapse the bridge.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll see you on the other side.”

I turned to face the bridge. It suddenly seemed a lot further across than it did just the minute before. I don’t know why. There was no wind, no swirling mist to obscure my view and distort my vision. Just a simple walk across the devil’s gorge. I clasped my fingers together, abating the instinctive urge to grab the ropes as I started across.

Then I heard it. I look
ed back over my shoulder. Carlos and Jerome were looking back over theirs.

“What was that?”

Carlos waved me on. “Nothing, just keep going. Quickly!”

I took another
step and heard it again, a low, reverberating rumble distinctively animated. “Carlos? Tell me that was your stomach.”

I didn’t turn around.
Something told me not to. I knew I didn’t want to see the look on his face. He came back on a whispered shout. “Keep moving. Hurry!”

I fell into a run of baby steps, landing sure-footed on each of the planked sleepers
so I wouldn’t risk a misstep. Tony and Ursula were waving me over from the other side, their frantic gestures confirming that they heard the menacing rumbles as well.

At the one-third mark
, I reached the rotten boards that Tony warned us about. One of them cracked beneath my left foot; another broke away completely beneath my right. I stumbled, but didn’t reach for the ropes.

“Come on!” Tony yelled. He stood
with the tip of his foot touching the last sleeper; his knees bent and braced, his hand outstretched, ready to take mine the instant I reach him. “Hurry!”

I have to say, he wasn’t helping. Did he think I’d stop for a leisurely look out over the side of Hell’s Canyon
and take pictures? I thought of flipping him the bird, but that would have meant unclasping my hands. Of course, then I could have flipped him two birds. It might have been worth it.

I continued, though I admit t
he last three steps across the bridge were just a blur for me. I remember reaching for Tony’s hand. He grabbed it and yanked me onto solid ground, nearly pulling my arm out of its socket. I hit the dirt rolling and ended up in a fetal position wedged against one of the anchor lines securing the rope bridge.

I expected
Tony would come to me and make sure I was all right. He didn’t. Instead, he returned to the base of the bridge, his foot firmly planted against the last sleeper, his hand once again outstretched. This time he waited on Jerome.

The
frog-mouthed midget had started his crossing and already past the one-third mark, clearing the broken sleepers.

Meanwhile, t
he low rumbling I first heard while crossing the bridge had graduated to a booming roar. It echoed through the canyon, making it difficult to confirm its origins.

Back on the other side,
Carlos stood poised to start crossing the moment Jerome finished his. Tony called to him, told him not to wait, but Carlos wouldn’t listen. Whether he didn’t trust Jerome not to drop the bridge, or didn’t trust the bridge to carry them both; I don’t know.

What
I do know is that he kept looking over his shoulder with greater frequency, convinced that whatever was coming, was coming quickly.

Ursula and I fell in behind Tony, ready to usher
Jerome aside the instant he stepped off the bridge. Carlos, perhaps sensing his margins were slimming, began edging out onto the sleepers like a baseball runner leading the bag. As soon as Jerome hit the dirt, Carlos started across.”

That’s when
it appeared.

“Mother of gawd!” Tony cried. “What is that?”

Jerome pointed to the beast across the chasm. “Saurocedus!”

“The dragon?”

“Yes. Dragon.”

“You said it
was sleeping.”

He shook his head. “
Saurocedus wake now.”

“Yes. I see that.
” He cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled, “Carlos! Run!”

Carlos was doing all right until Tony yelled for him to run. Naturally,
he had to turn and look to see what the hell was chasing him. At that point, he was barely a third the way across the bridge. He took his eyes off where he was going and plowed his foot through the rotten sleeper board. His momentum carried him forward, dumping him flat on his face.

“Get up!
” we cried. “It’s coming!”

Man, was it ever
. The creature, which for the record, looked more like a walking tree stump than a dragon, emerged from the shadows and started into a clumsy trot. It utilized four appendages to run, two muscular back limbs, and two massive front limbs that seemed to double as both arms and legs.

Two
additional, though smaller, limbs protruded from below its shoulder blades. Those appeared more agile. Both appeared jointed at the elbows and terminated in razor sharp claws four inches long. Its tail, long and lizard-like, grew thick at the base and tapered to a narrow point at the end.

We called again. “Carlos! Get up!”

The fall had knocked the wind from him completely. He had managed to crawl only a short distance after freeing his foot from the broken board. Though he could move, he could not move fast enough.

“I’m going after him,” said Tony
.

“No!” I pulled him back
, and in that moment of hesitating we allowed Jerome the opportunity to slip past us and run out onto the bridge.

The little
fucker was quick, too. Quicker than Tony ever would have been on his best day. He reached Carlos in no time. I saw him shake the end of his spinney tail at Carlos, who then wrapped his hands around it, interlocking his fingers for a better grip.

Jerome
turned around and started trudging back, dragging Carlos along the wooden sleepers on his belly. He made a noble effort, but his progress proved negligible at best.

“They’ll never make it,” I said. “
Carlos is too heavy for him.”

The
saurocedus was nearly at the bridge, moving three times faster than Jerome and Carlos. Ursula cried for us to do something. Tony unsheathed his bayonet and stepped closer. Jerome looked up and motioned for him to stay back. He then looked over his shoulder at the saurocedus. Already, the monster was at the foot of the bridge.

Time had run out.

What happened next is one for the books, perhaps one for a whole stack of books. While I stood there, half in shock and half in denial at the thought of seeing one of my dearest friends eaten by a fucking tree stump, Ursula barreled past me. She body checked both Tony and me, knocking us on our asses. She then planted her feet on the first sleeper, positioned her hands over the ropes and latched on tightly.

The ropes imme
diately sagged into a perfect U, sending Carlos and Jerome sixty feet into the gorge. She waited until the stretch had bottomed out before letting go of the ropes. The bridge snapped back instantly, catapulting the two high in the air and up onto the ground behind us.

“Son of a bitch!”
cried Carlos. “Do you have to keep doing that?”

We ran to them.
Jerome was fine, even smiling. I’m not sure, but I think he enjoyed the ride. Carlos, I’m afraid, was a little worse for the wear and tear.

“
Are you all right?” Tony helped him to a sitting position. “You hurt?”

“I’m all right
, nothing’s broken.”

I said
to Ursula, “Girl, you’re a genius. How did you know to do that?”

She smiled shyly.
“`Twas Jerome what showed me, no touch-no snap.”

“What?”

“I get it,” said Tony. “Yesterday, the bridge sagged after only touching the hand ropes, and without any weight on it, it returned to its original position slowly.”

“
Yeah?”

“
The next time it happened, Carlos was still on the bridge when he touched the ropes and then let go.”

“
Oh, I see. Touching the ropes with your full weight on the bridge causes it to snap suddenly when you let go.”

“Exactly
, you have to be on the bridge for it to work that way. Otherwise it returns slowly.”

Carlos said,
“Yeah, but couldn’t you have catapulted the creature instead?”

“
The creature!” I cried.

“
Yeah.”

“No. I mean
the creature. It’s almost across the bridge!”

“Quick,” said Tony
, “somebody grab the ropes. Drop the bridge again!”

Ursula was closest. She ran up
and confronted the beast just as the two reached the last sleeper. It reared up and lashed out at her with its claws. She reeled back, narrowly escaping decapitation while feeling its bile breath on her face.

Jerome
ran in and threw his spear at the beast, lancing its throat. Tony charged with his bayonet and buried it in its stomach. The creature rolled back on its hind legs, giving Ursula a split second to plant her foot on the sleeper and grab the ropes.

The bridge
buckled, sending the saurocedus down with it, but it didn’t fall into the gorge. Carlos and I hurried to join the others. We all stood there, looking over the edge, our hearts pounding wildly.

Tony said,
“Now what?”