After breakfast, they loaded their sleeping bags into the knapsack and walked to the cleft. The tall crack in the rock wall stretched at least a hundred feet high, narrowing as it rose, ending before it reached all the way up. Kendra had never seen such a tall, narrow cave.
They marched into the fissure with Trask and Gavin in the front. Dougan and Tanu brought up the rear. For a good distance two people could comfortably walk abreast. Before progressing far, they switched, on flashlights. Kendra shone hers up and stared at how the gap tapered to an end high above. Eventually they had to proceed single file. At one point, Tanu and Dougan had to turn sideways to fit through a tight section. Kendra tried not to picture the walls closing in, crushing their little group to jelly.
The cleft did not extend quite as high at the far side, maybe thirty or forty feet at most, but the gap ended wider than it had started. For the last couple of hundred yards, four of them could have marched shoulder to shoulder.
Beyond Sidestep Cleft they found themselves following a rocky ledge with a steep drop to one side and a sheer rise on the other. The width of the ledge fluctuated, sometimes many yards wide, sometimes only a few feet. Kendra bit her lip and leaned toward the rock wall as she passed the narrowest sections, tracing her fingers across the cold, rough stone. She tried to avoid fixating on the dry gorge far below. Gradually the ledge descended and became wider, until they reached an area haphazardly strewn with boulders the size of trucks.
Trask abruptly halted and raised a fist. Gazing forward,
Kendra saw a griffin atop a wide, flat boulder up ahead. Standing taller than a horse, the creature had the head, wings, and talons of an eagle attached to the body and rear legs of a lion. The long, hooked beak looked made for tearing, and the golden brown feathers shimmered in the sunlight.
Astride the griffin sat a dwarf on a crimson saddle of tooled leather. He had bronze skin, black eyes, and a stubbly beard, and he wore a dented iron helm. A short sword hung from his belt, and he bore a battered shield emblazoned with a yellow fist. The small man raised to his lips a megaphone made from a furry black hide. "Today is the day you were captured by a dwarf."
Trask leveled his crossbow at the little man.
"Lower your weapon, sir," the dwarf demanded, without a trace of concern.
"Unlikely," Trask growled. "I'm not half bad with this. Slide off the griffin toward me."
The megaphone partly concealed the dwarf's grin. "In the realm of Thronis the Magnificent, trespassers do not issue orders. If you lay down your arms and come quietly, you will not be harmed. Initially."
Trask shook his head. The crossbow remained steady. "Open that mouth again and you'll eat a quarrel. I have another for your mount. Fly away, little man. We don't mean you or the giant any harm. We're just passing through."
The dwarf lowered his megaphone and lightly kicked the griffin. The creature pounced behind the boulder.
Kendra heard the rush of wind an instant before a riderless griffin swooped into view from behind, huge claws clamping hold of Trask's shoulders. Powerful wings swept downward, and the creature jerked Trask off the ground. A second griffin grabbed Dougan in similar fashion, and a third snagged Tanu.
Gavin tackled Kendra flat to the ground. Mara whirled and thrust her spear up into the belly of the griffin reaching for her. The creature screeched and swerved away, the long spear deeply attached. Several other griffins swept by, talons grasping.
"Into the backpack," Gavin insisted in Kendra's ear. He pulled the knapsack from her shoulder and lifted the main flap. "You too, Seth," he called. "Get in here."
The griffins who had missed on their first pass were wheeling around for another run. Kendra counted seven, not including the one behind the boulder and the ones who had already snatched people.
Gavin grabbed her shoulder and shoved her into the knapsack headfirst. It was an awkward way to start down a ladder, but she grasped the rungs and managed to twist around and descend correctly. Kendra hurried down to make way for her brother. She heard several of the griffins screaming--deeper, louder screeches than should come from any bird.
"Nice nosedive," Warren said, leaning up on one elbow. An electric lantern shone beside him. "What's going on out there?"
"Griffin attack," Kendra gasped, staring up at the mouth of the sack. "Lots of them."
"Griffins don't normally come after humans."
"They already carried off Trask, Tanu, and Dougan."
"Oh, no."
Kendra watched in suspense as the mouth of the knapsack closed. Someone had shut the flap.
* * *
Seth scrambled over to Gavin and started to climb into the knapsack. He had one leg inside when a griffin slammed into him with great force, sending him spinning and rolling across the ledge. Elbows and shoulder aching, it took Seth a moment to realize he had not been the target. The griffin had snatched Gavin and was soaring skyward with him.
Three griffins dived at Mara in formation. She cartwheeled away from the leader and twisted to barely avoid the outstretched talons of the second, but the third one snagged her. Her legs flailed as the creature bore her away.
Seth heard a jangling. Mendigo had been scouting ahead, but Seth saw the puppet sprinting back to them. "Mendigo!" he yelled.
Two griffins swooped at Seth, but he rolled flat next to a boulder. Although he felt the wind of their passage, the grasping talons came up empty. Instead of coming fast, the next griffin landed beside Seth, scolding him with a harsh squawk. The limberjack was only a few paces away.
"Escape with the knapsack!" Seth cried, waving the puppet away. "Keep Kendra safe!"
Claws seized Seth by the shoulders, strong wings beat down, and he rose into the air. Craning his neck to look down and back, Seth saw Mendigo beat a griffin to the knapsack, snatching the bag and somersaulting out of the way. The wooden man dodged another griffin on the way to the brink of the cliff and then jumped off, falling out of sight into the gorge.
Could Mendigo survive a fall from such a great height? What about Kendra? Seth knew from experience that the storage room didn't feel the movements of the knapsack. No matter how much the bag was jostled or handled, the room inside remained stable. He hoped that held true for flinging the knapsack off a cliff!
Turning his eyes forward, Seth saw that they were climbing fast, heading toward Stormcrag. Mara, Gavin, Tanu, Dougan, and Trask dangled from griffins ahead of him. None of the other griffins besides the one with the dwarf had riders. Even through his winter jacket, Seth could feel the sharp talons, although they had not broken his skin. Glancing down, Seth saw the distant rocky ground beyond his boots, with hundreds of feet of empty air in between. If the griffin dropped him, he would be skydiving without a parachute. Fortunately the giant claws seemed to have a secure hold.