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It held.

A half-sob of relief escaped Thea as she resumed her climb, a drop of sweat sliding down between her shoulder blades despite the frigid conditions. It was a fierce reminder not tobecome complacent, not to lose herself too deeply in the rhythm of the ascent, for the icy facade was getting more treacherous, offering only fleeting holds. Perilous crevasses lurked beneath its exterior, hungry for the slightest of missteps or an ill-placed axe.

Ignoring the tremor in her muscles and the ache in her hands and feet, Thea kept climbing. She had known that the Furies meant to test her in every way they knew how, and she had been more than willing to fling herself at their feet, at their mercy. She tightened her grip on her axe, wincing as her aching toes found purchase in the glasslike exterior. Scaling the monolith was meant to test her strength, her endurance, and by the gods, she’d show them everything she had.

One swing of an axe and then the next, one foothold and then the next, she worked her way up the sheer vertical wall, somehow sensing the presence of those who had come before, their fear, their triumphs and their failures all etched into the ice itself.

Pure will fuelled her where her physical energy was flagging, and she panted through every motion, every near-miss of a fault in the surface or a deceiving crevasse that nearly claimed her.

She was completely surrounded by dancing mist now, unable to see the abyss below even if she wished. It meant she was getting close to the top. She had to be.

But it was as this thought dared to enter her wrung-out mind that the wall shuddered beneath her.

A ripple of movement further down, out of sight, but enough to dislodge one of her boots from the facade, her foot slipping —

With a ragged gasp, Thea clung on to her axes and clawed at the ice with her foot, her spikes having destroyed any immediate area to gain traction or purchase. She struggled to find any sort of hold, the spikes sliding over the slick surface, making a painful scraping noise.

The wall shuddered again.

Like the structure itself was inhaling a deep breath before —

Thea’s head snapped to her left, where an entire frozen sheet dislodged from the wall with an almighty crack.

A panicked cry escaped her as she grappled with her axes to plough ahead.

One of her spikes fell from her boot; the previous struggle had loosened its laces around her foot. With a silent scream of horror, she watched it fall – only to see, as more of the wall tumbled in a deadly cascade, that it was no human-made trap beneath the freeze, no chain of destruction.

It was a scaled tail, a vicious translucent barb on its end.

Both were cleaving through the ice, barrelling towards her.

Everything in the tail’s path was obliterated, showering ice and rock and snow down into the chasm below.

Thea choked on the shout caught in her throat. There was no way she was going to make it, no way out of the path of destruction. She couldn’t climb fast enough, not even if she had the spike she’d just lost.

Numb with shock, she took in the frozen domain as the unknown monster’s tail carved towards her from above, shaving off the ancient surface as though it were a fine film.

Time slowed as the pale blue scales drew closer and closer. Thea tried to channel her inner Kipp, to assess rather than act out of panic. She tried to gauge the distance between where she was and the top of the wall, tried to calculate the speed at which the tail was cutting through the ice, and whether or not the creature was poised to strike from the ledge. Judging the rest of the sheer vertical climb, she came to the same conclusion she already had: it was impossible. And she wouldn’t survive.

Thea could feel the force of the monstrous tail in the wind around her, whipping through her braid and stinging her face.

Only when she could taste the kiss of death in the air did she act.

Not to make a final scramble upward, but to let go.

Thea loosened her axes and leapt from the wall —

She fell.

Wind lashing at her, tearing at her clothes and skin.

Until she reached out, her numb hands fumbling for the thick tail itself as it swung across the face of the wall, ice raining down on her as she scraped along the jagged surface.

Thea let it take her, let it swing her down the formidable vertical face, ignoring the pain as sharp as blades ripping at her flesh. The momentum of the tail took her up, up and up the wall.

When she could see the blush of daylight above the mist, she let go once more.

Pulse pounding in her ears, Thea leapt into the crisp air, axes flung outward as she fell through the clouds.