Page 36 of Spirit Trials (The Spirit Kingdoms #1)

All in all, day one isn’t bad. I use the ropes I packed and show the girls how to tie themselves to their branch, so they don’t fall off once they fall asleep.

Again, I’m grateful that Rysden gave me a heads up.

He’s the one that gave me the ropes. Now that the three of us are tied in for the night, I’m incredibly grateful.

“There’s one thing I haven’t quite figured out yet,” Kinsley says.

“What’s that?” I ask, shifting to get more comfortable.

“How are we supposed to relieve ourselves if our feet can’t touch the ground?” I grin and let Harper take this one. A minute later, I hear an, “Eww. Gross. I’m not doing that.”

It gets quiet after that, and I settle myself against the tree trunk.

We found more than enough of the huge leaves that we were able to put them behind our backs, so we don’t have to lean up against sharp, scratchy bark.

I stare out into the quiet, feeling grateful.

This was a pretty easy first day, nothing like day one of the last trial.

I’m hoping that the rest of the days will be the same and all we’ll have to do is just wait it out.

I should have known it wouldn’t be as easy as that.

My eyes shoot open. I can’t breathe! I push at the hands around my throat as my brain tries to catch up.

Panic courses through me, and I thrash at the big body in front of me.

I try to thrust my hips up, but I’m still tied to the tree.

I throw my head forward, catching my attacker in the nose.

There’s a muffled curse. “Why can’t you just die already!

” He goes for my throat, but I’m ready this time.

I grab a knife from my side and slice his arm, not enough to severely injure him, more to just slow him down.

“You stupid—”

“Farrah!”

“What’s going on?”

I hear Harper and Kinsley, but I’m still fighting the guy trying to kill me. “Get away from her!”

“Don’t come over here,” I shout to Harper, even as I push the guy’s hands away from me.

“Why not!” Harper yells back.

“Because I don’t think this branch can hold any more weight, and I’m not going down because of this idiot.” I heave and push him away. I take my knife and use the handle and bring it down hard on the side of his head. He slumps forward, and suddenly I’m met with a whole new problem.

“Ugh,” I grunt as his weight falls on me.

“Still don’t want help?” Harper asks dryly.

“Okay, yeah,” I grunt out. I can’t move with his weight on me. “Just be careful,” I call out breathlessly.

“I know.” I hear movement.

“Are you okay, Farrah?” Kinsley calls out.

“Peachy,” I grunt out.

“Okay. I'm here,” Harper says from my right. “Let’s just push him off you.”

“No.”

“No?” she repeats.

“No, if we push him off, first of all, he’ll probably break something. Second, he’ll be out if he hits the ground.”

“And the problem with that is...” Harper asks.

“I’m not going to do that to him,” I argue, still trying to wrestle the big body off me.

“Farrah, he tried to kill you.”

“I know. I was there.”

“Farrah, he deserves to be out,” Kinsley calls out from her tree.

“He probably does, but I'm not going to be the one to do it to him.”

Harper sighs loudly. “What’s the plan then?”

“We need to get him off me and... tie him to the tree.”

It’s silent. “Tie him to the tree?” Harper repeats, like I’ve lost my head.

And honestly, she’s not that far off. “Will you help get him off me?” I ask.

My voice is getting scratchier and scratchier, and the pain is starting to set in.

I take a deep breath and then start to heave him off me.

Harper helps me. It’s an awkward process made a thousand times more difficult because we’re balancing in a tree branch at least twenty feet off the ground.

When we finally get him off me, I untie myself and stand to my feet.

I lean over his body and begin the arduous task of tying his body to the tree trunk.

“What now?” Harper asks. “We just wait for him to wake up? Hey, I know, maybe we can all have breakfast together.”

“Ha. You’re hilarious,” I say deadpan. I look down at the guy that I can just start making out in the light of predawn. “It’s the same guy that shattered my wrist.”

“Ezra,” Kinsley says. “I heard somebody else call him that.”

“Well, now we have to find a different set of three trees.” I grab my sack and throw it over my shoulder. “Grab everything and let’s get going before he wakes up. I don’t know that he’ll be out much longer.”

“Farrah, this is ridiculous. Just let me push his body over, and we’ll be rid of him and then we can stay in these trees,” Harper says.

“No.” I put my hand to my throat; it’s really starting to hurt now.

“Guys like him are dangerous; he’s just going to keep coming back.

And unless we’re ready to kill him, which I’m not, we need to make things as peaceful as possible with him.

If we eliminate him, he’s going to come after us at some point and probably won’t rest until we’re dead.

I don’t want a threat like that hanging over my head.

” I throw my quiver and bow over my shoulder. “Let’s move. Follow my lead.”

I climb into Kinsley’s tree first. “The key is to find strong branches that overlap from one tree to the other.” I turn to look at both of them. “You don’t have to come with me; I can scout it out first.”

“And be here when psycho wakes up? Yeah, no thanks.” Harper follows me. “Lead on.” I focus completely on the task in front of me, finding just the right trees and branches. None of us speak as we move. Sometimes we have to climb up or down to get to the next tree.

“Look!” Kinsley shouts at one point. “There’s a gold ring in that tree.” I turn to look at what she’s pointing at. Sure enough, there’s a ring glinting in the faint light of the rising sun.

We redirect that way and stop when we’re within touching distance. “You found it; you take it,” I tell Kinsley. She climbs over carefully and snags it.

She smiles. “Got my first ring.” She turns towards us, and a second later an arrow embeds itself into the tree where her shoulder had just been.

I’m already turning. “Get down,” I shout. I look through the trees but can’t see anything. Kinsley moves to another branch and another arrow barely misses her.

“I can’t see anything!” Harper yells.

“I know. We have to move.” We’re blind in this area, and whoever’s shooting at us obviously has a clear view.

I race over to the tree next to us and turn, trying to get a good view.

I still can’t see anything, and an arrow narrowly misses me.

“Move!” I shout. Kinsley’s already moving, and I race over to where she is and take the lead.

“Follow me.” I move faster than I normally would in the trees, but somebody has a great view of us.

An arrow hits the tree in front of me, and I nearly stumble.

I turn and go around the back of the tree and head in a different direction.

Harper shouts, but I don’t stop. “Are you hit?” I call back.

“No! Keep going!”

I step out onto the next branch and immediately freeze when it bends underneath my weight. “Go back!” I shout. We make it onto another tree, but two more arrows nearly get us.

“How are they all around us?” Harper demands.

I'm trying not to panic. No matter which direction we go, we’re getting hit. “Up. We gotta go up.”

“Up?” Kinsley squeaks. Another arrow hits the front of the trunk where I just was.

I move to the back of the tree. “Let’s go.

” I practically push Kinsley up. Harper’s next, and then I follow.

I’m kicking myself because I should have gone up first. I fire off two arrows in the direction the last one came from, hoping to buy us a little time.

Then I throw my bow over my shoulder and begin to climb.

Thankfully, the trees are incredibly tall in this forest. We climb up and up.

“I don’t know if I can go up anymore,” Kinsley calls out from above me. Her voice is breathless.

“It’s okay. Just stay there; let me see if I can get a visual.”

Harper climbs onto the branch right above mine. “There has to be several out there, the way the arrows were coming at us.”

“Yeah. Now comes the hard decision. Do we sit here and wait? Or do we try to keep moving?”

Harper scans the trees around us. “Neither is a good decision.”

“I know. Until we can see the threat, it’s impossible to know what we’re dealing with.”

Kinsley joins our conversation from another branch. “What’s the plan?”

“I don’t know,” Harper says. “I don’t want to run, dodging arrows, but if there’s more than one and they come at us in the trees, I don’t know that we won’t be overpowered.”

“I know.” I look at the trees surrounding us, but even I wouldn’t attempt to pass from tree to tree this high up. It’s way too dangerous, and the branches aren’t as sturdy this far up. “So, we go back down and try to outrun them?” I look between Harper and Kinsley.

Kinsley swallows. “Yeah, like Harper said, if they get to us here...”

“Yeah,” I rasp.

“Oh, Farrah, your throat.” Kinsley reaches out and gently touches it, and even that hurts.

“We’ll deal with it when we can, but right now, we just need to get somewhere safe,” Harper says.

“Yeah, let’s move.” I take the lead and start climbing back down the tree.

“What if we split up?” Kinsley asks.

“No,” Harper says. “We stay together.”

“I’m with Harper,” I agree. I take a breath.

“Ready?” They both nod. “Let’s go.” And then we’re on the run again.

The arrows start flying almost as soon as I take the first step.

I take the lead and run from tree to tree, always looking for the strongest branches.

Kinsley cries out once, but Harper shouts at me to keep moving.

So, I do. We run from tree to tree until finally, the arrows stop. Even then, I keep going.

“I have to stop,” Kinsley say, breathlessly. I stop as well and pull out my bow, looking all around us.

“What do you think?” Harper asks as she comes to stand next to me.

“I think we’re in the clear for now, but we should probably keep moving just in case they’re still following. But we can take a few minutes to catch our breath.”

Kinsley sits on the branch and pulls out her waterskin and takes a tiny sip. I pull dried meat out of my bag and pass it around, thankful once again to Rysden for helping me be prepared. I sit on the next branch up and chew on the tough meat. “How’s your arm, Kins?” I ask.

She turns her arm. “It’s just a scratch.”

“I can’t believe we didn’t get hit,” Harper says as she leans against the trunk.

“Yeah, we got lucky.”

“You know what else was lucky?” Harper asks. She holds her hand out, and I stare down at it in surprise.

“How in the world did you get two rings while we were running for our lives?” I question.

Harper shrugs. “I just saw them and grabbed them as we were moving.”

I shake my head and grin. “Good job.”