Page 139 of Witchshadow

Strong enough to push her into the Solfatarra’s grasp. Acid flamed in. No sight, no breath, no touch. Only the sound of her mother whispering, “You were always meant for bigger things than I could give.”

Then Gretchya roared at the top of her lungs and her footsteps stomped away, aiming once more toward camp.

Gravity and winds punched in. The forest below zoomed to eye level. White fog too, until that was all Safi could see—white, white, endless white.

She was falling. Dangling like a marionette with only desperate muscles keeping her attached to theEridysi’s railing.

Safi’s muscles shrieked and stretched. Her vision crossed and blurred. Even with the goggles, her eyes streamed. Distantly, she felt acid sear her skin, and distantly, she glimpsed scarlet uniforms streaking through the sky.

Instinct told her to squeeze her eyes shut; self-preservation kept them open. TheEridysiwas going to crash into the Solfatarra. Acid and heat would boil Safi alive—and there was nothing she could do about it except watch death zoom closer.

Then a jolt battered through her. TheEridysichanged course, pitched a different way. Someone screamed; it might have been her.

Safi clung more frantically to the balustrade. As tightly as her arms would allow, though gravity clawed.

Fog streamed past. A living, moving thing. But no longer was theEridysiaimed for it. The machine was swerving sideways now, and the Solfatarra’s end was so near. If they could just reach the forest beyond before they crashed.Please,she prayed.Noden, Hagfishes, the Twelve—please, let us reach the other side.

Then the machine was past. The last tendrils of fog whispered out of sight, and Safi spotted individual branches on individual trees. For some inexplicable reason, her brain identified every one rushing her way. There was a silver fir. A spruce over there. And straight ahead, where theEridysiwas going to land any moment, was a barren hornbeam.

Perhaps jumping overboard would be the safer option. Better to hit branches than to get tangled in a flying machine—

“Do not let go!” Leopold roared over the winds.

So Safi did not let go, and a fraction of a heartbeat later, theEridysiswung in a new direction. Then back again.Swing, swoop, spin, swing.A sinking ship with too much speed. Bile rose in Safi’s throat. Her vision crossed.

They hit the tree.

Shock rammed through her. Wood crunched and hornbeam snapped, so loud that Safi lost all sense of sight or sound. Pain blasted through her. Blood welled on her tongue—and elsewhere too, deep scrapes on her left forearm, her right calf, the whole back side of her head…

As fast as they had hit, the crashing stopped. TheEridysiwas no longer falling and the wood no longer cracking in two.

“Safiya.” Caden’s voice fuzzed into her awareness. He was dragging her. Wood scraped under her boots. Splinters snagged on her clothes. She thought she heard something creaking, but her ears weren’t working as they ought to be.

“Climb,” she heard, and with a confused blink, she realized a rope ladder now hung beneath her. It extended toward a hard earth, half hidden by shadows that would not stay still. Thick branches scraped and spun.

The creaking groaned louder.

“Climb,” Caden repeated, and suddenly he was on the ladder and trying to pull Safi onto it.

Gods below, why was the earth moving so much? Andwhatwas that creaking?

Somehow, she got her feet beneath her and her arms onto the rope. Somehow, she descended. Every fiber scraped fresh pain into her left palm. Her right leg trembled and burned. Bare branches scratched ather cheeks, streaked in her vision. Yet Safi moved, slowly, slowly, toward the ground.

Until suddenly the creaking turned to crashing. Until suddenly Caden bellowed, “Jump!,” and Safi realized theEridysiwas coming down on top of her.

She jumped. A clumsy, painful move from a ladder that offered no traction, no force. Air whizzed past. She was still so high…

Her feet hit the ground. Instinct took hold, and she transferred into a roll. Two rolls. Maybe three. Then she landed on her back as the last of the branches holding theEridysibroke in two.

Safi curled into a ball, head protected.

TheEridysihit the ground. The earth trembled. Splinters flew. Then it was over. She was alive and she was safe.

For several moments, Safi stayed tucked in her ball. She waited for the cracking sounds to dissipate from her hearing, for the ground to stop its trembling. When eventually she felt safe enough to breathe and look around, she unfurled. Then patted her pockets: the Threadstones were still safe.

Caden lay sprawled nearby, but no one else. No Lev, no Zander, no Leopold. She jolted upright, gaze spinning. The flying machine was a wreck of wood and branches and shredded sail. “Lev?” she called, towing in her feet. “Zander? Polly?”

“They… fell.”