was pointing. He hadn’t seen it before. There, a few hundred yards off in the distance, sat a rocky island, jutting straight out of the sea, with tall, unforgiving cliffs. It looked ancient, uninhabited, its terrain rocky and desolate.
He turned and surveyed the horizon in every direction. It looked like the only island within thousands of miles.
“It looks like we’re heading right for it,” he said.
“I sure hope so,” Polly said. “I’m positively nauseous on this boat.”
Suddenly, Polly leaned over the side and threw up, again and again.
Sam came over and placed a reassuring hand on her back. Polly finally stood, wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve and looking away, embarrassed.
“Sorry,” she said. “These waves are relentless.” She looked up at him, guiltily. “It must be unattractive.”
But Sam wasn’t thinking that at all. On the contrary, he was realizing that he had stronger feelings for Polly than he ever realized.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Polly asked. “Was it that awful?”
Sam quickly looked away, realizing he was staring.
“I wasn’t thinking that at all,” he said, blushing.
But they were both interrupted. On the island there suddenly appeared several warriors, standing at the top of a cliff. One appeared after another, and soon the horizon was filled with them.
Sam reached down, searching to see what weapons he had brought with him. But he was disappointed to find he had not brought any.
The horizon blackened with more and more vampire warriors, and Sam could see that the current was bringing them right to them. They were drifting right into a trap, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
“Look at that,” Polly said. “They’re coming to greet us.”
Sam studied them carefully, and came to a very different conclusion.
“No they’re not,” he said. “They’re coming to test us.”
Chapter Three
Caitlin stood before the rope bridge to Skye, Caleb beside her, and Scarlet and Ruth behind them. She watched the dilapidated rope sway violently, as she heard the wind whistling through the rocks, the waves crashing against the cliffs hundreds of feet below. The bridge was wet and slippery. Slipping off it would mean instant death for Scarlet and for Ruth, and Caitlin hadn’t tested her own wings yet, either. Crossing this bridge was not really a chance she wanted to take – but then again, it seemed obvious that they needed to be on the Isle of Skye.
Caleb looked over at her.
“We haven’t much choice,” he said.
“Then there’s no point in waiting,” she answered. “I’ll take Scarlet, you take Ruth?”
Caleb nodded grimly back, as Caitlin picked up Scarlet and hoisted her onto her back, while Caleb held Ruth in his arms. Ruth at first squirmed, wanting to get down, but Caleb held her firmly, and something about his grip eventually calmed her.
There was no choice but to walk single file on the narrow bridge. Caitlin went first.
Caitlin took her first, unsteady step onto the bridge, and could immediately feel how slippery the water-sprayed planks were. She reached over and grabbed the rope railing for balance, but the bridge only swayed as she did, and the railing fell to pieces in her hands.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and centered herself. She knew she could not rely on her vision, or her balance. She had to call on something deeper. She thought back to Aiden’s lessons, summoned his words. She stopped trying to oppose the bridge: instead, she tried to feel at one with it.
Caitlin trusted her inner instincts, and took several steps forward. She slowly opened her eyes, and as she took another step, a plank fell through beneath her. Scarlet cried out, and she lost her balance for a moment – then quickly took another step and found her footing. The wind swayed the bridge again. It felt like she had been going forever, but when Caitlin looked up, she saw they had only gone about ten feet. She knew instinctively that they would never make it.
She turned and looked at Caleb. She could see the look in his eyes, and knew that he was thinking the same thing. She wanted more than anything to just spread her wings and take off, but as she felt them, she sensed something in the air, and knew that Caleb had been right: there was some sort of invisible energy shield up around this island, and flying here uninvited would not work.
The wind blew the bridge again, and Caitlin was beginning to feel desperate. They had gone too far to turn back.
She made a split-second decision.
“On three, jump off, grab your side of the railing, and let it swing you all the way!” she suddenly called out to Caleb. “It’s the only way!”
“What if it gives!?” he screamed back.
“We have no choice! If we continue as we are, we will die!”
Caleb didn’t argue.
“ONE!” she yelled, taking a deep breath, “TWO! THREE!”
She leapt into the air, off to her right, and saw Caleb leap to his left. She could hear Scarlet screaming and Ruth whining as they were falling over the edge. She reached up and grabbed hard on the rope railing, praying to God that it would hold true this time. She saw Caleb doing the same.
A second later, they were holding onto the rope and swinging through the air, at full speed, the saltwater rising up from the waves and crashing over them. For a moment, Caitlin couldn’t tell if they were still swinging, or falling straight down.
But after a few seconds, she could feel the tension of the rope catching in her hand, and felt them not plummeting straight down, but rather swinging towards the far cliff. It was holding.
Caitlin braced herself. The rope was holding, and that was good. But they were also swinging fast, right for the side of the cliff. Smashing into it, she knew, would be painful.
She turned her shoulder and positioned Scarlet behind her, so that she could take the full force of the blow. She looked over and saw Caleb doing the same, holding Ruth with one arm behind him, and leaning in with his shoulder. They both braced for impact.
A second later, they crashed hard into the wall, with a flood of pain. The force of the impact knocked the wind out of Caitlin, and she was momentarily stunned. But she still held onto the rope, and she could see that Caleb did, too. She hung there, dazed for several seconds, checking to see if Scarlet was okay, and if Caleb was. They were.
Caitlin slowly stopped seeing stars, and eventually she reached up, and started to pull herself up the rope, straight up the face of the cliff. She looked up, and saw she had thirty yards to go before reaching the top. She then made the mistake of turning and looking down: it was a perilous drop, and she realized that if the rope gave way, they would plummet hundreds of feet into the sharp rocks below.
Caleb recovered and was climbing straight up his rope, too. The two of them were making good speed, even while slipping on the mossy cliffs.
Suddenly, Caitlin heard a sickening noise. It was the sound of rope snapping.
Caitlin braced herself for a moment, preparing to plummet to her death, but then realized she didn’t feel her rope giving way. She looked over immediately, and saw that it was Caleb’s.
His rope was snapping.
Caitlin jumped into action. She kicked off the rock, and swung her rope closer to him, reaching out a free hand. She managed to grab Caleb’s hand just as he was plummeting to earth. She held it tight with her free hand, holding him there, dangling in the air. Then, with a supreme effort, she lifted him up several feet, into a deep crevice in the side of the cliff. Caleb, still holding Ruth, was able to stand firmly on a ledge, and to grab hold of a natural handle inside the rock face.
Secure, she could see the relief on his face.
But