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😁 What a marvelous situation I have walked in on!

 

Jade snapped her head from side to side. This was too familiar. Then she saw the threat: bugs of all things, but at least they weren’t Protectors, the Benevolents’ minions.

“Up there,” said Alaric, gesturing toward a doorway up high on the wall. “Come on.”

Jade assessed the room for other options. Two figures hastened through the dimness toward the unmistakable glimmer of water. A stream, it would be called. Not an option. Who knew how deep it was? And neither Jade nor Rosemary could actually swim, despite being fishers’ daughters. The Haven always sought to prevent drowning by making impossible rather than teaching folks to swim. None of the Haven’s safety precautions existed here.

In that split second of thought, the chittering insects drew closer.

“Fine!” she snapped. Her annoyance at the princling had melted away during Rosemary’s ministrations, but having to take orders from him sent it all surging back.

”I’ll go last,” said Rosemary. “If I fall, it’s best I’m on bottom.”

Jade frowned and then nodded. Rosemary’s height would get her up the quickest, so long as she didn’t fall.

”Up you go,” Jade said to Ophelia, boosting her up with Alaric’s help. Ophelia clung to the rock wall, utter bewilderment in her eyes. Never had a girl looked so out of place.

”Well, keep going, silly!” said Jade.

Whether Ophelia found reason or motivation, or some blessed bit of luck got her to move, up she went.

”Go next and make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid,” Jade told Alaric.

He looked like he was about to argue, but at the sound of a squeal from Ophelia he started up the wall. And still the flood of insects came ever closer. Jade focused on the rough handholds before her, drowning out their malicious clicking with the intensity of her focus. She tried to point them out to Rosemary, who followed her. Reach, grab. Bend arms, bend knees. Keep breathing. Up and up they went. Mara’s fear of heights wasn’t funny anymore.

Suddenly a void opened up at Jade’s hands. The door! Alaric must have opened it and gotten inside with Ophelia. A pair of hands grabbed Jade’s arms and pulled her in over the rough stone ledge. She looked up, expecting Alaric. It was Lorcan.

Before Jade could express any surprise, a squeak came from the wall. Jade flung herself toward the edge, hanging her arms down and reaching as far as she could toward Rosemary.

”Grab my hand!” she shouted over the clicking of insects that were far too close.

A few eternal seconds passed before Rosemary’s sweaty hand clasped Jade’s. Jade pulled with all her might, no longer cursing the years of fishnets. At last she was over the threshold. Someone slammed the door shut. Now the only insects to worry about were those biting Rosemary. Thank goodness she’s got high pain tolerance. That Ophelia would probably be screaming.

Jade, Alaric, Lorcan, and the indigo-haired girl started helping Rosemary squash the nasty bugs while Ophelia looked on in horror. Once they were all dead, Rosemary poked around in her pockets, likely searching for something to reduce the swelling.

”What did I tell you about your stay?” asked Lorcan. “Ye might have expected worse, but I betch’ye didn’t expect that.”

Jade snorted and then burst out laughing. That is, until a strange noise came from the door.

“They’re eating it!” said Ophelia.

She wasn’t wrong. Jade looked at Rosemary. If there was ever a time for her friend to blow something up, it was now.