Kira shrank back, away from the dizzying exit.

A confusion of puzzling turbulent doubts bubbled within her.

“But there isn’t a path here, Harath! There’s no way down!” she complained.

Harath drew herself up to her full, majestic height.

“Of course there are no paths,” she said, “Skirnam has blessed us with wings - the wind and playful air is our pathway - we do not need the dirt and stone of the goats and the hares.”

“But I haven’t got wings!” said Kira. “How can me and my friends get down?”

Harath puffed her chest feathers out.

“I will carry you,” she said proudly. “I will fly you to safety.”

An anguished conspiracy of stubborn doubts and concerns unravelled across Kira’s mind.

Harath hadn’t mentioned this part of her escape plan.

And hadn’t she confessed that her wings were faltering and uncertain now?

Would it even be safe?

But Harath had been kind and very brave to help them escape - she fought fiercely against Fyrttu, and risked her life - it didn’t feel right to doubt her friend’s kindness now.

And yet…

The perilous danger of the grey, jagged cliffs still reeled in her thoughts.

“You can fly us to safety? You’re… you’re sure?” she asked. “It’s just…I mean… didn’t you mention that you had struggled to fly recently?”

“But your words have inspired me - I must believe in myself and trust that the divine favour of Skirnam has not deserted me. I am still a great queen, yes? You have shown a great kindness to me, my friend - now I will return the favour to you, yes?”

It was true - she had instructed Harath to have courage and take control of her own destiny.

Should she now doubt her own advice?

Or the ability and kindness of her new friend?

And besides, what choice did she have?

They couldn’t just stay there by the exit - the guards were sure to arrive - and she owed it to Ellis and Aldwyn to get them to safety.

But the deadly, rushing, unforgiving, vertical drop still haunted her.

“And you’ll manage to take all three of us?”

Harath shifted her weight and hopped from leg to leg.

“Well…no… I will only have the strength to carry one of you - the safety of the valley below is a long journey - I can glide down with one of you - but the currents press hard against the cliff and make it difficult to climb back up to the aerie - I will not be able to manage this three times. I tried to tell you it would be best to escape with only one of you, yes?”

“But Harath, I can’t just leave my friends here - they’re relying on me - they have been so kind - you understand how it feels, what it means to trust a friend.”

“Yes, now, thanks to you, I do - and that is why I wanted to help you. But it is not too late for you, Kira - I can fly you down and get you safe - but you must leave the others here - the guards will be along soon, they will find them and when the life-giving sun lowers behind Gruneath, the great mountain, the aerie will use them in the Observance.”

“No Harath! I won’t leave them like that - it’s all of us or none. There must be another way - some other exit with a path, or some other way out to safety? I can’t just leave my friends here.”

“There are no pathways at all to the aerie - the Akkipter do not need them - and your hunters would use them to climb up and kill us.”

“So we’re trapped here? We will become the flesh of Graath as Fyrttu wanted?”

A bitter spike of hope stung through her dismayed body.

They were so close; they had worked so hard to get to the exit; but now - now that she could taste the fresh, open, mountain breezes, now that she could touch the possibility of escape and see the vast promise of freedom, the callous realisation came that it had all been for nothing.

Harath gazed at the ground.

The guards would find them soon.

Was the Surrounder truly so cruel - to offer up the joyful opportunity of life, then snatch it away and leave her and her friends there to die so miserably?

A Blustering wind broke the empty silence.

Harath looked up.

“Well, there is perhaps one other chance...”

“Anything Harath! If there’s any hope at all…”

“Even with your human eyes, you can see that waterfall on the other side of the ravine, yes?”

The cold piercing wind, irritated Kira’s eyes as she peered out across to the far side of the wide, ragged valley. She blinked through the fretful mists and swirls of snow - a little to the left, and just below the height of their blustery wind-swept exit, a distant roaring curtain of water plunged over the lip of a fierce, vertical escarpment, then thundered off and disappeared down through a tormented vortex of hazy fog, into the gaping jaws of the chasm below.

It was close enough to see, but far enough away to be a frightening prospect - especially if she was to be carried by one who was no longer quite certain of her wings.

“Behind the waterfall is a cave,” Harath continued. “The stories tell that our king once lived there, long ago - but the cave is forgotten now and no longer used. When I was younger, I remembered the old tales and sometimes hid there when life in the aerie was not kind to me and I wished to be alone. The cave goes back deep into the cliff. I never explored the darkness, so I do not know whether there is an exit behind it or not - but it is a chance - your only one, I think.”

A faint slither of hope shone out and warmed Kira’s despair; but she was not sure if she dared rest her faith on it.

“The journey is not as far and tiring as going all the way down and back up the cliff,” said Harath. “Perhaps I can even glide across, if the currents favour me - so I will be able to take all of you - but it will still need three crossings, and this will take time - the guards are certain to come soon, and there is a danger they might arrive before I have time to fly all of you across - so we must go quickly, yes?”

The nervous, doubtful blood drained from Kira’s hollow body; she tried not to stare at Harath’s uncertain wings.

But the guards would be there soon.

Her guilty eyes blinked down at Fyrttu - she did not want the pain and remorse of that again.

She needed to act.

“And you’re quite sure you can carry us? I mean, you weren’t injured in the fight or anything?”

“I am fine - let’s go now, yes?” Harath replied.

“But I won’t be strong enough to hold on to your legs - and my friends are still sleeping - so how will you carry us? On your back?”

“No, of course not! How could I move my wings with you on there? I must grip you with my talons, yes?”

Harath lifted her leg and admired her fierce armaments proudly.

Her keen, incisive claws glinted in the open light.

“By the great blessing of Skirnam, I am a strong hunter - I do not drop my prey - when I catch a hare, it is as good as eaten, yes?”

Kira shuddered at the thought of being pierced by those sharp, snatching hooks again.

But perhaps Aldwyn might be able to heal the wounds - once he was fully awake?

If they managed to get across the ravine and escape…

“But, do not worry,” Harath continued, “I will not use the Gift of Skrinam - you will not be put to sleep, yes?”

“But won’t it…hurt?”

“Your shoulders will be cut, of course - my talons are fine and sharp - you will have much pain - but you will have a chance to be free. But quickly! We must go now! Or you will stay here and become the flesh of Graath.”

Harath was right.

She must focus on what needed to be done - there simply was not time to worry about being hurt - or being dropped.

There was only one possible means of escape - and Harath’s dubious wings were it. content.

If this meant badly cut, bleeding and painful shoulders, then that was surely a price worth paying?

She owed it to the others to at least try.

“Well, you’d better take Ellis first - get him to safety, then come back for Aldwyn, and I’ll go last - I’m awake - so if the guards arrive while you’re gone, at least I can defend myself - I still have that rock, so I might be able to hold them back for a little while.”

She told her unruly eyes not to look at the guilty body of Fyrttu slumped on the cave floor. But they could not resist the torment of another brief flickering glance.

“Yes! A fine plan!” Harath beamed excitedly. “You are a great queen, with the soul of a true warrior! I knew it! The Gift of Skirnam does not lie! You are a queen like me - ready to defend and protect your loyal friends! And you protect your young mate first, yes? The Great God of the Wind will bless you with many fine hatchlings!”

Kira turned her burning cheeks away and busied herself dragging Ellis to the edge of the exit.

There was no time to be embarrassed - there was still work to do, their lives were still in danger.

The driving fear of being recaptured pulsed through her veins.

Ellis and Aldwyn were relying on her now.

She must repay their kindness.

She must not to let them down.

It was up to her now - and they must all trust in the faltering strength of Harath’s wings - whether they liked it or not.

She manoeuvred Ellis into place and dangled his limp feet over the cliff edge. She sat his teetering body up, so that Harath could grab his slumped shoulders.

“Brace yourself, Ellis,” she said to his bleary sleeping form, “this will hurt! Harath is going to carry you across to safety. Don’t struggle or you’ll make it more difficult for her.”

Harath hopped excitedly from leg to leg and flexed her shoulders.

“Please be careful, Harath - don’t just drop him in the cave - he’s still not awake yet.”

“Yes, the Gift is very strong - he will not awake. But I will fly as I did in my youth - swift and strong - then I will return for you my friend - do not fear it, yes? Now stand back - give me a little space for my wings.”

Kira moved away as Harath positioned herself behind Ellis and unfurled her great wings.

They shimmered in the brightness of the day; their magnificent wingspan glorious with regal lustre. She stretched and fluttered and beat them - even with the noisy blustery wind buffeting in from the mountains, their great powerful sweeping flaps filled the cave with huge pulsing swirling eddying currents.

Kira thrilled to see her new friend so proud, so potent. Her wings seemed so strong and able - surely she could fly; surely she would get them all to safety.

Harath hopped up onto Ellis’s back.

Kira winced in prickling sympathy as her talons gripped and ripped into his shoulders

She told her inquisitive eyes not to look as his reluctant blood began to ooze out; her body shivered and crawled with the uneasy knowledge that it would be her turn soon.

Unless the guards arrived before Harath could return for her?

But at least this way, one of them would be safe - Harath would get him to safety - Ellis, who had been so kind and brave to help her against the slavers - whose blue eyes had shone out at her on the crumbling path - he deserved a chance to live.

Her nervous heart thumped in anxious rhythm to Harath’s great wings - “please fly; please be strong: please fly; please be safe.”

Harath heaved and forced a mighty swooshing down-draught as she leant forward and propelled herself, and her precious cargo, out of the bright mouth of the cave.

This was it!

Harath must succeed; she must fly; she must get them all to safety.

Her huge wings flapped and fought; the mountain winds bashed and blustered; Kira’s staring eyes were shocked with a painful, harrowing anguish as her friends plummeted immediately, uselessly, over the edge of the exit, straight down out of sight, down towards the deadly rocks of the ravine.

She dashed to the precipitous mouth of the cave to witness their terrible fate; her staring, disbelieving senses could find no trace of them through the misty swirl of the hungry, fatal, empty chasm below.

She pressed her distraught hands to her mouth, but her strained nerves erupted in a terrified cry.

“No!” they screamed. “Ellis! No!”