45

"This doesn't seem, uh, responsible," Therko says as his fingers fly over the ropes, transforming them into an improvised ladder.

You're behind a tall, rocky outcropping, screened from the airship as it drops lower, lower, circling because it saw prey and now it does not…

"Hoist us up," Alexius says. Controllers, their cog stowed for now, work the lines, and you and Alexius slide up the stone cliff face, grapples in hand.

The airship floats before you like a leviathan as you crest the ridge, and for a second Alexius hesitates. Then Therko runs past him and hurls his grapple, pulling it instantly taut.

"Well, it's working so far," Therko says and throws himself across the gap. Hunters from the airship scream, and you recognize men from the expedition, their eyes full of the madness of this savage place. And then, even as someone screams for the airship to climb and flee, you throw yourself across the gap.

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