Leapfrog

It took quite a large amount of ingenuity to get the bridge back across the gap and then return the men who moved it to the correct side.

Although the horses and cargo needed the bridge to cross, the soldiers could manage with only ropes and a makeshift harnesses. They cleared the way ahead of the middle group so that the individual platforms would have room for all the occupants.

The second pass went much more smoothly. Having learned from the experimentation of the first, this group knew when and how to aim the bridge to hit the landing on the first try. With far less energy being expended, the bridge seemed to almost fly across the chasm.

Leading the charge, Devrim looked like a mighty leader of old. "I do wish Junayd were here to write a song about this," Aurora said to no one in particular.

"I am sure he would love to be here," Alvar answered. He stood slightly behind her, but had no trouble catching her voice along the wind. It was picking up more and more, but that didn't seem to be bothering the fearless voyagers.

"Travel is never the same without him. I don't suppose you have some little ditty I could hum along to?" Aurora could already see Alvar shaking his head.

"My musical talent is limited to my feet." Alvar said as he did a jig from side to side. "The only bit of tune I could carry was lost in one of Taran's spectacular hits."

The elf pointed to his ear. When the leader of the abominations had hit Alvar's helmet in, he had done damage to one of the golden prince's ears. The man could only hear clearly out of his right side now, making his ability to match pitch almost non-existent.

Aurora had known about the partial deafness of the he-elf, but not the extent of the complications. She smiled at him.

"I find that a lack of tone makes for a merrier tune." Her grin faded. "But I am sorry you are suffering on my account."

"I am pretty sure you ran out to save me, Your Majesty. There is no need for sorrow. Now I match my lovely wife when we do decide to sing." Alvar shot a wary glance over the gap. Surely Brinn had not heard his comment. But he couldn't be too sure.

"I thought Brinn has a lovely tone," Aurora had only heard her friend sing once, but it had been a pleasant sound.

"Are you sure it was her?" Alvar's question caught the Empress off guard. He sounded more surprised that judgmental.

"Well..." Now that the woman thought about it, she wasn't positive. Aurora had heard the singing and it had stopped as Brinn had come around the corner. The she-elf had been rather cagey on the subject at the time. "No," she admitted.

"Your Majesty!" Exlan hurried over. "I think we are almost ready to make the final pass. I was asked to come and get you."

Aurora's curiosity on the subject of music faded as Reyan flitted over to confirm Exlan's words.

"I am supposed to watch you especially," the fairy told her. "We both are," he gave Alvar a solemn nod.

Even from afar Devrim had made sure his wife was protected. Tying back her hair to fend off the wind, Aurora motioned for the final group to move out. Because it had just returned from the opposite side, the bridge was already spanning the first gap. The soldiers who had completed the tremendous feat were already returning across the rope lines which now connected the rest of the stone towers.

While the Valiant warhorses treaded across the bridge without hesitation, the desert steeds needed slightly more coaxing. One mare in particular was not willing to make the journey. Searching in her pack, Aurora pulled out her head covering that she had received from the Dunespeople. It was too windy just now to be worn properly, so the Empress had stored it in her bag.

She wrapped the cloth around the mare's anxious eyes. "There, there, little miss. I am not fond of heights either. I once fell from a very high one thanks to a dragon."

Aurora's voice coupled with the darkness allowed the mare to settle her nerves. She moved tentatively forward until all four hooves were on the wooden floor. The Empress kept her eyes trained on the horse while the fairy and elf kept their eyes on her.

The distraction helped Aurora cross the first gap without incident, and she breathed a sigh of relief when her feet touched the dusty earth of the first tower.

Behind her the last of the group was making it onto the wide island in the middle of the gorge. Already the men were preparing to pull the bridge onto the wide surface to slide it over to the next stone pillar.

Aurora backed up to toward one edge with her horse to give the bridge plenty of room to pass over the land. For a moment she wondered why they had not put wheels on the large structure to make it easier to move, but that would have taken more time to make and might have caused other unforeseen problems.

The bridge scraped along the ground slightly as the men tried to haul it across. Fortunately the engineer had known what he was doing and the long, flat structure withstood the repeated abuse of being forced across the land.

And the gaps…

'Don't look down,' the Empress shut her eyes. But it was no use. Morbid curiosity compelled her to look into the dark abyss.

From the corner of the cliff the blackness was concerning, but now, hovering over it on a questionably stable landmass, it was truly terrifying. It gaped like an open maw of a creature ready to gobble them whole.

Yet Aurora could not look away. She could almost swear something was moving in the darkness. Slithering.

She realized a moment later, the darkness wasn't what was moving. It was her. The Empress's head began to spin.

"Your Majesty!" Alvar pulled Aurora back from the edge.

The ground began to shake. Not violently, but enough to be of concern.

"You felt that too?" The Empress held her head. She had hoped it was just her imagination.

"I did, but it was only a small tremor. Hopefully it was just the rocks on this tower shifting and not all of the ground quaking." Alvar's comfort was short lived as a voice was blown toward them by the wind.

"We have a problem!" Brinn's sharp words were hard to mistake.

Ahead of them, one of the ten towers was slowly crumbling. The stones grumbled. Aurora's group watched in horror as it disintegrated, leaving a gap in their leapfrogging across the valley.

"Do we go back?" Aurora's question was not to anyone in particular, but Reyan was the one to answer.

"That was the smallest platform and the smallest gap. It was a little offset from the rest as it was. The bridge will easily span to the next plateau without any problem. Really the earth quake just now did us a favor. One less obstacle." The fairy crossed his arms definitively.

'If Reyan was trying to find the positive, then he must be very worried,' Aurora noted. 'But I do not think he would mislead us just to make me feel better. Not when our lives are on the line.'

"It's a good thing we had not started to push the bridge over the next gap. We might have lost it in that rumbling." Aurora smiled. "The Maker is gracious. But we should not test his patience. Carry on!"

The soldiers needed no further encouragement. They seemed particularly motivated to be done with the whole business.

The only real loss with the falling platform was the two sets of ropes that had connected it to the towering land masses on either side.

While Aurora's group continued to move the bridge and supplies, Brinn and a few other brave souls restrung a new set of ropes for the men in Devrim's group who had returned the bridge for the last use.

The afternoon stretched into early evening as Aurora crossed three more of the flat-topped towers with no problems. They were nearly halfway across.

The Empress was beginning to relax a little. No more tremors had plagued them since the first. The plan to abandon the horses and supplies and use the ropes for the humans to get across had not yet been necessary.

Though Devrim had tried to coax his wife to go ahead of the group with Reyan and use the ropes to cross, Aurora had declined. Not only did she fear her ability to cross with just the ropes and harness, Aurora did not want to shatter her group's morale by leaving them behind.

So far she hadn't regretted her choice.

Unfortunately, that could all change in an instant.