17. River-Steeped
River-Steeped The boy is heavier than any of them except. As he disappears beneath the waters, the current catches him and the entire rope is whipped downstream, yanking everyone of them along with it. Noori sees Maximilian stumble and fall from the sudden pull of it at the same moment there is an ominous cracking sound from behind Noori. She is smacked with a sudden jolting force that she knows without seeing is the shaft of the arrow that should be buried in the tree behind them. She shouts and tries to tighten her soft hands along the rope, but it’s too late. The rope slips out of her hand. She watches it slip out of Nessuna’s hands, whip past Maximillian’s fallen form, and begin to snake out of Tiffani’s grip. “No!” Noori shouts, the sound already full of anguish, unable to think of what more she can do to stop this from happening. Luckily Nessuna is not as slow as Noori. The Teifiling woman leaps over Maximillian’s fallen form and darts around Tiffani, grabbing the rope agai...
