42 Twist Into A Single Rope 3/3

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擰成一股繩
níngchéng yī gǔ shéng
Twist into a single rope.
Stick together; make joint efforts.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Kageyama kicked the old mare back toward the fortress, trying to catch Zakhar.

"Zakhar wait!" Kageyama called, cupping his hands. "Wait! I have an idea."

Zakhar turned Dunya, ducking as an arrow shot from the fortress whizzed past. He drew the bow from around his shoulder, plucked an arrow from the quiver, knocked it, and a moment later another man toppled from the walls with a scream.

"The rope," panted Kageyama. Sanli caught up, his spindly mare panting from the short canter, leading the stubborn In'yii. "It is light enough to be carried by an arrow. Shoot an arrow into the window and I will try and climb up to the girl."

Zakhar narrowed his eyes. "An arrow won't hold your weight. The rope needs to be tied."

"Well I have only myself to risk. And it is better than trying to fight through a fortress of soldiers."

Zakhar nodded.

They rode toward where Kageyama and Sanli had descended from the fortress only minutes earlier. The pile of rope was still coiled where it had fallen.

Zakhar swiftly dismounted, grabbed the rope, tied it to an arrow from his quiver, and took aim.

The arrow shot up, the rope uncoiling behind it like a vine springing forth from the ground toward the sky.

The arrow lodged into the wood of the broken window frame, and Zakhar gave the rope affixed to it a sharp tug. The arrow jerked free from the wood, and arrow and rope fell to the earth beside them once more.

"Try again!" yelled Kageyama. With Zakhar distracted, more arrows whizzed from above. "Sanli, get down and stand against the wall!"

Kageyama gestured to a portion of wall where a slight bulge of the fortress stone created a natural overhang near the base, wide enough to shield a man and four horses from arrows. Sanli did as Kageyama asked, shakily sliding from the saddle.

"Stay back. Hold the horses tight, the farm horses are not trained for battle, and will try and run. And if they do we will be trapped," Kageyama said.

Sanli nodded, pulling the four horses further back beneath the overhang with his unbroken hand.

Kageyama hurried back to where Zakhar was, dodging an arrow as he went.

Zakhar had succeeded in shooting the arrow through the window and was pulling on the rope. "I think it caught on something. It's not coming loose."

Kageyama took a breath. "Up we go then."

Taking the rope from Zakhar, he started to climb the wall he had just descended from, hand over fist, feet pushing against the fortress walls.

An arrow shot past him, so close he felt the air on his elbow. "Zakhar, a little cover?"

"On it," Zakhar called. A moment latter the same arrow swished by Kageyama, this time from below, lodging in the eye of the archer who was leaning over the battlements to shoot again. But almost as soon as that archer fell, another took his place. And another.

Kageyama kept climbing.

He was almost halfway when the arrows from above stopped. Instead of relief, a heavy weight sank in Kageyama's stomach.

"They are coming around from the outside!" He called back over his shoulder. He hurried his climb. "Dammit girl, you better still be alive."

As if in answer, he heard a crash of wood from the above him. Good, still fighting.

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