Free The Oracle's Secret (The Oracle Saga Book 1) by Amber Darke Page B

to help us here, and I don’t have much else in my arsenal. I look around for inspiration but nothing suggests itself.
    ‘A fire spell!’ I gasp. ‘Steele, can you do a fire spell?’
    ‘I don’t have enough juice for a whole fireball, but I should be able to manage a decent blaze,’ he says.
    ‘All we’ll need,’ I say. ‘That bridge is just about ready to collapse anyway. We just need to give it a bit of help.’
    Still roped up, we rush to the bridge. Steele concentrates on the incantation. I watch our enemies. They’ve spotted that we’re trying to stop them and they’re running - I don’t know how they have the nerve to run across that horrifying excuse for a bridge, but they are.
    ‘Hurry!’ I say. Steele just gives me the finger, not stopping his chanting.
    At last a lick of flame appears on the rope. It’s so small that the breeze almost blows it out. I lean across and cup the flame in my hands to protect it. This is ridiculous. At this rate the most they’re going to get is gently warmed as they cross the bridge and slaughter us.
    Steele repeats the incantation with more force and at last the flame gets going properly, spreading rapidly down the rope and onto the planks. The crackling gets louder as the fire eats its way down the bridge. One of the handrail ropes snap, a coil of flame swinging down into the chasm below. On the upswing it catches the bridge again, spreading the fire further down its length. The Northerners on the bridge notice what’s happening and stop running, standing there for a second, unsure what to do. They’re already a good distance away from the other end.
    They start running again. They’re seriously going to attempt to get through a wall of flame that could collapse at any moment and hurl them into the abyss. I’m awed at their stupidity, but then I remember the blood oath - if it was me trying to stop them from getting to the Lightstone, would I do the same?
    The thought makes me shudder and I push it to the back of my mind.
    ‘Come on, come on...’ I say under my breath, willing the flames to spread further, faster. At the same time I wish those Northerners would head back - they’re probably under orders to kill us but I don’t really want anyone to die.
    This whole side of the bridge is engulfed in flames now, but it’s still just about standing. The Northerners are almost at the fire, and I wince as the first of them runs into the flames - but just then the whole thing finally gives way, and all of them go plunging into the chasm. I hold my breath, and I can’t help leaning over to see what happens.
    One of them must have some pretty impressive manifestation powers, because a huge safety net appears below them and they all thud into it, the impact making the net bounce. They scramble off the net and onto the ground, dodging the burning bits of rope and wood falling from the destroyed bridge.
    I’m glad they’re not dead, but part of me has to admit that it would have made things easier. If they’re still after us, we can’t afford to let up for a second. Steele’s obviously come to the same conclusion because he’s busy untying the ropes that still bind us all together.
    ‘There’s no way of knowing if there’s an easy way out of that chasm,’ he says. ‘I hope it’ll put them at least a couple of hours behind us, but we can’t afford to take chances. We need to keep going.’
    I’m so tired I want to cry, but I know he’s right. Once we’re all untied we head back into the trees and keep following Tarian’s nose. He hardly seems tired at all, and he’s not bothered by the uneven terrain and the constant obstacles and the mud and the flies. The whole time I was in London I walked to and from work, which amounted to ninety minutes of exercise almost every day. I thought I was getting pretty fit, but this forest is really taking its toll. Steele seems uncomfortable too - he may know a lot about fighting and being heroic, but he learned to do