Partner Games
Page 52

She giggled. “Lady-parts? What are we, twelve? And no, once there’s cancer in the mix, that’s kind of the trump card.” She gestured at the busy courtyard. “Come on. Let’s find that Heavenly Gate the penalty mentioned. We can weep all over each other at the finish line.”
“Sounds good.”
 
~~ * * * ~~
 
We asked around and eventually flagged down a tourist that spoke a bit of English and had a map. Sure enough, we found the area marked South Heavenly Gate, and I worried, because the mountain seemed steeper and a bit more fearsome in this area. The clue had mentioned harnesses, hadn’t it? Still, I had done the zipline and that was scary as hell. And I’d done the bungee—
Well, after Georgie had pushed me.
But I was slowly conquering my fear of heights, wasn’t I? I could do this. It couldn’t be that dangerous.
A woman was waiting for us, in one of the traditional costumes we’d seen twice so far, and the beautiful, spiky beaded headdresses. She gestured nearby. “Please place your bag here,” she said in heavily accented English. It was a tiny cave off to one side of the path. Ahead, the walkways grew very narrow and there was a crowd of people on every inch of the path. Oh man. Fear prickled through me. “I hope we aren’t going to have to elbow past people on that skinny path,” I told my twin as we shrugged off our race backpacks. “It’s barely three feet wide!”
“It’ll be fine,” Georgie assured me.
We left our bags behind and stepped in line with the rest of the crowd. I looked over the edge of the metal railing and whimpered. Between the trees and a few rocky crags, it was a very long fall off the side. “I don’t like this.”
“You can do it,” Georgie said cheerfully. “I promise you can do it.” She reached out and squeezed my sweaty hand.
I nodded, not trusting my voice. I could do this. I would just stop looking over the side of the mountain. That was all.
The line moved slowly, but we eventually got to the front to get our harnesses. A man with quick fingers strapped me in and handed me two wires with carabiners attached to the ends. “There are two lines,” he said in the bored voice of someone who has given the same directions a hundred times. “You clip one to top line, and one to bottom line. Clip, clip.” He made hand gestures in case I didn’t understand his English. “Always stay connected with one line. Understand?”
My heart thundered in my chest. I looked back at Georgie.
She gave me a thumbs up and a nod. “You can do this, Clem.”
Okay. “Got it,” I told the guide.
He gestured ahead of him. “Get on the path.”
I stepped ahead, around the rocky face of the wall. The path turned sharply and…disappeared. I stared at the side of the mountain. “Um, where is the path?”
“See the chains? Clip, clip,” he repeated, gesturing at the side of the mountain. I could see a series of hooks and chains lacing the wall like an ugly necklace, but I didn’t see anywhere to put my feet. My heart hammered even louder.
“See the board, Clem?” Georgie said behind me. “There’s a board to put your feet on.”
I squinted, then pulled out my monocle and held it to my eye. I was fear-sweating like a beast, and had to rub the thing on my shirt before putting it to my eye again. Sure enough, there was a tiny wooden plank a few feet below the chain harnesses drilled into the side of the mountain.
One plank. Sometimes two. Never more than eight inches wide.
That was the path. The freaking Plank Trail. I got it now.
“Clip, clip,” the guide said, and gestured at the chains on the wall. He grabbed my carabiners from me and began to clip me.
“NOPE,” I bellowed, jerking away from him and staggering a few steps backward. I crashed into my twin and we both thumped onto the side of the mountain. “Fuck no. I am not doing that.”
“It’s just a little path,” Georgie soothed.
“It’s too little!” I shrieked. “Are you kidding me? My feet are bigger than those planks!”
“That’s why you have to clip to the wall—“
“NOPE.” My trembling hands jerked at the harness. I was going to be sick if I tried to go out there. And what happened if I got stranded? Who would go rescue me? Another person that had to clip in?
Hell to the no. Just no. Absolutely not.
“I am not doing this,” I said, and the guide started to help me out of the harness.
“If we don’t do it, we get a penalty,” Georgie told me. There was a plea in her voice. “The card says it’s a three hour penalty if we don’t do the task, and we still have to complete the other challenges.”
“I can’t do it, Georgie. I can’t. We’re already in last place,” I told her. My hands were shaking so bad I had difficulty putting my monocle back in my pocket. The sight of all that open air and the tiny, tiny plank hugging the side of the mountain? That was going to be in my nightmares. “I can’t,” I said, and started to cry again. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” she said, shrugging out of her own harness. She handed it back to the guide, and then put her arms around me. We pushed our way through the tourists, back out to the entrance of the path where we’d left our bags. “It’s all right.”
“I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “I don’t want to fall off the side of the mountain just to end up in fourth or fifth place anyhow. We’re already in last. It’s stupid to do the challenge.”
“I know,” she soothed. “We had a good run, didn’t we?” Her hand patted my back, my braids.
“We did.” I swiped at my face. “I’m so sorry, Georgie. I wish I was stronger—“
“Shut up,” she said, nudging me. Even that small push made fear knock the breath out of me, and I clung to her. “You were an awesome badass of a partner, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
I hugged my twin close. “I love you, Georgie. You’re the best sister a girl could ever have.”
“I love you, too, you big nerd. Now, since we have to wait three hours, we might as well see if we can find someone selling noodles. I’m starving and we might as well go out in style.”
Hand in hand, we headed back to the pavilion, defeated but united.
 
 
Chapter Thirty-Four
 
 
“I guess I never really thought about what would happen if the girls got eliminated. I keep looking around for Tiny. Damn. This sucks.” – Swift, Team One Percent, The World Races
 
 
“Red team?” Chip gave Georgie and I a sorrowful look as we stood before him on the mat. “I’m sorry to tell you that you have been eliminated from the race.”
“We figured,” Georgie said, a bright smile on her face. “We had fun, though.”
“A lot of fun,” I agreed, and looped an arm around my twin’s waist. “It brought us closer together.”
Chip nodded sagely. “No tears? You girls are taking this well.”
Georgie cocked her head and gave him a playful look. “That’s because this isn’t the end for us. We’ve made some great friends here, and friendships that will last a lifetime. We’ve become closer than ever, and I think it’s reminded us what’s really important in life – the people you surround yourself with.” Georgie threw her arms around my neck and held me close.