Kenda sat for a few moments trying to figure out what to do. He gazed up at the high sun and knew that the face of the cliffs would soon be in the shadows when the sun passed over the crest. Realizing that he had no other option, Kenda started climbing the nearest crevice. He tried to keep his body as deep into the crevice as possible and hoped that none of the mages would send a fiery projectile to whisk him off the wall.

He climbed swiftly until he came to the next small ledge. He hurriedly chose another crevice and darted into it without taking the time to look down at the foreigners. Soon the crevices grew very dark. Kenda looked up and could no longer see the sun.

Kenda froze when he heard a distant scream. He knew without looking that one of his pursuers had fallen off the wall. He listened intently to the length of the scream as if it would give him an idea of how far up the cliffs the soldiers had gotten, but it was a futile exercise. The scream just faded into the sounds of the wind.

Kenda continued up the Wall of Mermidion in a mindless exercise of endurance and stamina. As each crevice ended, the boy immediately sought the safety of the next dark crevice and continued upward. He minimized the amount of time that he was exposed to those below him. Eventually, he reached a point where there were no more crevices. He gritted his teeth and sighed heavily as he looked out over the ocean and saw the bright pink clouds heralding the sunset. Soon it would be completely dark, and the real climbing had just begun. Kenda gazed upward and studied the face of the cliff. It looked like a sheer vertical stone face. He shook his head and cried.

Suddenly, another scream came from below, but not as far away as the first one. Kenda did not need to count the length of the scream to realize that the soldiers were climbing faster than he was. He looked again at the face of the cliff and gritted his teeth in determination.