The Red Sea by Edward W. Robertson

she hasn't had enough of me yet."
    "Would you like me to reanimate you, too?"
    Blays closed his eyes and hopped into the void. The rope tensed under his weight. He swooshed along it, slowing as it grew horizontal. At the platform, Winden steadied his landing. He unstrapped and heaved on the rope, returning the handlebars to Dante. Dante tied the strap around his arm, took a deep breath, and let himself fall from the cliff.
    His stomach surged into his throat. His eyes watered; the wind rushed past him so fast he couldn't breathe. But it streaked through his hair, too, and his heart beat like the hooves of a galloping deer. Too soon, he found his feet skidding across the platform.
    Fortunately for his inner thrill-seeker, this was only one leg in a trip of dozens. It wasn't until his fourth ride that he found the poise to take proper stock of his surroundings. The trees supporting the ropes grew from high islands of rock separated from each other by channels of empty space. These channels ran at least fifty feet deep. Within their heavy shade, Dante glimpsed green vines, trickling streams, and jagged rocks. The trees bearing the ropes added another twenty to fifty feet of distance to the bottom.
    They advanced platform by platform. Between having to make three individual crossings per plateau, including the time spent returning the handlebars and strapping in, their overall progress was somewhere around walking speed. Even so, this was infinitely faster than trying to navigate the channels.
    Winden crossed to the next platform. Blays followed, then hauled on the rope, returning the handlebars to Dante. Dante tied himself to them and swung off the little island of rock.
    With a bow-like twang, the rope snapped. Dante's guts lurched as he plunged downward. Beneath him, branches rose to meet him like a field of spears.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
6
     
     
    He sliced downward through the warm air. Years ago, chasing arcane secrets around the tree-city of Corl, he'd fallen from a much higher elevation than this. He'd saved himself by softening the earth and plunging into it like water. Here, though, he plummeted toward dozens of branches. He was about to be gored and thrashed. His only hope rested in staying lucid enough during the aftermath to heal himself before he bled to death.
    Something hissed through the air. A vine appeared from nowhere, stringing across his upper chest. He jolted, slowing. The vine snapped and he resumed his fall. He hadn't traveled five more feet before he was arrested again, this time by three vines which tangled around his shoulders and waist. Dante dangled there a moment, reassuring himself this wasn't some perverse trick, then grabbed hold of the vines, tied one around the rope he'd used to replace his stolen belt, and climbed up the others to the thick branch they were hanging from.
    Over on the platform, Blays gaped. Winden leaned against the trunk of the tree, bracing herself as if overcome by Dante's near death. Dante scooted along the branch toward the trunk, then climbed down to the ground.
    Blays rushed over to him, grabbing his shoulders. "Those vines came for you like you owed them money! How did you do that?"
    "I didn't do anything." Dante nodded at Winden. "She did."
    Blays cocked his head. "Winden. And I thought you were only here for your sunny disposition."
    She moved toward the edge of the rock and stared at the next platform two hundred feet away. "The rope. It's broken. We have to figure out how to cross."
    "That won't be a problem," Dante said. "You know what is, though? You being able to do something I've never even heard of before, then trying to act like nothing happened."
    "I'm not responsible for your ignorance. How do we get down?"
    "My plan was to use my awe-inspiring powers. But that would be pretty dumb of me if you're capable of growing a vine between this tree and the next one."
    She thrust her jaw forward. "Everything that you can do, have you told me of it? High Priest