Read Aurora in Four Voices for Free Online

Giant's chasm.
    "Why not?" she
asked.
    He smiled. Why not indeed? "Why not what?"
    She lowered her arms and turned in his embrace. "Why aren't the Lions ever on?"
    He tilted his head toward the courtyard. "Do you remember the design in the tiles back there? The curving lines?" When she nodded, he said, "It's a plot of the vortices for a single-degree oscillator with an undamped torsional flutter." He stroked her blowing curls back from her face. "Wind makes the Promenade twist. If it ever blew hard enough, the vortices in its wake around the bridge would drive a self-induced resonance until the Promenade tore itself apart."
    "What would ever possess them to set it up like that?"
    Jato smiled. "Because they're crazy." As he bent his head to kiss her, the bridge gave a violent shudder and threw them to the side. They stumbled along the wall, lurching from side to side as they struggled to regain their footing. It didn't work; they finally toppled over and hit the walkway with a thud.
    "Hey!" Soz laughed, struggling to wriggle out from under Jato's bulk. "It's mad at us."
    "I've never seen it this windy." Jato managed to get up to his knees, but when Soz tried to do the same, the agitated bridge knocked her over again. She finally succeeded by moving with an unnatural speed, as if she had toggled a switch that activated an enhanced mode of her body. They knelt there face to face, Jato holding her shoulders, she with her hands braced against his chest. The Promenade kept moving, more than he had ever felt it do before, rippling almost. It moaned in the assault of air as if the Giant were waking from his mountainous grave.
    Soz wasn't smiling any more. "The Lions are blowing."
    He couldn't believe it. "That's impossible. The Dreamers consider this art. They would never destroy it."
    "The whole bridge is shaking. It doesn't feel stable."
    They stared at each other. Then they scrambled to their feet and took off running for the northern cliffs. The cliffs were closer than the courtyard, but even so they had nearly a kilometer to go.
    Suddenly the bridge lurched like a string shaken by a mammoth child. Flailing
    Then it came: a great booming crack. Thunder roared as if a great mountainous rib was tearing away from the Giant's skeleton. The bridge convulsed and they sprawled forward, slammed down onto the path. Rolling onto his side, Jato grabbed Soz and they held on to each other while the universe convulsed around them.
    Within seconds the frenzied gyrations of the bridge eased. They managed to sit up, hanging onto each other while they stared back along the way they had come.
    Meters away, the broken end of the Promenade hung in the air.
    For one endless instant they stared at the jagged remains of that break. The shuddering edge shook off a chunk of itself, and the boulder dropped into the void below, hurtling into the shadows.
    Carefully, so very carefully, they got to their feet and backed away, taking each step as if they were in a mine field. Only when they were well away from the break did they turn.
    And then they
ran
.
    The Promenade groaned in the onslaught of wind. They sped through a universe of wailing gales and convulsing rock, racing toward the shadowed bulk of a mountain that seemed an eternity distant.
    Finally, mercifully, they were almost there. A few more steps —
    A meter away from safety, the bridge pitched under their feet and slammed them against the wall. Stars wheeled past Jato's vision as he flipped over the barrier. He grabbed at the air, at the rock,
anything
—
    With a wrenching jolt, he yanked to a stop. He had caught a projection and was hanging from it, his body dangling against the outer side of the Promenade. He scrabbled for a toehold, but the bridge was shaking too much to let him get purchase. Far below, the chasm waited.
    His hands began to slip.
    "Jato!" Soz's voice was almost on top of him. She had fallen lengthwise on the wall, with one leg hanging over the edge.
    "Below you!" he shouted.