One last time the tower gave a heaving, rocking gasp to Ulbarich's right. It forced all of them - including the ascending orc - to brace themselves against the outer wall of the tower. Then it heaved left - and did not begin a return to center. They all realized it in roughly the same instant. The tower was on its way to collapsing. They had one chance to get out. Down, and into whatever hell the orcs had designed. Or up, and onto the skeletal framework of the outpost's wall. Ulbarich did not think his chances of either were very good. However, he liked his chances of going up more than he liked his chances of going down. Someone below had collapsed the tower.
He hoped his troops were in the process of escaping.
"Up!" he roared. "Up!"
The stone of the stair was beginning to break apart as its foundation shifted too far out of balance. Seams were becoming legitimate cracks in stone. Dust was being coughed from forgotten bowels of the tower. Huge clouds of the foul stuff, not seen or heard from since the outpost was first built, and thick enough to make him cough. Eyes were wet with pain. He could not afford to blink it away. The landscape before him was changing as rapidly as anything. He had no time to break away and less time to wonder what would become of him. Run up, and then leap to safety. A good ten feet down. More than was safe, but he would prefer it over ten tons of stone collapsing on him.
Ulbarich was the first to break out of the stair, and into the cold air of the tower's top. Wood splintered in the doorway as his shoulder lowered into it. A battering ram allowed that flood of ancient dust to stream into the white, dim blizzard that awaited. He'd abandoned his cloak. Damn it, why had he abandoned his cloak? The horizon was off - as though the entire world were steady but these three atop this tower. Probably true. He could see that the tower was leaning toward the wall. A vicious shriek from the orc, down below.
To wait, and leap a shorter distance? Or jump now, and let the orcs below die? Ulbarich seized twin handfuls of battlement, and did not bother to make himself shout over the sound of stone dying its final death. If they did not understand, they were dead.