I arched a brow. "If you consider being called a healthy young man a compliment, you are hanging around the wrong girls."
Shovia leaned against his shoulder, her eyes drifting up to the dancing lights. "You are very handsome, too. Not just healthy."
She must be lightheaded with hunger, or maybe the altitude was getting to her because Shovia wasn't the type who complimented guys, not even those she was interested in. In fact, she particularly avoided complimenting the ones she dated so it wouldn't inflate their egos. She liked to keep them on their toes.
"Thank you." Codric turned to me with a triumphant expression on his face. "Shovia thinks I'm handsome."
"Of course, she does," Alar said. "You practically begged for the compliment."
"I didn't. Kailin did that for me."
The wind picked up again, carrying with it the sharp scent of snow, and I shivered, pressing closer to the mountain face and, by extension, to Alar. His warmth seemed to seep through my clothes, making it harder to remember all the reasons I shouldn't let myself grow attached to him.
In the thin mountain air, with reality shifting at the edges of my vision and the ground never quite stable beneath my feet, those reasons felt as insubstantial as the light dragons soaring overhead.
Maybe it was just another hallucination, this growing bond between us. Perhaps when we reached thicker air and could clear our minds, it would fade like morning mist. But for now, his presence was an anchor, a harbor of safety, and in the shifting reality around us, I couldn't afford to give it up.
29
ALAR
"When the path beneath your feet crumbles, training facilitates the quick response needed to leap onto solid ground."
—Commander Raiden Vale, Elite Forces Field Manual, Vedona Academy
The first warning was a subtle shifting of the ground, a vibration that sent pebbles skittering down the mountainside.
"Stop!" The word left my mouth before my mind processed what was happening. "Nobody move!"
But it was too late.
With a sound like thunder, a section of the path ahead began to give way, and I saw Shovia, Codric, and one other pilgrimslide toward the edge. My heart leaped into my throat, and time seemed to slow. I couldn't reach them over the chasm that had opened between us, but then, moving faster than should have been possible, Morek dropped to his stomach at the edge of the crumbling path, shooting both arms out to them. His right hand locked around Shovia's wrist, while his left somehow caught the strap of Codric's pack.
The two pilgrims who had been ahead of Morek reacted fast, immediately dropping to grab his ankles to prevent him from sliding down, pulled by the combined weight of Shovia and Codric.
The third pilgrim tumbled further down, but she managed to catch herself on a narrow ledge several feet below.
The fog that had clouded my thoughts all morning burned away as adrenaline surged through my system, and I pushed Kailin against the mountain face a moment before more of the path crumbled away.
The two holding on to Morek's ankles were slowly hauling him and his cargo up, and those behind them were pulling on them to add counterweight.
Codric and Shovia's situation seemed to be handled, but the girl down on the ledge still needed someone to rescue her.
"Lysara!" I called. "We need ropes!"
Assessing the situation, I concluded that it was too dangerous to toss her the rope, as any movement on her part risked her tenuous hold. Someone needed to go down and get her.
Our guide, who had been checking on the stragglers of our group when the trail crumbled, was already running up toward us. She stopped several feet below us, dropped her pack, and pulled out two coiled lengths of rope.
I glanced at the pilgrims holding on to Morek's ankles. They were straining with the effort, but their grip was solid, and theywere slowly pulling him up along with Codric and Shovia. I hoped that Morek would be able to keep hold of his precious cargo for as long as it took for those behind him to pull all of them up.
"I've got you," Morek grunted. "I'm not going to let you fall."
I glanced at Kailin, still pressed between me and the mountain. "Stay here."
She nodded, fingers gripping the rough stone.
"I'm going down for her." I motioned toward the pilgrim, who was clutching the ledge. The thin air that had been suffocating me all morning barely registered now. "It's too dangerous to just toss the rope to her."
