Dancer hesitated before he answered. “The main approach is just over there.” He pointed to her left. “It’s twelve pitches to the summit. Mostly face climbing with some corners and headwalls. There’s a couple of gendarmes where sparns nest, so you shouldn’t have to go all the way to the summit to get the feathers. The only hazard really is loose rock, and I wouldn’t trust any existing anchors that you might find along the way.” He locked gazes with her. “It’s easily done in a day, barring an accident.… What are you thinking?”
“That I take him.”
They all stared at her.
“What?” she asked in an offended tone. “League trained, folks. Head of my class. Before that, I was a xenobotanist. Been on many vertical expeditions in some frightening places. I can climb a mountain… building… dead body…” She cast a playful grin to Dancer. “Surly Andarions… no problem.”
Dancer turned green and for a minute, Bastien thought he might hurl.
“Please, Dancer?” Darice begged. “Please! Please! Please! I’ll do anything if you say yes! I’ll even wash your boots. Sharpen your sword. Be your personal slave.”
Dancer glanced to Sumi.
“You know I won’t let anything happen to him.”
Darice went down on his knees, crawling toward Dancer and begging as if he were in absolute agony. “Please, Uncle Dancer, please!”
With an irritated sigh, he nodded. “But!” He held his hand up to his overly excited nephew. “You lip off to her and she’s to bring you right back down here. You understand me, Darice?”
“I’ll be good. I promise! I love you, Dancer!” Whooping in delight, he shot to his feet and ran off to get ready.
Hauk pushed himself up with an even louder groan.
“You okay?”
He nodded at Sumi’s concerned question. “I want to double-check the climbing gear.”
“All right, Grandma.”
“I also have the pitches diagrammed.”
“That’ll be helpful. Anything else?”
He pulled her against him and pressed his cheek to hers. “Don’t get hurt.”
Sumi smiled. “I won’t let anything happen to Darice.”
“Not just him.”
“I know.” She kissed his cheek before she pulled back. “Thia? You going with us?”
The look of horror on her face was priceless and comical. “Oh hell no. Peeing off the side of a mountain, listening to Darice moan and complain… I’d rather bring a date home to meet my dad—that would at least be entertaining until I had to scrub the blood out of my clothes.” She gestured toward Bastien. “Think I’ll hang at base camp and watch over the two males who don’t whine like babies.”
Sumi laughed. “All right.”
While Sumi and Darice changed, Hauk checked the ropes, anchors, biners, harnesses, cams, hexes, nuts, slings, and belay devices, and packed them each a day sack.
When they returned, he and Bastien took a moment to help them gear up and double-check everything again.
Darice curled his lip. “Do I have to wear a full-body harness? Really? Dancer, I’m not a baby.”
“If you invert on the climb, you’ll thank me.”
He made a sound of utter disgust in the back of his throat. And again when Dancer made sure everything was fastened properly to his sling. “Gah, Dancer. Really? I’ve been climbing since I was three. Stop, already!”
“Don’t get arrogant. I had a lot more hours than you in a harness when I fell over four hundred feet, and your father had even more. Humor me.”
Darice froze to stare at him. “What really happened on that climb?”
