Mother lowered her eyes and nodded. She held Daysum in her arms. “Please hurry.”
My father rushed out the door.
“What can I do?” I asked.
My mother cupped my face in her hand. “Just be the good girl you are. We will take care of her.”
I paced and waited by the window, and it felt like an eternity before the healer arrived. Father came in, out of breath with his brow glistening with sweat. He’d run after the healer’s horse from across town.
Daysum was diagnosed with purple fever and given herbs to drink. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how poor we were. My parents’ fleeting expressions when the healer prescribed red meat said it all—they couldn’t afford it. Maybe, in the end, that’s why we were sold.
The healer said that Daysum’s illness was contagious. My brothers and I were instructed to move our sleeping mats to the floor in my parents’ bedroom. I did as I was told, but once everyone was asleep, I snuck out and padded into the big room. I knew I could get sick, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want Daysum to be alone.
“You shouldn’t be here, Sora,” she said, her voice weak.
I snuggled in under her blanket, holding her fevered body as she shook. “I’m always here, little one.”
“I’ll love you for always,” is what she said. I remember it plainly. But this time she turns to me, and her eyes go wide and alarmed. “Sora, listen to me—you need to go!”
I shake my head and sigh. “I’ll be okay.”
I did develop purple fever, but I was fully recovered in two days. Daysum was sick for months.
“Sora, wake up! You need to run!”
I open my eyes to a dark, starless sky. I expect Daysum to be next to me, but I’m alone on the bench of a sleigh. It’s just before dawn, but there’s a distinct rumbling in the distance. Icy, immediate fear spreads along my spine. I jerk upright and watch a mountain of snow careening downhill, heading right for us.
An avalanche.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Euyn
The Western Pass, Khitan
I steady the califers, snapping the reins to urge them to run as the snow begins to tumble down from the peak of the mountain. At the same time, Mikail goes to wake Sora, but she suddenly bolts upright from dead sleep.
“Avalanche!” she yells.
It’s as bad as I thought. Spending most of my life in Qali and then the desert badlands of Fallow, I’ve never been in an avalanche, but I know how dangerous they can be. We’ve lost entire garrisons to them. Thousands of soldiers buried alive, gone in seconds.
“Kingdom of Hells,” she says.
“I’ll try to outrun it.” I snap the reins again.
I grip the leather tight as I stare up at the mountain. The snow is spreading, but it’s slightly behind us. There’s only so fast we can go on this narrow cliff pass, though. The drop is hundreds of feet to the gorge and the Uulatar river on the left. One animal slips, and we’re done for, but we have to try.
“No,” Sora says. “We can’t outrun it. We need to get out of this sled. We have to jump. Look, there’s a cut up ahead.”
“What?” Mikail and I yell at the same time.
Getting out of the sled is the worst possible decision.
“I grew up at the base of the mountains,” she says. “Grab what you can. We need to jump.”
There isn’t time to argue, but I wish there was. What does she know? Chul did mention that their village was at the foothills of the Khakatan Mountains, and the snow is moving much faster than I expected, and spreading far wider.
Gods on High, we’re not going to make it.
