But Reggie grabbed my arm, holding me fast. “We can’t split up. We’ll check on Thornhold and then go after her. I saw which tunnel they dragged her into.”
Desperate to go after her, but knowing that Reggie was right, I turned around, shaking, praying that Thornhold was still alive.
CHAPTER 51: INTO THE MOUNTAINS
At first,the incline was easy, gently graded and smooth soil. We had our walking sticks, and the weather had cleared so that it was dry but chilly. The temperature seemed at least ten degrees below what it had been in the Cryptic Marshes. As we followed the path, the forest thinned out to spotty trees to the right, and to the left, I noticed that the rocks were thicker, beginning to create a wall next to the path. The ground dried out—rain hadn’t touched the area for a while, it looked like. The ground hardened into compacted soil as we hiked our way up the gentle slope. The rocks to the left were dark granite, weathered by time.
“I wonder how far before the grade of the trail steepens,” Thornhold said.
“I don’t know,” I said. “We never got this far in the game. But it feels like it’s already increasing. We’re going to have quite the hike in front of us.”
“Cripes!” Brynn shrieked, jumping to the side. She was nearest the granite rock face to our left.
“What’s wrong?” I turned to see her draw her sword.
On the ground, next to her, was a large snake. It looked a lot like a diamondback rattler, and it had coiled, rearing back.Before we could do anything, Brynn swung her sword as the snake struck. She deflected the fangs with the blade as she darted out of the way.
The snake reared up to coil again, but we backed away before it could strike any of us.
“Don’t hurt it,” I said. “Not unless it tries to come toward us.” I was tired of killing things—and though I knew we’d have to fight again, if we could let some innocent creature live, so much the better.
The snake hesitated, then it uncoiled and slithered back into a hole in the rocks.
“It’s probably going to hibernate for the winter,” I said. “Either way, at least we gave it another chance. I wonder what drew it out.”
“Probably the sun,” Brynn said. “I’m just glad I noticed it, but I think that my reaction startled it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have ever seen it.”
We passed by, but moved a little further to the right. The trail was large enough for a wagon to travel up it, though I doubted that it would be that easy further on. Most likely supplies were carried in by horse or other beast of burden.
The day continued, and my thighs and calves began to complain. I might be an elf, but the ground was hard as rock and the grade was steepening. I was grateful for the dry day, though. When the rain did come through, I imagined it would be terribly slippery.
Several hours later, we had left the forest behind us. To the right, we faced a drop-off, looking into the valley below, but up ahead the rock wall to the left began to mirror itself on the right, and we’d be traveling between two cliff faces. The road was narrowing, but still wide enough for several horses to travel side by side. In fact, I thought, I wished wehadhorses.
The sounds of the forest had stopped when we began our ascent, but here there were other noises. The faint creaking of rock, the sound of birds who lived above the treeline, the flutter of autumn insects, all combined to create an ambient sound.
A light breeze washed past us, chilling me with each gust. It occurred to me that—if a wash of water came barreling down the channel between the rocks, there would be nowhere to go.
“Stop a moment,” I said. “I want to see what’s on either side of the rock face.”
With Ray’s help, I nimbly climbed up the left side of the road, scrambling up the granite face until I stood atop a wide expanse of boulders. I cautiously crossed to the outer edge, where I found myself staring down from a dizzying height. I wasn’t sure how far down the drop was, but as I looked ahead, the mountain widened, a jumble of rock that only a Billy goat would be able to climb. Here and there, a stunted tree grew out from some crack in the mountainside, but the trees were windswept and almost bare of needles. I looked up, but could see no end to the massive mountain that we were climbing through. The pass was truly the only way to the top, unless you could fly. And none of us had that ability.
I scanned the mountainside, shading my eyes, looking for any sign of life, but saw none. The party that had gone ahead of us seemed to have vanished—there were no signs to tell they had even passed the same direction.
Turning cautiously, I faced the way we had come. No other hikers in sight, just us. That gave me some comfort. I couldn’t even see the forest from here, except as a great silhouette a long distance downslope from where we were. Finally, I leaped back down to join the others and tell them what I was seeing.
“We’re truly on the first mountain in the Kartell range. Let me look to the right.” I crossed to the other side and, with Ray’shelp, once again climbed up on top of the rock wall. Shading my eyes, I looked to the east.
On our right side, the rocks separated us from a massive drop. Below were more rocks—we really had left the forest behind, and far below us, I could see a river winding around the base of the mountain. I glanced up and—once again—the mountain bulged out with boulders and outcroppings. I couldn’t see the top from here either, but there were several ledges that looked like we might be able to walk out on them once we reached their level. A thin stream of water trickled down beside one of the ledges.
I returned to the others. “I see a couple of thick ledges above that might be a good place to make a fire and cook food, and warm up. It’s a ways up, but that might be the best choice for a campsite. We could fill our water bottles as well.”
Overhead, the sun’s position matched our watches. It was nearing two PM. We had about two or three hours of light left before we would have to make camp. It was too dangerous to climb in the dark.
We started our climb again. Overhead, two hawks circled, then one suddenly dove toward the mountainside, below the rock wall so we couldn’t see it. Another moment and it flew upward again, a small rodent in its talons. I watched as the bird soared into the sky and vanished.
We climbed in silence, the grade steeper and the trail now bumpy with rocks peeking out from the ground. We were still able to walk with just the help of our walking sticks, but as we traveled further up into the pass, it was going to be a problem. I wondered if the snow had reached the top of the pass yet—there was a good chance we’d be slogging through at least some snow, so I was grateful that I’d brought thigh-high leather boots and heavy socks.
As we grew closer to the area where I’d seen the ledges cropping out from the mountain face, the light began to wane and the temperature plunged. I shivered and pulled my cloak closer around my shoulders. And then—around four-thirty—I stopped and looked to the right.
