A cough answered from somewhere below and to the left. Then Jeffson's head emerged from a crevice, followed by the porter he'd sheltered with, both of them coated in white powder.
"Sound off!" Jeffson shouted. "Everyone, sound off!"
Voices came back, one by one. Sorel, shaken but uninjured behind his boulder. Three porters from under the overhang. Kelth, who had been furthest from the debris field and had escaped with nothing worse than a face full of ice.
Then the gaps.
"Denna?" I called. "Palel?"
A moan answered. Palel was half-buried in debris about twenty meters from the trail, and Sorel was already scrambling over to him, his medical pack bouncing on his back.
"Denna?" I called again.
I almost missed the muffled reply.
"She's here," Palel managed to say.
"Thank Elurion." Relief flooded me, and I put a hand over my chest. Denna was alive.
My relief was short-lived, though, because I realized that I hadn't heard Gavon reply yet.
"Gavon!" I called.
The silence stretched, and my chest constricted so hard that it felt like it was going to squeeze the life out of me.
"Gavon!" I yelled louder.
"Here!" Gavon's voice came from below the trail, hoarse but unmistakable. "I'm here. On a ledge."
Relief hit me so hard my vision blurred. "Are you hurt?"
"My ankle. Maybe my wrist. I'm not sure. I can't—" A pause. "I can't see the trail. How far did I fall?"
I scanned the area from my elevated position and spotted him. He was on a narrow shelf a few meters below the trail, pressed against the rock face.
"Five meters or so," I told him. "Don't move. We'll get to you."
"Wasn't planning on going anywhere." Even now, his instinct was to quip. I loved him for it and at the same time wanted to strangle him for not taking anything seriously.
"Horrov?" Jeffson was calling more names now, his voice tight. "Moran? Voser?"
Horrov's voice came from somewhere in the debris field, his words slurred.
Moran didn't answer.
Neither did Voser.
Think! I forced down the panic and concentrated. I was ten meters above the trail. Below me, the expedition was in crisis. At least two people were missing, one was over the edge, one had taken a blow to the head, and the trail itself was buried.
I had to come down and help.
"Jeffson, I'm coming."
"Wait! I'll send someone."
"There's no one to send. Everyone is needed." I secured the specimen case to my pack, checked the chimney below me, and began the descent. My hands were shaking, which made the climbing harder, but I placed each foot carefully and tested each handhold before committing my weight.
When I finally reached what was left of the trail, the scale of the destruction looked even worse than it had from above. Boulders the size of armoires had been deposited across the path, and it was even harder to breathe down here because the air was thick with ice particles that stung my eyes and coated my lungs with each inhale.
