Barely two days into their climb, the groups had to split up. They had four different routes where each party would always be within sight of at least one of the others.
Borianna led the first party up and D’Argen waved them away with a grin. Another of the mortals took Yaling and Abbot back down before they disappeared over the snowy ledges and Lilian and their party went even further out and disappeared completely. D’Argen could only smile at Thar as Vinson took them a different route.
When night fell though, D’Argen could see three separate lights on the mountainside at different heights.
“How are you not cold?” Hortson, the fourth member of their small team, complained a few days in when Thar sat down in the snow in his linen and silk robes.
“Thar is made of ice, he feels most at home here,” D’Argen answered with a grin as he helped Vinson put up their tent.
Thar let out a sound that D’Argen must have misheard because it sounded like a snort. He chanced a glance at the other, but Thar’s face was completely blank. D’Argen returned to packing snow around the tent’s edges.
“Are you cold?” D’Argen asked once he was done packing snow. His gloves were completely wet and his fingers were already numb. “I may have something,” he muttered under his breath as he rummaged through the pack.
There was not much in there in terms of food or drink, but Vah’mor and Lemisyre both had packed D’Argen with multiple layers and furs. Although it was windy and the air was cold, the sun had been bright and unobstructed on them the last few days so D’Argen had not layered up even more. He felt the burn on his cheeks and nose from the wind and the sun both, but that was not reason enough to break out the fur-lined hood. Especially not when he walked beside Thar who dressed so light.
It was embarrassing.
“Hortson!” Vinson snapped out, drawing D’Argen’s attention to him. “Pack the inside edges too. It looks like it’ll be a windy night,” he ordered.
D’Argen was confused only for a moment. When Vinson came up to him, he did so with a soft start of, “Missir D’Argen—”
Which was quickly interrupted by Thar correcting him with, “Leige.”
“My apologies. Leige D’Argen, if I may?” Vinson asked, his head lowered in what he thought was respect but hiding his throat in an insult.
D’Argen ignored his body language and prompted with a hand for the man to continue.
“You are the most experienced climber of your group, no?”
“Yes. Well… by myself, yes. Not with your contraptions and ropes. Though I did finally get it right today when I tied you off!”
“Yes, yes, you did. Umm… I… I don’t know how to say this without being blunt, but please know I mean no offence.”
“Uhh… okay? Go ahead?” D’Argen was unsure how to respond so he let the mortal take charge of the conversation.
“Hortson is not bad. Not our best, but definitely not our worst climber. The issue is…” Vinson hesitated, trailing off and finally sounding unsure for the first time since he was put in charge of their small team. After a moment, he took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and looked D’Argen right in the eyes as he said, “Hortson has been making rookie mistakes since we started.”
Okay?
“Is… is this not something you should talk to him about?”
“It is. I did. He said that that’s why you’re here.”
“Me?”
“Well, you and Leige Thar.”
“Missir,” D’Argen corrected without thinking even as he focused on Vinson’s words. “What do you mean, that’s why we’re here?”
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Vinson shrugged and he looked helpless and small, even though he was almost as tall as D’Argen, wider than him, and covered in so many furs that he looked even bigger.
“I’m just… I don’t want you to feel obligated to help him or share your supplies with him. Or me. It’s not… I mean… we’re—you’re not here to make sure we’re safe.”
And then it clicked. D’Argen was a god. He would be able to keep Vinson and Hortson safe, regardless of what stupidity one of them decided to do.
“What kinds of rookie mistakes?” D’Argen asked, focusing on that instead.
“Small ones. Nothing that big. But, he almost didn’t tie you off properly today. And then earlier, when we split up for the break, I thought I felt something so I had him looking ahead on our route and he didn’t report everything he saw.”
“Do you want me to… talk to him?” D’Argen asked, still unsure why he was pulled aside. He also had no idea what to say if his guess was right. Fortunately, Vinson shook his head in a negative. “You felt something today?”
“Oh? Oh, yes. Not sure what, though. The mountain here is different than what I’m used to in Salem. We’ve yet to see anything other than snow. I am just… wary.”
“Do you want Thar to take a look?”
“Take a look?”
D’Argen laughed without meaning to. “We can help. All you have to do is ask. We may not be the most experienced, but we do have the mahee on our side.”
Vinson’s eyes lit up like he had just gotten the best news in years. Slowly, he smiled wide enough to match D’Argen’s smile and then nodded quickly.
“I didn’t want to bother you,” Vinson said. “But yes. Yes. Thank you!” He somehow skipped a few steps closer to the tent where Hortson and Thar were already.
And then it was like Hortson never came up in conversation between them. D’Argen smiled and followed Vinson inside their tent.
It was small and low, D’Argen had to hunch over when inside, but it was wide enough for all four of them to be able to lie down without touching and packed with snow on the edges while the bottom was covered in oiled cloth.
“Missir Thar?” Vinson asked as soon as he stepped in. “Do you mind coming with me for a moment?”
Thar, instead of answering, looked at D’Argen. D’Argen was not sure what, exactly, he was looking for, but he nodded and slipped past the two to his own sleeping spot.
Thar was slow to rise but he did and then followed Vinson and exited the tent. D’Argen decided to keep an eye out on Hortson but his staring must have made the man uncomfortable because he quickly left the tent with a mutter under his breath about water or something.
D’Argen nodded to the closed tent flap then scooted closer to peek out of it. Hortson was building a small fire in the snow, a feat D’Argen did not know was possible without magic until they started this climb, and breaking up clean snow into chunks to drop in a metal container.
Well into the night, Hortson already asleep and D’Argen playing with his hair, Thar and Vinson both returned to the tent.
“Liege D’Argen, can you run without breaking the snow?” Vinson asked as soon as he was sitting down. The sound and movement woke Hortson up.
D’Argen shook his head. “I can, but it would be risky. Thar would have to turn it into ice under me and hope where I stop is solid enough to hold me. Why?”
Vinson remained quiet for a long time as he stared at the closed flap of their tent.
“I mentioned that I felt something earlier. Well… I feared we are over a crevasse,” Vinson said after a long while. “Missir Thar has confirmed it. We are safe for now, but we definitely have to change routes and I wanted to let the other team know we will be out of sight for a few days.”
“Who is in the closest team to us?” D’Argen asked. Even if he did not use his mahee fully, he could run to them to deliver the message and be back to his own team shortly after.
“I believe it is Jonson in the lead.”
D’Argen tried to connect the name to a face to figure out which of the Never Born were with him.
“Lilian,” Thar supplied helpfully.
“Not Yaling, unfortunately. Hmm… I am not sure how to relay a message to them without running or shouting.” D’Argen was not embarrassed to admit it. It had never been a problem for him before. “Can we change routes toward them?” D’Argen asked.
“No,” Thar answered instead of Vinson without further information.
“And this… crevasse… how dangerous is it?”
“The crevasse is in the ice is right under us,” Vinson started explaining. “Technically, we have been walking on snow that is held in the air all day now. If not for the past few days. The snow is getting softer with direct sunlight, so I am not sure how long it will remain solid for us. I am also not sure how deep the crevasse is, but it is wide enough to take all four of us and it is moving up. We will have to move sideways.”
D’Argen found himself staring down at his lap as if he could see through body, cloth, and snow and right into the open space that Vinson and Thar were talking about. He could not fathom that only snow is what kept them from falling.
“There is another break between us and the closest team,” Thar added on.
“Yes. We have to move in the opposite direction,” Vinson confirmed.
“How deep?” D’Argen finally asked.
Thar did not say anything and that was answer enough. Either it was too deep to reach with his mahee, or deep enough to worry Vinson so he had kept quiet.
“Tomorrow, we will rope in again, but this time I need Missir Thar right behind me,” Vinson informed the others though he did not look at Hortson pointedly. “Then D’Argen and then Horston.”
D’Argen nodded quickly. After a moment, he noticed Hortson nod from the corner of his eye. He turned to look at the man who was trying to rub sleep out of his eyes.
“Get some sleep, I want us to be moving fast tomorrow to get out of this,” Vinson said.
D’Argen knew he would have a hard time falling asleep, but he tried his best anyway.