The next day, they packed up camp early in the morning. Mel helped Gabriella’s servants roll up sleeping bags and get ready for their travels back to Stonehearth. Gabriella stepped out of her carriage in a new outfit. She had knee-high boots, thick pants and a warm jacket and on her hand she had the same rabbit skin gloves that Mel had seen at Gladys’ shop in westside.

Mel gave her a warm smile, but secretly judged her choice of looking pretty before having dexterity with her fingers. Gabriella would have a hard time using any items with those things on her hands.

After a couple of minutes, they had all eaten and stood ready before the road. All the nobles had walking sticks with them and quality equipment and garments. They looked misplaced in their clothes, and Mel couldn’t help to worry about how they would survive up there in the snow-covered mountains.

Grace set off in a quick pace up the slope and the rest followed her as best they could. Grace never looked back to see if they could keep up. She just kept walking, expecting them to be as athletic as she was.

Mel had gotten some exercise in the last few days, coming to Stonehearth by foot and walking to the foot of the mountain. But her legs still ached after only a couple of hours, and she feared this would be a long day.

The wind howled among the mountaintops and a chilly breeze cast Mel’s hair to the side. She looked up at the snow covering the road before her and took in a deep breath. When she released it, a puff of white mist covered the air in front of her. They hadn’t even made it to the highest part yet, but still Mel could feel her head becoming lighter and the cold biting her skin.

Gabriella caught up with Mel, and mist streamed from her lips in rapid puffing motions. A short distance in front of them walked Grace and Marcus side by side and between them was the travel agency group, with Gregory in the lead. Behind Mel, all the nobles scrambled to make it up along the mountainside, stepping carefully on the rocky terrain and using their walking sticks to lean against once in a while.

“I can’t believe how hard this is,” Gabriella said, leaning on her staff. “If we make it to Aldrion, I’m never going home again. I don’t care about my father’s business or about my obligations to my family. This is just ridiculous.”

Mel gave her a warm smile and poked her finger at Gabriella’s red cheek. Gabriella swatted her hand away in a tired gesture, barely making it up to reach Mel’s finger.

“Come on,” Mel said. “We still have the rest of the day left and we haven’t even made it halfway. I know you can do it.”

“I hate you,” Gabriella said with a wide smile on her face.

Mel grabbed her hand and together they continued walking up the mountainside.

#

“Hey,” Clara yelled from the back of the pack. “Stop that.”

Flavio had a wide grin on his lips, and his cheeks were red from the cold. He swung her walking staff around and with two staffs in his hands, he declared himself ruler.

“I’m the king of this mountain,” he said. “Brandon, I need your staff, too. With three staffs, I will be the most powerful elemental warrior in the world.”

“No,” Brandon said, and walked past Flavio.

“Come on, give it to me,” Flavio said. “I’m just having a bit of fun.”

“No, back off, man,” Brandon said when Flavio reached for his staff.

Clara took the opportunity to snatch her staff back.

“Nooo, I’m weakened,” Flavio yelled. “How could you do this to me, you witch?”

“You’re such a jerk,” Clara said and walked past Flavio, joining up with Brandon.

“Just because I’m bored from all this walking up a mountain,” Flavio said. “It’s so cold here I might as well run circles around you just to keep my heat up.”

Grace pulsed through the decimeter high snow with fierce determination. She gave Flavio a hard look and snatched his walking staff from his hands. She grabbed it with both hands and snapped the staff over her leg like a small twig. Flavio staggered back, shocked.

“This is not your playground,” Grace said. “Up here, your daddy cannot come save you. I decide what we do up here and I say be quiet or I’ll break your leg next time.”

Mel glanced over at Marcus in the lead of the group. He looked over at Mel, his eyes filled with sorrow and hurt. He averted his gaze and when Grace had walked back to him, they continued their journey. Mel felt a sting of pain shoot up into her heart and Gabriella put a hand on her shoulder.

“You’ll fix it when we get to Aldrion,” she said.

“I hope I can still fix it by then,” Mel said.

They made it into a narrow passage between two mountain tops. The snow was heavier here and over two decimeters. Mel could feel it in her legs. The shifting of snow under her feet made it feel like she was walking on a sandy beach. Everywhere she looked, there was white powder. It was covering the ground, the walls of the passage, and the sky above.

Mel felt an uneasiness creep over her, walking into this narrow corridor. She fixed her gaze on the opening in front, focusing on making it to the other side. In the distance, she saw a dark figure stepping out from the shadows and filling the white light from the other side of the corridor.

Mel’s heart beat fast in her chest, and she immediately taught about the beasts. Could they have made it up here?

A moment ticked past, and the group seemed to have stopped. Grace turned around and looked back at the entrance to the narrow corridor. A disappointed expression covered her face. Grace nodded to Marcus, and he unsheathed his sword.

Mel took a step back from the dark shadows at the end of the corridor and her gaze caught with Gabriella’s. She saw fear glistening in her green eyes, and Mel’s throat tightened.

“Stay and fight,” Grace said to the group, backing in toward the rest. “Don’t let them separate us.”

Mel lifted her shirt and pulled out her dagger. She unsheathed the blade and took Gabriella’s hand in hers. Her blood pumped through her veins and a rush of adrenaline filled her body. In her ears, she could hear the clear note of the dagger ringing like music.

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The shadows came closer and Mel saw they were men. Hardened by the cold and rough like the mountain peaks. They looked hungry, and the one in front bore a sinister smile on his lips. Mel shivered and took another step back, but Gabriella pulled her hand.

Mel turned around and saw a man coming from behind them as well. They had them surrounded in this narrow corridor, with only snow covered rock to their sides. Mel felt caught in their net, like a caged bird who couldn’t fly away.

Flavio scrambled back with Clara to the center and Brandon stood closest to the bandit, approaching them from the back. He held his walking stick up toward the man, like he was going to whack him in the head with it. The man was only inches away from him now, and Mel could see his ragged beard growing in patches. He had blue eyes, like ice, and his lips were bright red. His clothes were tattered and his hands dirty.

The man unsheathed a broadsword from his belt and took one step forward, swinging the weapon. He chopped off the tip of Brandon’s walking staff and Brandon staggered back. It wasn’t a clean cut from a sharpened blade; it was more like a hailstorm of splintered wood shooting out from the tip on impact.

The man stared daggers and Brandon raised the rest of his chipped walking staff toward him. Brandon’s hands were trembling and the splintered wood wavered in his hands. The man smiled at Brandon and took another swing at him. This time Brandon staggered back, evading the sword as it came at him.

Brandon’s feet made prints in the snow and Mel saw the man’s smile disappear from his face. The man looked tired now, after only two swings. He lowered his sword and took in a few ragged breaths before raising it again.

Mel glanced behind her and saw Marcus holding his sword up to another bandit. They parried and seemed to stare at each other more than fight. Grace held up a sword and swung it at a bandit, and she hit his weapon several times, making him stagger. The leader seemed to keep his distance in the back and looked like he was waiting for the group to tire.

Gabriella squeezed Mel’s hand and huddled in close. Mel had put her slightly behind herself and had her dagger drawn toward the man fighting Brandon. The man swung again, and this time caught Brandon’s walking staff again. More splinters flew off, and Brandon fell to one knee.

The man walked up close to him and Mel let go of Gabriella’s hand. She stepped up beside Brandon and he regained his footing while Mel shielded him. Two against one would surely even their odds, even though the bandit had a massive unsharpened sword in his hands.

Mel thrust her dagger in the air, making threatening gestures. Brandon lifted the rest of his walking staff toward the bandit and the man looked a little shocked at them working together. Mel felt cloth brush her side and saw Gabriella step up to join them.

She held her staff up toward the man and the three of them took a synchronized step toward him, thrusting their weak weapons toward the man. At first, he took a surprised step back, but then he looked at their weapons and brought up his broadsword again. He swung it at Brandon once more and Gabriella took this chance to thump the man in the head with her walking staff.

Brandon’s staff parried the man's sword, but this time it fell to the snow in small pieces. Brandon held his hands out, empty, and a scared look spread over his face. The bandit staggered back from the hit in his head and he took a few moments to recover. Mel kept her gaze on the man and thrust her dagger at him again, even though she couldn’t get close enough to use it.

The bandit brought up his sword once more and swung it at Gabriella this time. Gabriella got scared and stepped back a few steps, making the man come in really close to Mel.

Melissa sucked in a deep breath and thrust her dagger into the man’s side and he gasped in surprise. He swung his sword against her in a motion to get away from her dagger. Mel pulled out the dagger and red blood seeped from the small blade. The bandit’s sword hit her in the side and she fell down into the snow.

Mel grabbed her side with her hand and felt pain shoot up from her ribs. The bandit staggered back and from his side, flames shot out. Confusion covered Mel’s face, and then a rumble sounded in the distance. The ground underneath Mel shook and snow fell from the walls of the narrow corridor and down over the entire party.

She felt herself getting covered in heaps of cold wet snow and the chill turned to warmth. Mel’s body stopped aching from the hit of the bandit’s sword, and darkness spread around her vision.

#

Mel didn’t know how long she laid there, before hands dug away the snow covering her face. She felt arms grab her and pull her up from a snowy grave. Her pain shot out once more from her ribs and Mel winced.

“Get up,” Grace yelled in the distance. “Get up or you will die here.”

Mel tried to obey her command, and she scrambled up from the pile of snow with the help of Marcus’s strong arms. He brushed the snow away from her face and his eyes looked at her with love and compassion. Mel felt her heart beat fast.

“Are you okay?” Marcus asked.

Mel felt herself nodding, but couldn’t quite understand why. Her entire body felt fatigued, and the pain was swarming all around her. Marcus gave her a quick smile and then moved on to dig at another section of the snow.

Mel stood up on unsteady legs. She picked up the dagger, lying in the snow next to her and sheathed it again. She heard the clear note ringing, and a shiver ran down her spine.

She slid down the snowy slope toward the end of the corridor. There Gregory and Gabriella stood, shivering noticeably. They were all cold and Mel saw darkness descending on the sky. Her first thought was that they would probably not make it to Aldrion today. Her second was, if they didn’t, they were all dead.

Mel swallowed hard and took Gabriella’s hand in hers. Flavio and Brandon emerged from the snow, with Grace behind them. Clara walked down the slope last, holding onto Marcus’s hands.

Mel saw two of the bandits lying dead or nearly dead in the snow next to them. Grace and Marcus must have killed them before the avalanche happened. Mel had a hard time looking away from the frozen eyes of one of the men. His jaw was square, and she thought maybe he had been a good person once in his life. He hadn’t deserved to die this way, up on the mountains in the snow.

The two travel agency women emerged from beyond the end of the corridor. They must have made it out before the snow fell. They walked up to Grace and talked in low voices with her. Grace turned to the shivering party, looking mostly dazed and cold.

“We found a cave nearby, probably the bandit’s hideout,” she said. “Let’s get a move on.”

Grace took the lead and walked out of the pass. Marcus followed her, with Clara leaning heavily on his arm. Mel walked with the rest of the group a small distance behind them and focused on making her feet move through the snow. She had lost the feeling in her toes and fingers and feared the implications of it.

They arrived a moment later at the small cave, the entrance not much bigger than a person. A small fire pit with rocks stood in the middle of a small opening. The cave narrowed further in and the party just barely fitted inside. Three big logs were strewn on the floor of the cavern, creating a seating area around the fire.

Grace huddled down toward the ground and took up kindling and a tinderbox from her packing. She blew hot air into her fingers and softened them before lighting the fire. It took her a couple of tries, but the kindling caught and Mel held out her hands toward the small flame.

Marcus came out from the back of the cave with a couple of logs. He placed them in a pyramid shape around the flames and everyone quieted after that. They sat in silence around the fire until Marcus walked up to Mel. He gestured toward her side.

“How’s your wound?” he asked.

Mel remembered getting hit by the sword, which felt like days ago now. She lifted her shirt and winced when she saw the blue spreading over her ribs. Marcus placed his hands over the bruised area and felt around. Mel drew in a ragged breath and felt the chill of his fingers on her skin.

“It’s not broken,” he said. “But you got hit pretty hard. Luckily, their weapons were dull and I think you just need to rest a week or two and then you will be as good as new.”

Marcus’ fingers trembled on her skin and Mel met his gaze. His face flushed, and he pulled his hand away from her, looking down at the ground. Mel pulled her shirt down and gave Marcus a hesitant smile.

“I’m sorry for what I said yesterday,” she said. “I’m really glad you’re here. Thank you for saving me.”

Marcus looked around the group, sitting close together around the fireplace.

“It's okay,” he said. “We can talk about it later.”