Jason glimpsed Halco, still flat, gazing backward, eyes wide. Turning his head slightly, keeping his cheek to the ground, Jason looked back as well. Nedwin clung to the rope behind him, head down. Then Aram. Delissa trailed them, just coming over the highest part of the saddle. Her body looked like a flag in a tornado. Suddenly Jason understood why the rope had twitched so much.
As Jason watched, the relentless wind gusted even harder, and she lost her grip. It looked like Delissa had been shot from a cannon. Her body clipped the side of the notch, setting her spinning as the gale rocketed her away. Despite the low angle of Jason’s viewpoint, she stayed within sight for a very long time, shrinking with distance until she dropped out of view.
Horrified, Jason bowed his head, squashing his face against the ground. Closing his eyes, forearms burning, he squeezed the guideline harder than ever. Surely the wind would slacken any moment. If anything, it rose a bit more. Any moment. Any moment.
At last the wind ebbed, becoming a scream, then a roar. Peeking ahead, Jason saw Halco advancing. Jason hurried forward in his wake, not wanting to lose the seedman as a partial windbreak.
The notch widened. Glancing ahead, Jason saw the entire valley spreading outward from the gap, a giant funnel, just as some of the others had described.
The wind weakened even more. Jason kept moving forward until hands helped him down into a deeply cut trench, so perfectly square that it must have been carved by tools. The wind remained noisy, but he no longer felt it. Nedwin dropped in behind him, then Aram.
Jason slouched against the wall, numb and exhausted after the ordeal. Had he really just seen a woman launched into the air, like a blade of grass dropped on the stream of a fire hose? Hitting the side of the notch could have killed her. If not, the fall would definitely have finished the job. He consoled himself that at least she had an amar. Then again, this was rocky country. Would it ever get planted?
Kerick and Halco yelled at each other, trying to be heard. Kerick hurried off down the trench in a crouch, and Jason saw him hollering to Rachel. Time passed. Jason could barely believe he was alive. Rachel had been right. Even with all of the warnings, that had been much worse than he had guessed.
Eventually Farfalee dropped into the trench, followed by Corinne and Drake. Where was Andrus?
Jason had to wait for an explanation. They spent the next hour moving along trenches. On this side of the notch, the wind was much more widespread. The farther they traveled from the notch, the less concentrated the gale became, but even after an hour, the wind still seemed to gust like a hurricane.
The trench eventually led to a cave. Once they were inside, the air seemed eerily still. After they’d advanced for some time, it even began to get quiet. In a tall chamber with undulant flowstone walls and stalactites dripping on stalagmites, Jason removed his earplugs to hear the others.
“Andrus went after Delissa,” Farfalee explained. “He didn’t want to risk her seed getting stranded on barren rock. Nobody travels the canyon below the notch.”
“It will be a tricky climb,” Nollin said.
“He’s the best climber we have,” Kerick said.
“Andrus relayed that if he can find her amar swiftly, he’ll try to catch up,” Farfalee said.
“Unlikely,” Halco grunted. “He’ll have to descend thousands of feet. Then find the seed. Then climb back up. It will take days.”
“He may kill himself trying,” Kerick said. “Either way, rejoining us is wishful thinking.”
“Andrus will survive,” Halco said. “He’ll find her amar. But I agree that he won’t be back.”
“A foul loss,” Nollin uttered bleakly. “Delissa was perhaps the best archer in the Seven Vales. And few swordsmen could outperform Andrus.”
“No matter the precautions taken, surviving Howling Notch always involves some luck,” Halco said. “Delissa did nothing wrong. She was simply in the wrong place when the wind became most fierce. We’re fortunate more of us didn’t fly free. It was the harshest crossing I’ve experienced.”
“We can only continue,” Farfalee said. “We knew Howling Notch would be our biggest test in the mountains. We’re almost through to the tundra. The rest of the way is mostly downhill.”
“Straight to the Forsaken Kingdom,” Drake muttered. “Delissa and Andrus may be the lucky ones.”
CHAPTER 22
THE FORSAKEN KINGDOM
Will this tundra ever end? Rachel thought to Corinne.
It’s lovely, Corinne replied. I like the foxes. And the birds. And the lack of cliffs.
You need to stop being so positive, Rachel scolded. You’re totally unrelatable. You’re going to alienate everyone.
I’m not sure anything I do will make me relatable, Corinne conveyed. I grew up in a tree deep inside of a deadly swamp. I’m an exiled princess. And I talk more with my mind than my mouth.
All the more reason to act grumpier, Rachel affirmed.
The ground here gets too muddy in some places, Corinne complained tentatively.
Very good, Rachel encouraged. That’s a start.
I can’t say I’m fond of the caribou droppings, she added.
Who can? Very relatable. And you’re right about the foxes. They couldn’t be cuter. At least when they’re not chewing on carcasses.
Rachel currently walked at the rear of the delegation, near Farfalee. Corinne was toward the front, closer to Jason. Yet they heard each other perfectly. Their mental link had been very useful back at Howling Notch. They had experimented, and the telepathy worked just fine with hundreds of yards between them. Half a mile apart required a lot of focus. Around a mile apart the communication became too faint to comprehend, like the fading memories of an elusive dream.
From behind, Rachel watched Jason hiking beside Corinne. They leaned together, sharing a laugh. Since reaching the tundra, Jason had made a noticeable effort to hang around her. The flat terrain enabled more socializing than the lofty passes. Rachel supposed it was natural. Not only was Corinne older than him and a total knockout, she also had an innocent sweetness that made her accessible. Rachel plucked a leaf from a shrub and tore it as she walked. Had Jason ever tried this conspicuously to earn her attention? Or was it only conspicuous to her? Why did she bother noticing?
Off to her right loomed the omnipresent mountains, an unbroken chain reaching from horizon to horizon. To the east, west, and north sprawled open tundra, grassy country contoured by hillocks, boulders, tussocks, and low ridges. In the wide-open terrain, almost everyone took turns scouting. As she watched, a twitchy rabbit darted from the shelter of one scraggly bush to another.