Chapter 54 The Long Climb Begins
As we huddled in the tent, our body heat helping to warm each other up, I turned to Brynn. “I didn’t ask you. Are you okay after the goblin encounter?”
She shrugged. We had one of the watch lights on for the rest of the night so we could see. Everything that had happened made sitting in the dark emotionally problematic.
“Yeah, they scratched me a little, but they weren’t able to hurt me much. However, I can tell you this: I think they’re massing for an attack somewhere. I heard them talking about it, but I couldn’t make out who they were planning on attacking.” She huddled in her bedroll.
We had forgone setting someone out to keep watch. The night had taken its toll, and we decided to just take a chance and try for some rest. Luckily, the rest of the night went smoothly, even though it was cold.
Morning, we cautiously pushed outside the tent and looked around.
There were still signs of the avalanche and quake, and the ledge was gone.
I peeked over the edge, seeing a tangle of rocks and snow below.
The cavern was entirely filled in, and snowflakes—which were drifting down—were slowly clinging to the new wall of rockfall debris that used to be the entrance.
“Well, that takes care of that,” I said. “If we come to more caverns, if there are any tunnels inside, we can’t chance taking cover. Meanwhile, the grade of the path is slowly increasing.”
“We can’t exactly start a fire right here,” Thornhold said.
“No, but there is something we might be able to do,” Ray said.
“Reggie has a sparkfire spell. We could build a small fire inside the largest pan, then nestle a small container for hot water inside and still have some tea. If we use a couple of the smaller tents as tarps, we might be able to generate some heat inside.”
“That’s an idea. I don’t want to build a fire inside the largest tent because of the smoke buildup,” I said. “That’s a good way to invite carbon monoxide poisoning. Not many people realize that a campfire can be a source of it.”
“True enough,” Ray said. “If we were camping for more than a day or so, we could build an igloo, but that’s not practical for each day. I guess we’ll just have to camp on the side of the path. There don’t seem to be many travelers.”
“Yeah, but we’re inviting the mountain trolls and ice giants to attack us.” Brynn gave a little shrug. “But there’s nothing for it. We have to traverse the Mountains of Kartell, and since we don’t have the coordinates for the other waypoints, we can’t just skip them altogether.”
“Okay, let’s get moving for the day. We’ll just take it one day at a time, and see where we are by the end of the day.” I handed out small handfuls of the bilfa berries, which boosted our spirits. They also seemed to act as a mood elevator. Which was a blessing given our circumstances.
As we packed everything away and headed forward on the trail, it occurred to me that we hadn’t seen any goblins.
I hoped we had taken out at least some of them, but my suspicions were that the goblin city was hidden deep in the mountains and would be safe from most natural disasters, unless the mountain also proved to be a volcano and erupted. And in that case, we were all doomed.
The mountain path was manageable and wide enough to support several people at once, but the trail was slick and crusted over with layers of ice and snow.
The sides of the path were mountainous walls of snow.
I suspected that beneath the snow were retaining walls of dirt and rock that had been built up over the years to ensure safety for travelers.
It created a funnel, though, which was problematic in itself.
But we wouldn’t fall off the side; that was one good thing.
All around, scrub trees shoved their way through the snow, and they were growing in number the higher we climbed. At least we could collect some wood when needed, and—in fact—about midmorning, I called for a rest.
“While we’re here, let’s cut wood to replace that which we’ve used,” I said.
Ray pulled out a hefty knife and carved footholds into the snow wall, using them to crawl up on top. He eased himself over toward the side of the wall.
“How wide is the retaining wall?” I asked.
“About twenty feet here. It’s grown wider the further up the slope we’ve come.
And, from what I can see, a couple hundred yards, it widens out even more to a steep yet wide slope.
I think the actual mountain range is taking over from just a series of single peaks.
Come up here, Erenye. With your elf eyesight, you should be able to see a lot farther than I can. ”
He leaned down and held out his hand as I climbed up the footholds. Taking his hand, I lightly jumped onto the slope. Where Ray had sunk to his ankles in the fresh snow, I was able to walk atop the new powder. Once again, I blessed the impulse that had made me choose to be an elf.
I stood. “Rope me around the waist. I’m going to walk across the slope to peek over the edge.”
Ray reluctantly did so. “All right, but be cautious and let me secure you before you start.”
Firmly tied, and with both Ray and Thornhold holding my rope from the path, I took a deep breath and cautiously began to cross the field of powder to the edge. Once I neared the edge, I lowered myself to my hands and knees, then crawled slowly to peek over the edge.
Below the steep drop-off, in a narrow bowl carved out from between a ring of four mountains, a valley spread below me.
Central in the valley was a frozen lake, surrounded by a dark thicket of trees.
I squinted, trying to see everything I could.
The ground was covered with snow, and the trees were snow-kissed, but it was still a valley.
I estimated it was about half a mile below us at this point, and the mountain continued up for as far as I could see.
Falling off the mountainside would be a death sentence, but if we had to climb down, we probably could.
Across from me, I could see the line of mountains continuing. We had gotten to the part where they were spreading out on either side, where the tip of the mountain range began to widen. And further to the front, they grew higher. Finally, I returned to the others.
“We’re well and truly into the Kartells,” I said. “We’ve got a long way to go, so I guess we should talk about the rest of the journey. According to everyone we talked to in the village, we should have enough food.”
“I thought of something we can do,” Thornhold said. “We can dig into the side of the snow wall. It’s so thick that we could carve out cubby holes to insulate against the wind at night.”
“True,” I said. “They’re tall enough for that, as well.”
“And—” Thornhold suddenly stopped as I cut him off.
“Do you hear that?” I focused. The faint sound of voices rang out from ahead of us. “Someone’s up ahead of us, and not far.”
“Did you see anyone while up on top of the snow?” Reggie asked.
I shook my head. “I couldn’t see beyond the next bend in the road.”
“Well, I suppose we should prepare for anything,” Brynn said. “It could just be other travelers.”
“Right,” I said, but inside, my hope was failing. We’d had so many problems lately. And now—who would we find lying in wait? Did they know we were here? And if so, would we be facing yet another fight? There was only one way to find out.
“Let’s get moving,” I said, preparing my weapons and turning to lead the way.