by Zoe Chant
Which meant that Eric's entire weight rested on her now, held only by the grip of her hand on the axe and a few spikes driven tenuously into brittle ice. Cora grabbed the handle of the axe with both hands, gritting her teeth. The straps of her harness cut deeply into her thighs and waist.
If she twisted her head around as far as it would go, she could just see the top of the ridge. Andrew's sled was still balanced precariously on the ice. Cora let out a breath of relief.
"Cora? You okay?" Eric shouted from the other side of the ridge.
Cora looked down into the bottomless drop beneath her. A thin layer of fog almost concealed the jagged spikes of rocks down below. Her entire right side ached where she'd been slammed into the wall.
"I'm fine!"
"Can you climb up?" Eric sounded as breathless as she felt. A shudder went through the rope as he moved.
One of Cora's feet started to slide. She swung her leg back and hammered the tips of her crampons more firmly into the ice.
"If I move, I'll dump us off this mountain."
"Can you hold me if I try to climb up?"
Well. She'd have to, wouldn't she. They had to do something, and fast. Her hands were tiring quickly. The second she lost her grip on the axe she'd get dragged to her death.
"Try it!" she called.
The rope juddered again, harder this time, and then there were a series of rhythmic jerks as Eric started pulling himself up hand over hand. Cora gritted her teeth and hung on.
"You okay?" Eric's voice was tight with strain.
"I'm fine!"
Her hands ached and cramped. Her left foot started to slide again, the tips of her crampons stuttering over the ice. But letting go wasn't an option now. She'd be fine; she had to be fine.
"Brace yourself!" Eric called.
There was a sudden hard pull on the rope that almost ripped her from the wall, and then the line slackened. For a moment, she was supported only by her grip on the axe and the wobbly hold of her feet on the ice, before the rope pulled tight again.
"Sorry! I'm up." Eric was still breathing hard.
Cora let herself lean her forehead against the cool ice and took a long, shuddering breath.
"Can you climb up?" Eric called.
"Yeah," she said. Not like there was any other choice.
You couldn't ice-climb properly with only one axe. Getting up the wall was an awkward scramble like this, one hand holding the rope, the other on the axe. Her crampons slipped in the brittle ice. Eric did half the work for her, hauling her up by the rope whenever she faltered. She couldn't have made it on her own.
By the time she was finally back up on the solid ground of the ridge, she was sweat-drenched and shaking, both hands trembling from exhaustion. She collapsed face-down on the snow, reaching for Eric. He lay down beside her and yanked her tight against his chest.
They kissed with blind, fumbling desperation, lips numb from the cold. Cora could feel her heart beating inside her chest, the thrum of her blood in her veins. Alive. They were alive.
Eric pulled back to rest his forehead against hers. "I can't believe you did that, you crazy woman," he whispered, his voice low and raspy with something like awe.
Cora laughed shakily. "It worked, didn't it?"
Their breath mingled between their faces, a cloud of frost in the dry cold air. Cora tilted her head, brought their lips back together. It was so good to feel Eric like this, real and alive in her arms, after coming so close to death.
"We need to keep moving." Eric's voice was heavy with reluctance.
He was right, of course. Cora could already feel herself stiffening up, and they couldn't afford to waste daylight. She dragged her tired, reluctant body back to its feet, every muscle screaming with protest. Eric took up the rope to the sled again, his face set with grim determination.
They trudged on, one step in front of the other. Finally, the path widened for real. Cora wordlessly stepped up to take the second rope, taking her share of the sled's weight.
The last thousand feet of the crossing were an awkward scramble down a steep, rocky trail. Andrew woke up with a yelp as the sled jarred and rattled over the uneven ground. And then they were on the East Face, crowded onto a narrow ledge, the steep cliff falling away beneath them.
Cora and Eric stood side by side, looking down. With the bolts Sasha's team had drilled into the wall it would have been a quick, easy descent if they'd been on their own. With the sled, they'd be lucky to make it down alive.
Andrew made a low, anxious sound. When Cora turned to look at him, she realized that he'd finally come fully awake. He was struggling against the sleeping bag and the ropes that held him tied to the sled.
"Andrew!" She knelt down beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're okay. Try and hold still."
His eyes focused on her face with visible effort. "What…"
"You're on the Rai Parvat. You got sick from the altitude. We're trying to get you down."
Andrew's gaze was already sliding away again, his face turning vague with confusion. "Too hot," he slurred. He'd managed to work one hand loose and was tearing clumsily at the top of the sleeping bag.
Cora groaned. This wasn't terribly uncommon in people with hypothermia. The body got confused. Cold could start to feel like heat, and people would try to strip down in the middle of the ice and snow.
It was all progress, of course; even if he was still confused, at least he was awake. But they really didn't need this right now, with the worst part of the climb yet to come. He certainly wasn't coherent enough to do his own climbing, and if they needed to carry him, they needed him to be still.
"Andrew! Look at me."
His blurry gaze focused on her again. She gently squeezed his shoulder. "You need to stop moving, okay? We'll get you down this mountain, but I need you to hold still for me."
For a moment she didn't think she was getting through at all. Then Andrew finally relaxed. "Okay," he mumbled.
Cora sat down heavily in the snow, tilting her head back to look up at Eric. "How are we going to do this?"
Eric clipped his harness to one of the bolts in the wall, anchoring himself. They rearranged some of the ropes around the sled so he'd hopefully be able to lower it down without unbalancing it too much.
Cora fixed another rope to her own harness. She'd be rappelling down beside the sled, both to help keep it steady and, more importantly, to help keep Andrew calm. He settled down whenever she talked to him, but the moment her attention turned elsewhere he became agitated again. It was clear he couldn't quite keep track of what was happening yet.
She caught Eric's eyes one last time, both of them side by side on the ledge, already strapped into their gear.
He wasn't sure this was going to work, no more than she was. She could read it in his eyes. But he wasn't going to say so, not when they'd already decided this was the only chance they had.
We'll have to try; no other way down. She didn't want to say the words, either. It felt like it would jinx them to admit out loud how desperate the situation was. But she could tell Eric knew what she was thinking. He gave her a wordless nod.
The next three hours would forever be a sort of hazy nightmare inside her memory. Rappelling down wasn't really that hard, physically. But that only meant that she cooled down fast, now that her muscles weren't working as much. Her fingers went stiff, then numb. Her grip kept slipping on the rope.
Andrew dozed off several times, only to startle awake and panic when he found himself strapped down and swinging in the air on the sled. Confused as he still was, he couldn't manage to hang on to her explanation of what was going on for more than five minutes at a time.
Cora couldn't exactly blame him. God knew anyone would be terrified, waking up like that. But that didn't make it any better, having to find some way to calm him down while hanging halfway down an iced-over rock wall over an almost bottomless drop, knowing that if she didn't get him settled quickly enough, he might struggle himself right out of
the sled and onto the jagged stones below.
There weren't always good places to rest within a rope's length, either. Some of the ledges were barely wide enough for one person to stand, nowhere near enough room to fit the sled, which meant she had to go down first and get the sled clipped to the nearest bolt with her numb, frozen fingers. Then there was nothing to do but wait while Eric rappelled down to them, getting steadily colder and already dreading the next section of the descent.
And yet it worked. Slowly but surely, they were getting down.
She hadn't really let herself think about this part of the climb; she hadn't wanted to admit her doubts to herself. But if she was truly honest with herself, she hadn't believed they'd be able to pull this off. The thought had nagged at her, somewhere deep down, like a splinter in the back of her mind. All through their rushed climb and the whole miserable first part of the descent, some part of her had expected this to be the moment where their rescue would fail.
But it worked. They couldn't have done this without Eric's shifter strength. They couldn't have done it if the two of them weren't somehow able to work so seamlessly as a team. But they were doing it.
The last few pitches were the worst. Cora's entire body shook with cold. Her fingers had become so stiff she could hardly manage the ropes anymore. Andrew alternated between coherent moments where he'd watch her anxiously but silently from the sled, and confused restlessness.
But then the Balcony finally came into sight beneath them. Suddenly everything felt easy. Cora was grinning during the last few meters. And then her feet touched the solid stone of the wide ledge, and Eric gently lowered Andrew down the last few inches. Cora laughed, falling to her knees, tilting her head back to watch Eric coming down. She let out a shout of triumph that echoed off the side of the mountain.
Eric landed beside her and immediately yanked her into an embrace, lifting her from the ground to whirl her around. They fell against the cliff wall together, both of them dizzy, panting, still laughing.
"We did it," Eric said.
His arms were tight around her. She leaned in and kissed him, felt his smile against her lips.
"We did it."
She reached blindly for the radio at her hip, pressed the button and held it to her mouth. "Basecamp, this is Cora."
She waited for the burst of static that would herald the response; nothing.
She pressed the button again. "Basecamp, come in."
Silence.
Cora slowly lowered the radio. It lay black and silent in her hand. A thin crack ran from one edge of the casing to the other. There was a little light that should have turned green when she was broadcasting. She pushed the button again. The light stayed dark.
Cora ran her thumb across the crack. "It must've gotten damaged when we fell from the ridge."
Her lips felt numb. They'd come this far. They couldn't fail now.
Eric gently took the radio from her hand. He frowned down at the damaged casing, turning it back and forth, and then he tugged one glove of with his teeth. He winced as the icy wind hit his bare skin.
Eric pried the casing off and studied the radio's insides. It all just looked like a bunch of circuit boards and incomprehensible electronics to Cora, but Eric seemed to have some idea of what he was looking at. He twisted two of the little wires together and did something to one of the fiddly bits sticking out of the circuit board before he popped the casing back on.
"Try it now." He handed the radio back to Cora and hurriedly yanked his glove back on, flexing his fingers with a wince.
Cora tentatively pressed the button. The green light stayed dark. She lifted the radio to her mouth. "Basecamp, this is Cora."
Silence. Her stomach churned. She swallowed against the lump in her throat. Her voice wanted to crack.
"Basecamp, can you hear me?"
There was no way they'd be able to get Andrew down the lower part of the East Face. There were several trick passages below the Balcony that were a challenge even with a team of capable climbers. No way to carry anyone else along.
Static.
Cora jerked, almost dropped the radio as she frantically brought it back up to her ear.
"Cora, this is Tashi, do you copy?"
The transmission was crackly and broken up, but even so, Tashi's worry and relief came through. Cora had never been so glad to hear anyone's voice in her life. She caught Eric's hand, squeezing it hard. His fingers curled tight around hers.
"Tashi, we're on the Balcony, we've got Andrew, can you come—?"
"I'm on my way. Tashi out."
Cora clipped the radio back to her harness with shaking hands.
"Hey," Eric said gently. He sounded worried. "You okay?"
He brushed her face with one gloved thumb. Her cheeks were wet, Cora realized. There were tears running down her face, warm trails that instantly cooled to ice.
"I'm okay. I'm just, I—" Her voice cracked.
"I know," Eric said. "Me too."
He drew her in for a hug. Cora threw her arms around him and yanked him in tight, burying her face against his chest. They'd made it. Tashi was coming. They'd get Andrew out of here alive.
As if he knew she was thinking of him, Andrew was getting restless again, struggling out of his sleeping bag so he could sit up. Well, no reason not to let him, now; all they had to do was sit tight for another hour or so until the helicopter arrived.
By helicopter it wasn't far from Basecamp to the Balcony, and the weather was calm and clear. The problem was the thin air at altitude. A helicopter could stay in the air up here as long as it was moving, because the wind of its passage generated extra lift. But once it set down and that extra support went missing, the thin air didn't provide enough resistance to let it lift off again, especially with the extra weight of a second person on board.
But Tashi knew what she was doing. If she thought she could get Andrew off the mountain from here, Cora had to assume she was right.
Cora and Eric would have to make their own way off the mountain, of course. With the weight of all four of them inside, the helicopter would definitely never get off the ground. But that wasn't the part that worried her. Without Andrew to worry about and with Eric by her side, the rest of the climb would be child's play in comparison to what they'd already managed to do.
Eric put up their tent while Cora sat down in the snow beside Andrew, leaning against the cliff wall behind them. Now that he wasn't tied down anymore, he'd calmed down a lot. He was staring down at his gloved hands.
"You all right?" Cora asked.
For a long moment, Andrew didn't answer. She wasn't even sure he'd heard her. And then he lifted his head to look at her. Suddenly, his eyes seemed clear and focused.
"I almost died."
"Yes," Cora said gently.
"You saved me. They left me behind, but you came to save me."
"Oh, Andrew. I'm sure they didn't mean—" Cora started, a little helplessly. She was blisteringly angry at Carpenter and Everhart, but that was nothing compared to what Andrew must be feeling; it was his own uncle who'd left him behind.
But Andrew's gaze was already sliding off, his expression turning vague and distant again. He slumped backwards against the cliff wall, asleep.
She sighed. Eric helped her maneuver Andrew into the tent, which Eric had put up in the most sheltered corner of the Balcony.
Eric had unrolled their mats and sleeping bags. "We should probably spend the night here. It'll be dark in an hour."
Cora nodded. The Balcony was a little more exposed than she really liked in a shelter, but inside the tent they'd be comfortable enough, and both of them needed the rest.
They sat side by side in companionable silence, shoulders brushing. After her third cup of tea, Cora's hands had finally warmed up. Eric was slumping a little, his eyes slipping closed.
At first the sound was so quiet she wasn't sure whether she'd imagined it. But then Eric's head snapped up, his eyes narrowing in concentration, and she knew he'd hea
rd it too: the distinctive sound of rotors, still far off but rapidly coming closer. Tashi was coming.
Andrew was sleepy but cooperative when they woke him up. All three of them huddled against the cliff wall.
The helicopter came down in a roar of noise that drowned out all other sound. The rotors whipped up a flurry of snow. Cora winced and twisted her face aside, huddling deeper into the hood of her parka.
They'd marked what they thought would be the safest place to land, a smooth stretch of snow in the middle of the widest part of the balcony. But Tashi set the helicopter down a good bit closer to the edge of the Balcony. Cora nervously eyed the looming drop just behind the runners.
The spinning blades slowed but never quite came to a halt. Tashi opened the cockpit door and leaned out halfway.
"I gotta stay on the controls! Can you get him inside?"
They strapped Andrew into the co-pilot's seat, where Tashi could keep an eye on him. As Cora was closing the last buckle, Tashi caught her by the arm.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. I've got a lot to tell you when we get down, but—yeah."
"I'm glad. I was scared out of my mind for all of you." Tashi shook her head. "I can't believe you pulled this off."
"Me neither," Cora admitted.
Even, now, she couldn't quite let herself believe that things were going to be okay. But there was nothing more she could do. Now it all rested on Tashi's skill as a pilot.
She shut the door to the cockpit and ducked out from under the spinning blades, which quickly picked up speed again.
For a moment, nothing happened. The engine whined with strain. The whole helicopter vibrated, but it didn't move. Tashi's face was calm and focused. Her hands moved quickly over the controls.
"Come on," Eric muttered. His hands were twitching by his side as if he wanted to reach out and physically give the helicopter the extra push it needed.
The helicopter gave a shuddering heave, rising into the air for a single short hop before it sank down again. Cora clenched her hands inside her mittens.