In a low voice, I say, “What if it takes days?”
“Though it would mean he’s died fewer times, let’s hope it doesn’t,” Dageus whispers grimly.
Barrons says softly, “You must judge his condition when you get there. If he’s too weak, come back up.”
“I disagree. If you time it wrong,” Jada whispers, “we could be here for weeks. He’s strong. He’ll hold.”
“Aye. He is Keltar,” Drustan says quietly. “He will hold.”
“Kairos,” Dageus says, “this eve reeks of it. The time is now.”
We continue the ascent in silence. We all know our tasks and have agreed upon a number of contingency plans. I’m already wearing my rappelling harness. Barrons and Ryodan will hook me up and lower me over the side when we reach the top. When I see Christian, I’ll make the call. Jada, Dageus, and Drustan are our lookouts. They’ll have binoculars trained on the Hag’s nest the entire time.
As we ascend the snowy peak, the others drop to low crouches near the ground.
Barrons leads the rest of them, sticking to the barren patches. The moon silvers the mountain with a faint merlot tinge. Invisible, I stride to the cliff’s edge, battling a stiff breeze. I inhale deeply of the crisp cold mountain air. Far to the north I see the needlelike spire where the Hag roosts. Ryodan’s right. Nobody could climb it. Not with her sitting on top of it as she is now, back to us, knitting feverishly away, bloody, snaky hair spilling down her back and bloody, snaky guts from her gown dripping over the side. Even with her gone, it would be a dangerous feat. Although as a potential plan B, we might wait for her to leave and try it, if plan A fails. If I could get into her nest and lie in wait, invisible … wait, I don’t dare stab her. But then again, if everyone else rescued Christian and abandoned me here until I got control of myself again …
Hopefully it won’t come to that.
“Are you ready?” Barrons says in a rough whisper.
I nod, then append it with a “Yes.” I keep forgetting they can’t see me, since I can see them.
“Where are you? Touch me.”
I slip my hand into his, and for a moment he just stands there, looking down at where I am, then he closes his eyes and laces strong fingers with mine. I hear exactly what he’s not saying in them: You better bring your ass back to me, woman.
I reply with mine, Always.
He laughs softly then somehow finds my face and kisses me, light and fast, and I taste him on my lips, need him again, hard and fast and soon.
Then he and Ryodan are groping around on me, hooking pulleys to my rings, preparing me for my first-ever rappelling trip down the side of a twelve-hundred-foot cliff.
Going over the side is the hardest part. The wind is cutting up here, pelleting in stiff gusts. I close my gloved hands on the cable as I ease over the edge, feeling about for footing. I eye the thin cable dubiously. It’s all that’s keeping me connected to life. I’m not sure even I could survive a twelve-hundred-foot fall. I know I wouldn’t like the recovery from it. “Are you going to hook it around something?” I whisper.
“Ryodan already secured it to a rock. You’re safe. We’ve got you,” Barrons replies. “If something goes wrong, you have only to pull yourself up.”
“Your primary objective is getting Christian out of here,” Dageus whispers. “Doona fash yourselves with the rest of us.” Then he adds something in another language.
Drustan says, “Gaelic. A blessing in the old way.”
“Thanks,” I murmur.
“If you prefer, I will go,” Jada says.
I hear something different in her voice and look up, past Barrons, and catch my breath. It’s the first trace of Dani I’ve seen. Jada looks worried. About me.
I smile, but she can’t see it, and say, “I know you would. And appreciate it. But I’ve got it. Just keep an eye on the Hag for me.”
“You have to kick off, Mac,” Ryodan says softly. “Go down a dozen feet, push out gently, drop twenty feet or so, regain the face and repeat.”
“Don’t push out hard,” Jada whispers. “Get your climbing legs. Descend slowly at first.” She doesn’t add and do not puke but I hear the unspoken recrimination in her voice.
I glance down and am instantly sorry I did. I almost puke. I’m hanging above a sheer drop. I can do this, I tell myself. I can do this.
“Did you eat Unseelie, lass?” Drustan whispers.
“Got it on me. Hits fast as a shot of adrenaline.”
“Go,” Barrons says. “We don’t know what shape he’s in or when she’ll next stir.”
I keep my eyes locked on his dark face as I force my feet to do the counterintuitive on a cliff and kick myself off it.
My first drop takes me a short ten feet. The instant I feel myself free-falling, I grab the cable and squeeze. My gloves grip hard and yank me to an abrupt halt. I take a deep breath, exhale, and try again. This time I drop about fifteen. My heart is racing and lodged high in my throat.
Each time I kick off, I feel a little more secure, trust that my cable is solid and I’m not going to fall. After my fifth try, I force myself to glance down and see where Christian is, and estimate he’s still about eighty or so feet below me. I decide to start talking to him when I’m a dozen feet away. I glance up and see three heads looking down but the moon is behind them so I can’t make out their features.
When I’m twenty feet or so from Christian’s head, I feel a tight snap of the cable, a prearranged warning if anything in our current situation changes. Shit, I think, glancing around wildly, half expecting the Hag to erupt from directly behind me and somehow pierce me with her lance even though I’m invisible.