So far, so good.
She glanced over her shoulder at Yusef, who flashed a grin. He was her favorite cousin, calm with a gentle spirit. Aram was more like Ashur, quick to anger. They both appeared comfortable in the lead positions. She turned back around and came to a halt. Hudson had paused with his left fist in the air. The stop signal.
She made the signal to the two other teams.
“Crevasse,” Hudson shouted at her. “We can step across it.”
She translated this message for Hanna and Yelda before they moved forward. There was a fissure in the snowpack, about the length of her arm. Hudson stepped over it easily. The grandmother went next, after a short hesitation. The girl leaped with grace.
Layah peered into the crevasse before she joined them on the other side. It was four or five meters deep, with smooth turquoise walls and strange, bulbous ice formations. She wanted to climb inside for a better look, but they didn’t have time to explore. She took a big step over the gap and continued forward.
They encountered a second crevasse around the bend, also exposed and narrow enough to cross over. It had a slightly wider gap, which meant they all had to jump to the other side. The grandmother slipped and almost lost her footing as she landed. When she regained her balance, Layah moved forward.
The next crevasse was wide and shallow, with broken chunks of ice on one side. Hudson lowered himself into the space and climbed up the ice blocks against the far wall. At the top, he offered a helping hand.
“We have to look for a place to camp,” he said, giving Layah a boost.
She glanced at the late afternoon sun with surprise. She was tired, but invigorated. They were near the summit. She prayed they would cross over the mountain range tomorrow. From there, it was all downhill.
They hiked on, searching for somewhere to stop for the night. Her stomach growled with hunger and her muscles ached from overuse, but her main focus was on their sleeping arrangements. She wondered if she’d drift into Hudson’s arms again. Would he try to keep his distance, or pull her closer?
A strange sound caught her attention, snapping her back to the present. It was the crunch of shifting snow. Several meters in front of her, the path fell away.
Crevasse!
It had been hidden under a layer of fresh powder. Hudson grabbed Yelda by the arm, saving her from falling into the space. Layah froze in her tracks as Hanna dropped down into nowhere. She was there one second, gone the next.
Hudson sprawled on his belly and sank his ax deep into the ice to anchor the safety line. Layah got swept off her feet and dragged forward, as if a rug had been yanked from underneath her. She attempted to self-arrest with the metal stake. It skimmed over the surface and found no purchase. She went hurtling into the abyss.
She anticipated a hard slam into some wicked ice, but didn’t hit anything. She sailed past Hanna in a blur of motion. Black space rushed up to greet her. The safety rope caught and held with a hard snap, cutting off her scream of terror. She dangled in space, disoriented. Blood rushed to her head.
She was upside down. She tried to flip over, but the weight of her pack held her captive. With shaking hands, she released the buckle across her chest. Her pack tumbled away and she careened upright.
Allahu Akbar.
She took a deep breath, trying to focus. Hanna was suspended above her, crying for her grandmother. Hudson had secured the line, but how long could he hold them? Layah removed her goggles and squinted into the dark interior of the cavern. The bottom of the crevasse was about two meters below her. The distance to the top appeared to be more than ten meters. It was too far to climb.
There was a promising ledge to her right. She stuck out her foot and hooked her crampons on the edge, maneuvering toward it. When both boots found purchase on the ice shelf, she rested there, weak-kneed with relief.
Yelda appeared at the mouth of the crevasse, far above them. She spoke Kurdish too fast for Layah to understand. Layah was afraid the old woman would fall in with them.
“Listen to me,” Layah said. “I will detach from the rope. You pull her up.”
“What if I drop her?”
“She will not fall. Hudson has control.”
The woman looked to him for confirmation. He might not approve of Layah removing the safety line, but she felt secure, and the grandmother couldn’t pull them both up. They had to be rescued one at a time. Layah unclipped the carabiner, nodding at Yelda. The woman dragged her granddaughter to safety, probably with Hudson’s help.
Layah clung to the wall of the cavern, gulping cool air. She was okay. The girl was okay. Hudson would throw her the rope in a minute. She wanted to be ready, so she looked around for her pack. It was at the bottom of the chasm, in plain sight. She couldn’t leave her pack behind. Her entire life was inside it.
She crawled down from the ledge carefully. She took a tentative step forward. Then another. On the third step, ice cracked beneath her boots and water rushed over them. She went still, realizing her mistake.
A second later, she plunged into the glacier’s bowels with a horrified shriek.
Chapter 7
Hud knew they were in trouble the instant he heard the ground move.
The hairs at the nape of his neck lifted and he glanced over his shoulder in time to see the Yazidi girl drop into the hidden crevasse. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence, but he hadn’t expected
