suddenly grew soft and sugary. She put her knife away and continued to dig, eventually climbing into the hole and disappearing to her waist
This is very bad.' Seema peered out of the hole. 'It is not safe.'
Atreus rolled his eyes and started down the slope. 'You're only convincing me that you're trying to hide some-tiling.'
'No, come and look.' Seema waved him over and pointed at the icy layer in the bottom of the hole. 'Do you see how it is slick below and hard on top, with a layer of soft sugar in between?'
'Yes.'
'It is very dangerous on a steep slope like this,' Seema said. 'It is like a carpet over marbles. The whole mountainside can break loose and slide down in a big avalanche.'
The thought occurred to Atreus that Seema was just finding another excuse to keep him away from the Sisters of Serenity, but he could see for himself that what she said was true. He pulled a handful of the sugary snow from the hole and let it run between his fingers, glancing over at Yago.
The ogre merely shrugged. 'I told you it was dangerous when we started.'
Atreus stood, facing Seema. 'What can we do to protect ourselves?' he asked her.
'We can turn around.'
'Aside from that,' Atreus replied.
Seema sighed, then led them back into the mouth of the gully. She instructed Yago to start yelling across the valley, hoping to set off any impending avalanches with his booming voice. While the ogre bellowed, she took the supply bundle and began to unravel the long threads of a yak-hair blanket, knotting them together to create four dark strands, each twenty or thirty paces long. By the time she finished, Yago had managed to start a small slide on the opposite wall of the valley, but the snow on the glacier below remained ominously inert
Seema tied one of the long strands around her own waist and had each of her companions do the same, leaving the ends to drag in the snow. If an avalanche buried someone, the dark cord would float to the top so the others could find the victim-or so she said. They began to zigzag down the glacier, keeping themselves well spaced and crossing dangerous areas one person at a time, so there would always be three people to dig out a victim. Atreus found himself worrying less about avalanches than hidden crevasses, but Seema seemed to have an uncanny sense for avoiding such pitfalls.
They were about a quarter of the way down when Yago, bringing up the rear of the line, plunged through the wind-crusted snow and sank to his chest Unable to feel anything beneath his feet, he could not tell whether he was buried in a particularly deep snow-bank or hanging over a hidden crevasse, and he did not want to call out for fear of touching off an avalanche. He simply stretched his long arms across the snow to spread his weight and waited. Eventually, the others noticed that he was missing and returned to pull him free. After that, Atreus brought up the end of the line.
As they descended, the snow grew more-unstable. Small slabs began to break off beneath their feet and slide down the wind crust The farther they descended, the larger the slabs grew, and Atreus began to feel an avalanche was imminent He suggested having Yago yell again. Seema rejected the idea, saying the danger was no greater than before, as long as the slabs did not start coming from above. Atreus was not sure he believed her, especially when she grew even more cautious and insisted that they start crossing the entire glacier one person at a time.
They were about halfway down when Atreus heard a brief hissing noise above, then saw a raft-sized slab of snow shoot past and drop into the dark mouth of a crevasse. In the next instant, he was sprinting across the snow toward his friends, who stood waiting beneath the shelter of a rocky outcropping. There was no decision or thinking, he simply found himself running, hoping to reach safety before the avalanche swept him away.
But the roaring never came. No billowing clouds of snow swept down to swallow him up, nor did his world suddenly turn white and cold. He simply found himself standing at the outcropping with his companions, trembling and breathing hard.
'What's your hurry?' asked Yago. 'He ain't that close.'
'Close?' Atreus panted, hands braced on his knees. 'Who?'
Yago looked up toward the narrow gap through which they had descended onto the glacier. A single dark figure was coming straight down the slope, taking long plunging steps that kicked loose huge slabs of wind-crusted snow.
Tarch!'
'He is a fool to come down like that,' said Seema. 'He will bring the whole slope down.'
'Then perhaps we should run,' Rishi offered, prodding Seema toward the glacier.' The time for caution is past'
Seema did not move. 'No,' she said. 'Now we must be more cautious than before.' She turned to look at them. 'Do not make the mistake of thinking Tarch is the danger. The Yehimals have claimed a hundred times more lives than he has.'
'Yes, but the Yehimals are not hunting us,' said Atreus. 'Maybe we should hurry things along.'
'You cannot hurry in these mountains. That is the fool's way.' Seema pointed at the dark line of a crevasse lying perpendicular across Tarch's path and said, The tailed devil is being careless, and a thousand hazards lie before him. We will do far better to look to ourselves and let the mountain take care of our pursuer.'
'I suppose you're right,' said Atreus. 'Well have plenty of time to worry if he catches up.'
Seema nodded. 'Good,' she said. 'We will continue as before.'
She started across the glacier, choosing an angle much steeper than before. Atreus took the frozen chain from around his neck and tapped it against the rock wall, knocking the ice out of the links. Rishi quietly beseeched the gods to blind the 'tailed devil' and send him plunging into a bottomless abyss and close it as promptly as possible. The Mar's supplications went unheeded. Tarch descended the glacier at a near run, twisting and turning his way through the labyrinth of crevasses, sometimes leaping narrow ones and other times trotting across snow bridges as thin as sails. His plunging steps sent a steady stream of snow slabs hissing down the slope. Several times those speeding cakes seemed destined to sweep Seema off the mountain. Atreus and his companions could only watch, afraid that a warning shout would bring the whole slope crashing down on her.
The nearer Tarch drew, the more nervous Rishi became. He began to complain bitterly about his forced promise not to kill the tailed devil, and he chastised Atreus several times for breaking his sword back in the couloir. Yago grew tired of Rishi's griping and quietly noted that no one had promised Seema anything about his safety. This was enough to quiet the Mar.
Finally, Seema reached a rocky alcove on the opposite wall, perhaps one more traverse from the bottom of the dangerous area. Even before she turned to signal, Rishi was bounding along in her footsteps, his dark avalanche cord trailing in his wake.
Above, Tarch had descended nearly half the glacier's length. Unless he met with one of the hazards Seema had spoken of, he would catch the company long before they completed the final traverse. The thought of fighting him again sent a chill down Atreus's spine. He could not forget the fear he had experienced when Tarch touched him, nor the tongue of flame that had nearly engulfed Rishi. Perhaps 'tailed devil' was not an exaggeration at all. The slave master certainly had the magic of a creature from the Thousand Hells.
Atreus's thoughts were interrupted by Yago's deep voice. 'I suppose you meant what you told the girl?' The ogre's gaze was fixed on Tarch. 'About not killing that devil thing, I mean.'
'You know I did.'
'I was afraid of that' Yago glared down at Atreus with one big bloodshot eye, then shook his head, saying, 'You humans and your mating games. ltd be simpler for everyone if you just claimed her.'
Atreus felt the heat rise to his cheeks. 'What are you talking about?'
The girl,' Yago said, gesturing vaguely in Seema's direction. 'She looks a good prize, from what I've seen of how humans judge.'
'She is a good prize,' Atreus admitted, 'but you've been around people. You know we can't just wrestle a female down and expect her to start keeping the cave.'
Too bad,' said Yago. 'She'd let you win.'
Atreus rolled his eyes.
'You don't think so?' Yago asked. 'She don't want us killing that devil that's after her, and if she's just trying to outrun it, we sure ain't speeding her up any. So what's she doing here, if she ain't waiting for you to claim
