“But you’ll f-freeze,” Jacen objected. His lips begun to feel numb.
“I am already cold,” she said. “We will grow no warmer by staying in this cave. We cannot hope for rescue if we stay here, and we risk being spotted by the Diversity Alliance.”
Jacen’s hands, still on Tenel Ka’s back, were growing stiff and ached with the cold. He flexed his fingers a few times, then buried them behind the unbraided portion of hair that hung down her back. “You’re right,” he said. “I just wish we could make a blanket out of your hair.”
She jerked backward a few centimeters and looked into his eyes. “Jacen, my friend, that is an excellent idea!”
He blinked back at her, not quite sure how what he had said could actually prove useful.
“Please, assist me in unbraiding my hair,” she said.
Reluctantly, Jacen released his hold on her; he had enjoyed the close contact. He shook the stiffness from his fingers and tugged a thong from the end of one of her braids. Still clumsy because of the cold, he combed his shaking fingers through her hair to untangle the braid.
Handing Jacen the flash heater, Tenel Ka used her single hand with considerably less clumsiness.
When they were finished, clouds of thick red-gold hair flowed down Tenel Ka’s arms, shoulders, and back, all the way to her waist.
Tenel Ka looked out through the cave opening, preparing herself for the ordeal they were about to face. Gazing out at the starry sky, she said, “Beautiful. As beautiful as rainbow gems from Gallinore.”
“Yes … beautiful,” Jacen agreed, though he was not looking at the sky.
“We must not delay any longer,” she said, stepping outside without hesitation.
“How will we find our way to the temperate zone?” he asked, following her out. The chill sliced into him like a vibroblade. He hadn’t thought it was possible for him to feel any colder.
But he’d been wrong.
“The day side is that direction,” Tenel Ka said, pointing straight through the mountain toward the other side. “Therefore, the temperature zone must be…” She pointed up toward the mountain peak that rose above them.
Jacen studied the steep, rocky crag. Its peak, silhouetted by a faint light from behind, must have been four kilometers away—straight uphill.
He swallowed, but the freezing wind had stolen all of the moisture from his mouth. Jacen blew on his hands and then folded one underneath each arm to keep them warm. “I can barely move my hands as it is. I’m not going to be able to hang on to rocks. We could probably boost ourselves with the Force, but parts of that slope look too steep to climb, and they’re covered with ice.”
Tenel Ka looked troubled. “No. Even using my fibercord will not help us. Our peril would be great. But we must find—ah … aha!”
Jacen followed her gaze and saw it in the distance: a pass, etched against the sky and mountains in stark relief by a tracing of twilight.
The twilight meant that the area must be close to the moderate zone.
“How far do you make it?” Jacen asked. “Seven kilometers.”
She shook her head. “Eight … perhaps ten. But our path would be more level. We should not need to climb. I believe we can walk it in a few hours.”
Jacen’s cheeks and eyes stung from the biting wind. He nodded. “Sure, no problem. You know, I’ve been saving a special joke for just such an occasion….” And they set off.
Jacen had lost all sensation in his feet by the end of the first half hour. The rocky ground was often covered with ice. They took turns in the lead, holding a lightsaber high to light the way through the darkness so that they could see the best path to walk. To keep their hands warm enough to grip their lightsabers, they shared the flash heater until its charge ran too low to be of any more use.
At times they had to use Tenel Ka’s grappling hook and fibercord to pull themselves over particularly treacherous terrain. Both of them slipped and fell so often that they were badly cut and bruised. After the first hour, Jacen stopped feeling that, as well.
They stayed as close together as possible, blocking the wind for each other from at least one side, and communicated primarily through brief gestures. They kept their mouths closed against the cold and tried not to talk, except when absolutely necessary to decide on a route.
After more than two hours, they stopped where a hillside full of loose rock rose above a slab of sheer, ice-slick stone. They had come a long way already, about two-thirds of the distance, Jacen guessed. But to get to the twilit pass, they would have to cross either loose stones or the slippery rockface.
“We are fortunate,” Tenel Ka said, “that we are so close to the temperate zone. Otherwise, we might have been dead by now.” A handful of rocks came loose from the upper slope and skittered down across the steep slab of icy stone.
Jacen gave a halfhearted attempt at a snort.
“Yeah, we’re lucky, all right.” He hadn’t been able to tell for nearly an hour whether he still had ears or not. He supposed that it was just as well he couldn’t feel them. “Which way?” he asked.
“We could use our lightsabers to cut hand- and footholds into the rock,” Tenel Ka suggested.
Jacen nodded. He looked in the direction of the pass toward which they were heading. “What’s that?” he said. He pointed to some tall, narrow objects now visible in the pass. They looked like the rigid trunks of scrawny metal trees that had only one or two limbs—limbs that moved.
“Power generators,” Tenel Ka said. “The winds are strong in the temperate zone where cold air meets hot. The Twi’leks use wind turbines to run their generators and supply much of their power down in the caves.”
Jacen flicked on his lightsaber. “Well, I’m ready to feel some of that hot air,” he said as a cold wind buffeted them. He swung his lightsaber to notch a few footholds in the icy rock, then stepped forward and swung again.
And so they progressed across the slippery expanse. A powerful gust hit them without warning, knocking them both to their knees on the ice-covered rock. A second gust was followed by a loud clattering noise. Jacen and Tenel Ka looked up in horror as hundreds of small rocks bounced and rolled and ricocheted down the slope toward them.
Jacen switched off his lightsaber. “Look out!” he yelled.
Tenel Ka punched the power stud on her weapon, turning it off. “This way!” she shouted, sitting directly on the ice and throwing her arm around him. Pulling him on top of her, she pushed off down the slope.
Like a living sled they slid quickly downhill on Tenel Ka’s tough lizardhide armor, picking up speed and outdistancing the small avalanche.
Fortunately, the smooth rockface did not add significantly to the bruising they had already sustained. Unfortunately, the slope was long and steep, offering no handholds or footholds on the way down. No way to stop.
They slid. And slid…
Until they finally tumbled, gasping and panting, onto a broad level area near the base of the mountain. Helping each other up, they scrambled to their feet and ran from the tumbling rocks that followed them down.
Within a minute, the tide of rock that had pursued them slowed and stopped.
Panting and shivering, Jacen and Tenel Ka stood for a moment with their arms around each other in the lee of a tall rock. The shelter blocked most of the wind, and—just for a moment—it felt a little less cold.
Jacen was surprised that Tenel Ka did not simply dust herself off and gruffly order him to keep going. Instead, she clung shivering to him for longer than seemed absolutely necessary.
Tenel Ka’s loose hair fell forward to cover Jacen’s shoulders. He welcomed the extra warmth and snuggled into it. He felt as if he could fall asleep under its blankety softness. He was so cold, so sleepy….
He closed his eyes, resting his head on her shoulder. Sleep seemed like a very good idea….
“Jacen, my friend,” Tenel Ka’s voice was barely above a whisper.