anyone in the vicinity. It was hard going, all upward, and each pace had to be made carefully
across the eerie expanses of white snow and ice and black pockets of shadow.
They had been going for two hours or more when Karay's breath plumed out like steam as she
whispered to Dominic, "Hadn't we better rest awhile and catch our breath?"
Ben heard her and called a halt. He chose a spot in the deep shadows of a crag to one side of
the path. No sooner had they installed themselves there than voices were heard.
Ned's ears rose as he contacted Ben. "Sounds like two men. Good job we got in here out of
the way."
It was the fat rogue Cutpurse and a weaselly-looking older fellow called Abrit. They shuffled
by within twenty feet of where the friends were hiding. Cutpurse stopped, leaning on a staff
he was using as a crutch, and scanned the ground suspiciously. "Look, there's tracks here!"
There was obviously no love lost between the two men, for Abrit treated Cutpurse as if he
were a half-wit. It showed in his voice. "Of course there's tracks, lard gut, they're the tracks
we made on the way up. Look, there's the dog's paw prints out in front. Come on, stop slowin'
me down or we'll never find Rouge an' Domba, or the dog. Now what's the matter?"
Cutpurse lowered himself painfully and sat down on the snow. "My ankle's killin' me, it's
agony to walk any further. Listen, why don't we find someplace where we can lay up for the
night? Then tomorrow we can catch up with the rest an' tell 'em there was no sign of Rouge,
Domba or Gurz. We're just killin' ourselves, blunderin' round in the dark!"
Abrit scoffed at the idea. "Hah! Alright, we'll do that. But when we get back, I ain't sayin'
nothin'. You tell Ligran Razan you couldn't find 'em. How does that sound to ye, eh?"
Cutpurse pouted childishly and nursed his injured ankle. "That Ligran's got it in for me—he'd
slay me as soon as look at me. Cruel, that's what it is. Sendin' a man out on a search with a
broken foot. Huh, just wants t'be rid of me, Ligran does!"
Abrit nodded. "Me too. I've never got on well with Ligran. So, all the more reason for findin'
Rouge an' Domba. We'll be savin' our own lives by doin' the job. On your feet, fatty!"
Cutpurse began to rise. Then a thought occurred to him. "I think we're goin' the wrong way.
Look, there's only tracks goin' upward. Where's the tracks Rouge an' Domba left when they
came down? I can't see any."
Abrit scratched his head. "Y'could be right there. They must've been searchin' on another path.
Maybe over the side of the icefield yonder. We'd best go an' take a look!"
Ben breathed a silent sigh of relief as they watched the two robbers hobbling off over the
wide, lumpy icefield, which sloped away to their left. Karay whispered. "Thank goodness our
trail was mixed up with the tracks of the others."
The two robbers were about a third of the way into the icefield when Ben turned to Karay.
"Do you feel rested enough to carry on now?"
The girl began making her way forward indignantly, muttering to herself, "Of course I am! It
wasn't just me who needed a rest, you two were panting worse than Ned!"
To prove her point she dashed out of cover, accidentally stepping on an ice-covered bit of
rock. Her feet left the ground, and she thudded backward. An involuntary cry came from her
as she fell flat on her back. "Yeek!"
The sound echoed sharply out into the surrounding peaks.
Out on the icefield, Cutpurse and Abrit halted abruptly. Cutpurse waved his staff triumphantly.
"They're the ones Ligran wants—come on, let's get 'em!"
Abrit shouldered his companion to one side. "Out o' my way, ye fool, I'll stop 'em!" Pulling a
musket from his belt he fired a shot across the cliffside at the girl lying on the ground. The
report echoed like thunder.
Ben blinked as the musket ball pinged off the rock behind him. The two robbers were
scrambling across the icefield toward them, shouting at them to halt. Then the noise started: a
dull muffled sound from above, building up into one massive rumble, growing louder by the
second.
Krrrraaaaacvwwwwwk!
Dominic dived out and dragged Karay by her feet back under the shelter of the rock. Then he
pulled Ben as deep into the shadow as possible. Ned galloped to his master's side.
Dominic's voice was almost lost in the unearthly roar. "Avalanche! Avalanche!"
Powdered snow, hard snow, sheets and columns of ice mixed with rocks, scree, shale and
boulders came thundering down as a huge wedge of the mountain, disturbed by the gunshot,
toppled down onto the icefield.
Cutpurse and Abrit died where they stood and were swept away by nature's irresistible force.
Ben, Ned, Karay and Dominic, bundled together in the rock's shadow, hugged one another
tightly. A monstrous single wall of ice scrunched by, halting with an immense grating crack
between the overhanging rock top and the path they had intended to follow. Everything went
black, dark as an underground dungeon. Their eardrums reverberated with the thudding, solid
waterfall of snow that pounded outside against rock and ice.
This was followed by a silence so complete that it made a ringing sound inside their heads. As
rapidly as it had started, the avalanche was over.
Ben's voice sounded muffled as he spoke the words that came to him from Ned. "Is anyone
hurt, are we all here?"
Their arms were still around one another as Karay and Dominic replied out of the stygian
darkness.
"I bruised my shoulder when I slipped, but I'm still alive."
"More than we can say for those Razan villains, I suppose."
Ben shuddered at the thought of the two men's fate. "Nothing can have lived out there. 'Twas
like the end of the world. Ned feels nice and warm, though."
The black Labrador licked Ben's hand. "That's the sweat of pure panic. I think they call it the
heat of the moment."
The boy hugged his dog closer. "All we can do now is wait for daylight. Maybe the sun will
reflect through all this, and we'll be able to judge our position."
Surprisingly, it was not as cold as they had expected. Their breath and body heat combined to
keep the temperature above freezing in the dungeon of snow and ice.
Throughout the remainder of the night, the four friends slept fitfully. Ben was half in and half
out of sleep when the dog's thoughts cut in on him. "Phew, it's getting a bit muggy in here, but
I can see your face now, mate. Can you see me?"
Ben open his eyes to a blurred grey gloom. "Aye, I can see you, mate, though it's getting a bit
difficult to breathe. It must be near dawn outside."
Dominic opened his eyes. "Any food? I'm famished!"
Karay's voice came from over Ned's shoulder. "Me too!"
Ned, with the limited room allowed to him, dug in the snow, which was almost knee high.
Ben heard his thoughts. "I've found Dominic's facemaker satchel, anything in here?"
Dominic pulled the satchel free of the snow. "Thank you, Ned. Let's see what's left in here."
They watched as he loosed the straps and rummaged about. "A hard piece of cheese, stale
heel of a loaf . . . Aha, what's this? Wine, nearly a flask of it. I'd forgotten about that!"
Karay sat up as best as she could. "I'm glad you did! Now share it out, quick, before I die of
hunger!"
Dominic smiled. "Oh, what's your hurry, you'll live. Now eat slowly and don't talk for a while,
or we may use up all the air in here. Proper daylight can't be too far off."