Bill’s face was etched into a continuous grimace and whenever the underside of his leg caught on a sharp edge of granite he shrieked with pain.
Resting against a nearby rock, Luca looked down at his friend’s face in the bubble of light from the headtorch. Bill’s jaw was locked rigid as he fought back a sickening wave of nausea and his body slumped forward with exhaustion.
‘What is this place?’ he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.
‘A nightmare,’ said Luca, doubling over on to his knees as he tried to catch his breath. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. I hope you were wrong about her, Bill. We’re entirely in her hands.’
They fell silent, watching Shara’s torch beam bob along ahead of them. A few moments later it wavered and then switched back to where they stood.
‘Be very careful here,’ she said, her voice tense. She was perched on top of a high boulder, looking back at them over her shoulder. ‘Keep close to the left.’
Luca shook his head, staring up at her with his hands still on his knees. He raised himself, wiping the sweat from his eyes, and watched as she wriggled her way down the other side of the rock, disappearing from view. Luca began to speak, but Bill raised his hand for him to be silent.
‘Listen to that,’ he said.
Luca froze, his senses straining. There was the sound of running water, bubbling away somewhere beneath them.
‘An underground river?’
Bill nodded slowly, wincing again as he pushed himself off the rock and on to his feet.
‘Must be the meltwater from the glaciers higher up.’
They staggered forward again, dropping down the other side of the boulder after Shara. Beneath was a flat section that was easier going and they moved side by side, with Bill’s arm over Luca’s shoulder. Luca was looking up towards Shara, the beam of his torch following his gaze, when Shara suddenly turned back towards them.
‘Left!’ she shrieked, shining the light at their feet. Just a few inches away from Luca’s right boot, the rock sheared off and there was a series of chasms dropping down into the darkness below. They could hear the rush of the water beneath and felt an undercurrent of cold air rising up to meet them.
Luca instinctively leaned left, away from the drop. Together they staggered forward again, nearly losing their balance as they tried to keep their shoulders pressed up against the far wall.
‘Jesus Christ,’ Luca hissed as they reached the safety of the next boulder. ‘This is fucking suicide.’
For another half-hour they followed her lead. The route started to get a little easier now, the spaces between the rocks widening. Finally they rounded a giant boulder and came out in front of the narrow snow gulley that they had seen before from the lower slopes. Shara stopped, knee-deep in snow, staring up towards the top of the ridge.
‘We’re nearly there,’ she whispered. ‘One last push.’
Bill tilted his head up towards the slope then shook off Luca’s grip, sinking down to the ground.
‘It’s too much,’ he breathed.
Luca stood next to him, bent double and winded by the effort. The relief he’d felt at finally being out of the Kooms quickly evaporated as he ran his eyes up the length of the gulley. It was less steep than he had first thought, but the snow was deep. It stretched up, perfect and unbroken in the moonlight, over five hundred feet above them.
To their left was a near-vertical wall of rock which bent round into the gulley. At the very top, Luca noticed something hanging down over the slope — a snow cornice. From the constant wind whipping up the side of the mountain, the snow there had stacked up into an immense, overhanging slab which could easily trigger an avalanche if it collapsed.
Luca stared at it, trying to focus through his exhaustion. They were hemmed in on both sides by the cliffs. If that cornice went, there would be no escape.
Behind them, the first flecks of dawn had started to blossom over the horizon. The sky was turning grey, a half-light before the sun managed to rise above the mountains and burn off the night’s gloom. Dawn would soon be upon them.
‘Please, Luca,’ Shara said. ‘We have to keep moving.’
He didn’t answer but only sank down so that he was shoulder to shoulder with Bill, both of them facing the steep gulley. Bill raised his head and, for a moment, they looked at each other.
‘Bet you’re glad you let me talk you into this expedition,’ Luca said.
A flicker of emotion passed across Bill’s face. He tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. His pale blue eyes slowly passed over Luca’s face, taking in the large swelling on his forehead from where he’d dived out of the cave, and the matted hair which clung to his cheeks with sweat.
‘You look like shit,’ he murmured. There was a moment of silence before Luca’s shoulders started to shake. A wave of laughter took hold of them both. Their laughter grew louder, dampening their eyes, before Bill broke into a coughing fit. He curled forward, his body convulsing as it rattled through him. After a while he managed to lean back again and they sat in silence, watching Shara trudge up through the deep snow. She was moving slowly, but as the minutes passed, they could see she was making ground.
‘Where are we going?’ Luca asked, the elation suddenly evaporating. The euphoria was replaced by a terrible sense of desolation, brought on by the hours of constant strain. He could feel tears welling up in the corners of his eyes and his throat was suddenly tight to the point where he thought he might choke.
‘Come on, mate,’ Bill managed beside him, his voice little more than a murmur. ‘Piece of piss.’
Luca nodded, fighting back the tears. Then, with a sudden surge of energy, he pushed himself off the rock and on to his feet. He offered his hand to Bill.
‘You’re right. We can do this.’
Bill raised his own hand, lacking the strength to do anything more. Luca grabbed his wrist and was about to wrench him to his feet when he felt the violent trembling of Bill’s arm. The fever had taken hold of him completely.
With a desperate shout, Luca yanked him forward, getting his shoulder under Bill’s arm again. Side by side, they waded into the gulley, forcing their way higher with each step.
They had trudged on for what seemed like hours when all of a sudden, the first rays of sunlight burst on to the ground in front of them, burnishing the side of the mountain and illuminating Shara’s tracks ahead. They kept moving, step after step, each muscle stretched to breaking point.
Luca stared up to the highest point of the ridge and saw that Shara had already reached it. She had stopped moving, her dark hair whipping behind her, and was staring out over the hidden side of the mountain. On they went, Bill groaning now with each step and Luca fighting with every ounce of strength to keep him moving. Every few paces his legs would sink down into the deep snow, so that he had to use his free hand to claw their way along.
The ridge seemed to stay just out of reach, each pace they took getting infinitesimally smaller, each movement costing more energy than they had. Then, with a final shout, they broke free of the slope and collapsed at the top. As Shara came back to check on Bill, her eyes ringed with fatigue, something made Luca pull himself up on to his feet once again and stumble over to where she had been standing. He took a couple of steps forward, swaying on his feet unsteadily, and stared at the view.
At first he couldn’t see much at all. The morning sun dazzled his eyes. Then slowly shapes began to take form and he blinked, taking it all in.
‘My God,’ he whispered, barely able to believe his eyes. ‘That’s impossible.’