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Chapter 47

It begins to snow. If you can, imagine an absolute downpour of fluffy white snowballs. Then, multiply the amount by ten. That doesn't even come close.
One second, everything is dry and dusty and rocky. The next, there's already an inch of snow coating the path. The worst part? There's no wind, but the snow falls straight down, so we're always exposed.
"Can this get any worse?" I cry after an hour of slipping and skidding slowly over the trail, my clothes soaked with a mix of sweat and melted snow.
Stone glances grimly over at me. "Yeah. You could be dead."
Day seven. That means we shoulder reach the peak at some point today... But it still takes us impossibly long to do a full circle around the mountain... We can't be even close to the top.
But if there's no one on the top, how come I keep hearing those murmuring voices...?
I'm beyond the point of starvation. I know we can't afford to go slow- Every second wasted, is less time remaining to make it to the top. Me and Stone are expiring.
I feel empty and sick, as if the core upon which my entire being was built has been destroyed, and now I'm slowly crumbling away to dust. Every step, every movement, brings tears to my eyes, though I refuse to let them fall. In my world, showing weakness, is surrendering.
Every breath burns my throat like a thousand beestings, so much I wish I could just hold my breath forever, but I force myself to breath on a regular basis, because the air is now so thin, you have to inhale three times to get the amount of oxygen needed.
Glancing over to Stone, my dry eyes pulling at their lids, I see he isn't doing much better. He's taken off his ruined gloves, using his claws for extra traction, like I've extended mine. His bangs are plastered to his forehead with sweat and rain., and though he tries to hide it, when he reaches up to grab an outcropping above him, his arm is shaking, muscles contracting and straining, the veins popping against pale skin.
He sees me looking, and my expression must say it all, because he says, "Almost there."
Yeah, right. Almost there. How can we be 'almost' there?
Almost there.
My foot slips, and my chin hits the rock below me, hard, scraping the flesh and staining the gray stone with blood.
Almost there.
I'm so tired, every limb in my body heavy and leaden, aching, throbbing with pain. I stop in my tracks, and drag myself over to the edge of the path, looking down at what seems to be a moving floor of pearly fog, which is really the clouds.
Almost there.
After gagging and spluttering and spewing anything left in my stomach over the edge of the mountain, I collapse onto my back, coughing, rain pouring into my eyes, staring up at the dark storm clouds above that are still drenching us.
Suddenly, I'm hit by a strange thought. I've come all this way, done all I have, in order to reach the rebels, and destroy the hated Rulers along with their precious Order.
But let's say, just for a moment, that I really do reach the top, which I'm beginning to doubt I ever will. Let's say we make it, and there is a rebel force up there after all (Doubt it), and, miraculously, against all odds, we manage to overtake the City, and burn the Order. Well, then what?
"Ash... I'm sorry." Stone says suddenly, his voice distant and faint under the pounding of the rain. My dress is plastered to my back, and my every movement causes the soaking fabric to slap against my skin, my dripping hair hanging down in my face. And still the rain falls.
"About what?" I reply, though it comes out much more coldly than I intend. Honestly, I can think of quite a few things for Stone to be sorry for. One, leading me up this freaking mountain, on a wild goose chase of his own fabrication-But, why did he tell me all that, all those lies? He only picked me up along the way... Right?
"About... About everything," He mutters, not meeting my eyes. He stops climbing for a second, and lies down on his back, looking up through the dark clouds and rain.
"Stone? Why did you lie to me?" I frown. The more I think about it, the more I'm confused. "I guess I understand why you spread the rumors to get all those people to come, because you were trying to create an army... But why did you lie to me? I was never even part of the plan, so why couldn't you have told me the truth...?"
He sighs, and shakes his head. I think he's about to say something, when I'm suddenly hit by another, sickening wave of nausea, and I dry heave over the edge of the trail, blood dripping onto my lips, mixing with the rain. Then the world goes dark.