Tessellations [BOOK TWO]

Chapter Twenty-One

Rise, mountains, rise
And stir, and settle, and stand
Walk, mountains, walk
Come now, up now, cross the land

"Jasper!"

He was unconscious, his body sprawled in the snow. I ran to him, grabbing his hand. His lips and fingers were blue, his nose streaming dark red blood that appeared almost purple against his drowned-man skin. He didn't open his eyes. "He's dead. Caleb, Caleb, he's dead."

Caleb joined me and caught hold of Jasper, pressing his fingers under Jasper's jaw and feeling for a pulse. The onslaught of falling snow stung my face, but I didn't notice the cold. I couldn't see straight. Finally, Caleb sighed. "He's alive."

I bit back a sob.

"But he won't be for long in his state if we can't get him out of this blizzard. Nor will we. Channing, help me lift him."

Together, they picked him up. A gale whipped past us, bitterly frigid. Snowflakes stuck to my eyelashes like white spiders. We followed Caleb's lead.

My teeth chattered, and Lily and I clung to one another for warmth as we waded through the snow.

At last, like strangers silhouetted in the pale haze, a copse of bare, spindly trees appeared before us. We hurried to them, taking what small relief we could find in their narrow protection. Caleb and Channing leaned Jasper against the downwind side of one of the trees, where he was as shielded from the blizzard as we could make him.

"I'm going to find shelter," Caleb said, his expression severe as he looked at each of us in the eye one by one. "Stay here. Stay together. Do not come looking for me. I'll return for you."

And if you don't? What do we do then? I wanted to ask, but I knew that if he didn't return, we stood no chance at all.

He pulled off his coat and tossed it to Channing, then without another word, disappeared into the torrent. We huddled together and weathered the storm.

Time whistled by. My fingers blued. I felt lost inside my skin, surrounded by shivering bodies that, like me, had every likelihood of dying here and no choice but to lie still and accept whatever became.

I almost didn't believe it when Caleb finally returned. His shout felt like being shaken suddenly awake; the storm had worsened. "Hurry! There's a cave. We've got to go quickly."

This time, I helped them lift Jasper. We stumbled like newborn deer through the deepening snow, but his eyelids never so much as fluttered.

Wake up, I thought. Wake up.

He didn't stir.

"There," said Lily, pointing.

I looked up to see the mouth of the cave, a jagged shadow suspended in midair. It became clearer as we drew nearer, its darkness solidifying and lengthening, and I felt torn. Which was worse? The unforgiving veil of white or the endless chasm of black?

We went in. The cave was like a heavy blanket, instantly shielding us from the blizzard's wrath. We moved a stone's-throw deeper, shying from the snow that pooled at its entrance, and lowered Jasper to the cool stone.

Caleb knelt, pulling Jasper's arms free of the sleeves of his wizard's robe and tying them in front to form a makeshift cocoon. "We've got to get a fire going."

"We'll find kindling," said Channing.

"Be quick. I've got a flint, but it's useless without something to burn." He reached into his pocket and tossed the stone to Channing, who caught it just before it fell. "I'm going to check the rest of the cave—in the event that we may be unwittingly intruding on its host."