Chapter 14 · The Price Beneath the Ice

"You're going down there alone?"

Aldric's voice cut through the wind before I even reached the ravine edge. I didn't turn around.

"Not your concern."

"It is when you're the only thing keeping this alliance from eating itself." His boots crunched closer through the snow. "That ice won't hold."

I stopped at the lip of the crevasse. Below, maybe thirty feet down, I could see the dark shapes of supply crates wedged against the black ice. The caravan had gone through two days ago. Eighteen men. Four made it out.

The rest were down there with the grain.

"Morale's at forty-two percent," I said. "Supply duration: six days. That's the food keeping your men and mine from killing each other over scraps."

"Then we ration what we have."

"Ration air while you're at it." I tested the rope anchored to the rock spur. Virrak had set it before dawn. "I'm going."

"Lynn—"

"Don't." I wrapped the line around my wrist, felt the rough hemp bite through my glove. "You wanted an alliance. This is what it costs."

I went over the edge before he could argue.

The descent was worse than I'd calculated.