Jonasson, Ragnar - The Darkness by Jonasson Ragnar

Author:Jonasson, Ragnar [Jonasson, Ragnar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

XXIV

The light was failing.

After driving for a while, she had more or less got the hang of coping with the snow. The four-by-four answered well to the steering wheel and the hard-frozen crust bore up under their weight. The promised blizzard hadn’t materialized yet, though a few flakes had begun to fall, enough to justify switching on the wipers.

He had been right after all: this was part of the package, part of the adventure she had signed up for. She regretted now that she had shrunk away from the challenge.

Once she’d had a good go, he’d taken over the wheel again and driven at a cracking pace until a mountain loomed up ahead, at which point he took his foot off the accelerator and slowed to a stop.

‘This’ll do. We’ll leave the car here.’

Stepping out into a light mist of snow, she surveyed their surroundings. ‘Are we going up there, up the mountain?’ she asked doubtfully, quailing at the sight of the sheer black crags showing through the white.

He shook his head. ‘No, not all the way, just into the valley over the next ridge. The going’ll be a bit challenging, though.’

Darkness was closing in with frightening speed and she only hoped they would make it to their destination while it was still twilight. The night would be impenetrable here: no distant glow from a town; nothing but mountains and snow.

‘Will … will there be any other people about?’

‘Nobody else comes out here,’ he said flatly.

He had begun to unload the car and their rucksacks were already lying in the snow beside the other equipment. Reaching into one of them, he pulled out a thick jumper, a traditional lopapeysa, hand-knitted from Icelandic wool, with a distinctive zig-zagging pattern in white, brown and grey around the yoke.

‘Here. Put this on or you’ll freeze,’ he said, grinning. In the twilight, it was hard to see what sort of grin it was.

She obeyed without protest, taking off her thick down jacket. A shiver spread through her body. Probably just the cold, she told herself, but on second thoughts, maybe … maybe it was fear.

He handed her the rucksack and, staggering a little under the weight, she hoisted it on to her back. He helped her with the straps before fixing the ice axe to the outside.

They hadn’t gone more than a few paces before she realized she’d forgotten to put on her gloves. In what seemed like moments, she had lost all sensation in her fingers and had to call him to ask for help with digging the gloves out of her pack. Once he had done this, they resumed their march, plodding onwards through the thickening snow until, finally, he halted.

‘We’re going to try and climb up here. Do you think you can make it?’

Ahead, she saw a steep, white slope rising up to invisible heights, the top obscured by the failing light and the snowflakes stinging her eyes.

‘Do you think you can make it?’ he asked again.

She nodded doubtfully and waited for him to lead the way.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.