The Grand Duke Gave the Hostage Prince the Only Key novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: The High Pass
The storm caught them on the second day, three hours above the tree line.
It came down the pass.
One moment Elior could see the long grey line of riders winding up the track ahead of him.
The next there was only white, and the roar of wind, and the head of his own horse.
"Rope!" Teodric shouted from somewhere beside him.
A line of braided hide whipped across the snow, and Elior caught it and knotted it to his saddle.
The other end was tied to Teodric's, a body length away.
It was the only thing in the world he could see.
They rode blind for what felt like an hour.
Then the mountain above them let go.
Elior heard it as a long dull crack, and then a thunder that shook the ground.
Snow poured down the slope behind them and swallowed the track, with sixty riders on the far side of it.
His horse screamed and bolted.
The rope snapped taut, and Teodric's black charger plunged after him, and the two animals went sliding down a bank into a ravine.
Elior hit the frozen creek at the bottom.
The ice broke.
Water went through his coat, his tunic, his breeches, and closed around his chest.
He came up gasping with his hair plastered to his skull.
A hand seized his collar and hauled him onto the bank.
"Up," said Teodric.
"Up, you are going to freeze.
"Can you stand?"
"I can't feel my hands," Elior said.
His teeth were chattering too hard to say it properly.
Teodric looked around with his pale eyes narrowed against the snow.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Grand Duke Gave the Hostage Prince the Only Key are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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