At dawn Vesna staggered down to the drop point, frostbitten but alive, every crate still sealed on the sled. Doru's partner paid her in full and stared. "Nobody takes the ridge in a storm," he said. "Then nobody else could've made it," she answered, and finally let herself rest.

On the ridge Vesna found two climbers half-buried and barely breathing, Doru's runners who'd gone ahead and never arrived. She cut the crates loose, loaded the men onto her sled, and chose them over the cargo. The money was gone, but she dragged them down to the warm lights of the valley.