God of Discovery [high fantasy, slow build, mlm]

Mountain of ice, part 6

When D'Argen came to again, he was covered in the outer robe Thar had been using. Thar, however, was not there. D'Argen quickly sat up only to feel that stabbing pain inside his chest once more. He immediately reached for it and wrapped an arm around his middle. His ribs. Definitely bruised, if not cracked. But also, something beyond that. There was a weight over his mahee like a wet blanket that felt uncomfortable and strange.

After taking a few shallow breaths to deal with the pain in his chest, he looked down at his leg. The laces on his high boots were so tight that it looked painful and there was an additional strip of light cloth over his knee and around the ankle of his boot. When he felt for his leg with his mahee, he felt the spider cracks already healing and the clean break of the bone. It was not the first time he had broken a bone, not even the first time he had broken this bone. But it still hurt as the torn muscles around the break healed much faster than the bone did.

A stab at his hip revealed that it had, indeed, been dislocated and put back. It was now only sore though, compared to what it must have been before. It was not the first time D'Argen had dislocated a hip either.

At least his head had stopped hurting. Well. It no lounder pounded with his pulse. The pain now was probably from a simple headache due to cold and stale air.

Once he took full stock of his own body, he looked around once more. There was light coming from above and he chanced a look up. So far. It looked even farther than it had in the darkness with the false light. Now though, there was a break in the snow above that shone on the wall of ice and bounced around and through the frozen crevasse, revealing its size. It was huge. It was tall. It was terrifying.

D'Argen once more remembered he was alone and decided to risk calling out Thar's name in a combination of a whisper and a yell.

"I am here," came a response and then Thar appeared as if he had melted out of the ice. When D'Argen focused, he realized there had been a bend in the ledge they were on and Thar had been on the other side of it.

"How are you?"

"In pain," D'Argen replied and moved to stand. Thar helped him up and supported him as D'Argen tested his weight on his leg. It hurt something fierce and made his eyes water, but he had no other option. "What were you doing?"

"Looking for a way out. I may have found something."

"No, Thar, wait. Have you rested properly?" D'Argen reached out with a hand on the other man's chest to stop him from moving. "I barely feel your mahee."

"We do not have time to rest."

As if on cue, he bent over and started coughing. The action startled D'Argen so much that he jumped back, putting weight on his bad leg and hip and immediately crashing back down to the ground. Thar stopped coughing to come over and help him. D'Argen noticed dark wet stains on Thar's sleeve. Blood.

"I'm good, I'm good," D'Argen said and tried to wave the other away. He was in too much pain to deal with another thump back like that, but it was not like they could just sit around and wait for rescue. "What supplies do we have?" he asked instead, ready to assess the situation.

"Only your pack. Hortson was carrying mine when I..."

The hesitation made D'Argen pause where he was removing his pack. He looked at Thar and the man looked so guilty. What had he done? Instead of asking that, D'Argen asked, "How long have I been unconscious?"

"I do not know. I was not fully conscious myself for a while there."

D'Argen scowled and found himself staring at those dark blotches on Thar's white robes. He wanted to wipe them off but he knew if he reached out now, he would only smear them. But they should not be there. Lemisyre's work was the best there was. Nothing as simple as blood would stain Thar's clothes. Not like it had before, when there was so much that it soaked and—