Like everyone else in the class, Leia stared after the chief. She’d memorized a few landmarks. Maybe she could manage—
No. Not maybe. There’s no way I’m going back to my parents and telling them I failed.
It didn’t matter if every other student sat down in the snow and refused to budge. She was going to get down that mountain by sunset.
Somehow.
Leia assumed Chief Pangie had stranded them to create a bonding experience for the whole group. Working together to overcome the odds was supposed to create camaraderie and make them all lasting friends.
If that was the plan, it was failing miserably.
“Could you guys at least try to move faster than a glacier?” snapped Harp Allor when she had to stop, yet again, for their slower classmates to catch up. “We have a lot of ground to cover before sundown, and you guys are dragging your hindquarters.”
The Ithorian pointed at his cumbersome snowshoes, which were sturdy but slowed his pace. Sssamm of Fillithar hissed that maybe she could remember not everybody had hindquarters and to stop being so biped-centric.
Amilyn, who had clambered atop a stump, peered into the knothole of the nearest tree. “Nope,” she said in her singsong voice, “no snow owls here either.”
Kier had kept his temper so far, but this comment made him squint at Amilyn up on her perch. “Why are you looking for snow owls?”
“Why wouldn’t I look for snow owls?”
Apparently Kier couldn’t think of a good answer. After a long, silent moment, he nodded as though to say, Fair point.
Chassellon retied the expensive muunyak-wool scarf at his throat, making sure it had a rakish flair. Leia couldn’t fathom caring about appearances at a time like this, and by this point they were all overheated from the work of the hike. He was willing to make himself sweat even more rather than wreck his look. 2V would love this guy. “Chief what’s-her-name clearly resents us. Thinks she’s too good for students instead of soldiers. Can you imagine what trouble she’ll be in when this gets reported to Queen Breha? I can’t wait.”
“Can we all try to focus?” Leia held on to her temper, barely. “See that dead tree over there? The one that’s split in two at the top?”
Kier nodded. “The one that was struck by lightning. I noticed it on the way up too. We need to turn west around here.”
She was chagrined not to have realized the tree had been hit by lightning—but what did it matter? At least somebody else in this class could use his brain and his mouth at the same time. “All right. West we go.”
Already Harp Allor had begun hurrying ahead, bounding through the calf-deep snow. “The path’s clearer here! We can make up some time!”
“Harp?” Kier called. “I think I remember—”
Suddenly Harp jerked to one side and toppled over into a drift. Her cry of pain echoed against the rock-strewn slopes.
“—some tricky ice around there,” Kier finished.
Leia ran to where Harp lay in the snow, clutching one leg and wincing. “Are you all right?”
Shaking her head, Harp said, “I twisted my ankle.”
“Oh, that’s just sensational.” Chassellon buried his hands in his wildly curly black hair. “Can’t you walk it off?”
By now Kier had reached Harp as well, and the two of them tried to get her to her feet. Before Harp could try her weight on it, Leia saw the odd tilt of her boot and squeezed the girl’s arm as a warning. “Don’t! It’s not twisted; it’s broken.”
Kier added, “It’s nothing a few hours in a bacta tank won’t fix, but there’s no way you can get down the mountain without help.”
Thanks for confirming the obvious, Leia thought but didn’t say. She was getting better at figuring out exactly what she was mad about, when she was mad. Right now it wasn’t Kier Domadi, just the mess they were in.
Tears had welled in Harp’s eyes. “I screwed everything up for everybody.”
“No, you didn’t,” Leia said, but Chassellon snorted. She glared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He held up his hands in their expensive fambaa-leather gloves, a gesture of mock surrender. “I agree with you, Princess Leia. Allor didn’t screw things up for everybody, just for herself. I for one intend to return to the chalet by sunfall with or without her. From the look of things, without.”
When Leia got really, really angry, her temples would pulse, and sometimes she felt like the top of her skull would pop off to let out all the steam inside. Her head had already begun to throb. “You’d leave her out here on her own?”
Chassellon shrugged. “Apparently Chief Pangie thinks this stretch of wilderness is perfectly safe from all hazards except clumsiness. Therefore Ms. Allor here should be fine until we send a jumper to fetch her.”
“That’s unacceptable.” Kier’s tone remained even, but Leia could tell he was nearly as angry as she was.
“She would be lonely,” Amilyn said, still swaying atop her perch on the stump, staring into the knothole as though the long-awaited owls might yet appear.
“Lonely. Oh, well, let’s all get thrown out of the class to keep her from being lonely for a few hours.” Chassellon folded his arms across his chest. “Or we could act like rational sentient beings and start moving.”
“Go on ahead,” Harp said, her head drooping. “I’ll be fine.”
“We’re not leaving you,” Leia insisted. She let go of Harp, trusting Kier to support her, and marched over to Chassellon. “Think about this, will you? If we all stay behind with Harp, Chief Pangie has to keep us in the class. She can’t expel everybody.”
“You might escape, Your Highness, but the rest of us have to look out for ourselves. Trust me, when someone like that wants to make life worse for the people who have power over her, she’ll find a way. I don’t intend to give her any extra ammunition.” He reshouldered his backpack and put one hand on Leia’s shoulder, his expression so genuinely sympathetic that for a moment she thought he’d come around. Instead, he said in a lower voice, “I realize you have to stay. Word can’t get around that the princess of Alderaan abandoned someone on the slopes to save her own skin, can it? Appearances matter.”
“Appearances?” Her temples pulsed again, and her cheeks flushed hot against the biting cold air.
Chassellon took no notice. Instead he called to the others: “All those for the chalet, follow me!”
To Leia’s consternation, fully half the class started down the hill after him. Only the Ithorian even paused, inclining his head to say sorry. The others kept going without looking back.
And if I had to get stuck with only half the group, did it have to be this half? she thought. Kier stood there silently judging her while Harp sniffled against his shoulder. Sssamm seemed alert and calm but, as a serpentine life-form, couldn’t be a whole lot of help carrying Harp, her gear, or anything else. And Amilyn was still looking for the blasted owls.