The climb out of the mound took the better part of an hour, soldiers passing the wounded hand over hand up the thinned frost near the fissure's edge, and when Rama finally hauled himself back into open air the sky above the hill country had gone the pale gray of very early morning, stars fading, the world looking almost embarrassingly ordinary after everything the night had held.
The frozen circle still stood exactly where they had left it, dozens of still, frost crusted figures arranged in their patient arrangement around the now dark, silent opening, and Ardhana called an immediate halt so the company's few remaining physicians could move among them, checking for any sign that the same warmth that had finally revived Suwondo, however briefly, might work again.
