The Wind-Cut Pass

A cairn-marked saddle between two peaks — the one foot-crossing of the Northern Rampart, where the wind is said to speak at dusk.

High on the Rampart, between two snow-shouldered peaks, the wind has cut a saddle low enough to cross on foot. Generations of cairns mark the line a traveller must hold or be lost; the topmost stones are furred with rime. At dusk the wind funnels through and makes a sound the tribes call speaking, and will not cross after. Those who must, go quickly.