Chapter Nine'What's that?' Charlie asked. 'Who's up here?'
Rather than reply, Lorna replaced her clothes, slipped off the rocky pinnacle and strode toward the western rim of the summit. One by one, we followed, with Charlie striving to overtake Lorna and Christine at the back.
'What is it? Who is it?' Charlie asked.
'I think it is the Mahoney party,' Lorna said. 'I'm truly sorry, Kate.'
White-faced under her weather-tan, Kate nodded and pushed forward. 'I came here to find them, Lorna.'
They lay together in a hollow in the ground, still wearing the clothes in which they had ascended An Cailleach. Three skeletons that no longer had tongues to tell their stories, three dead bodies that could not claim the first ascent, three corpses from years past. We were not first to conquer An Caill
