Glacius Frostmaw's Arc

Chapter 11 of 14

The blade hummed alive on Glacius's back, but the wind cut through him now. His frost was gone. He had poured every thread into his siblings and the summit stone. Skara and Throk stood sealed in ice shells, safe. Glacius shivered on bare rock, and the cold reached deep into his chest. His hands would not close. His knees buckled. He had woken the sword and killed the mountain's fall, but the peak was still trying to kill him. Oskar Drumm watched from the summit stone. The old guardian was small, his white beard stiff with frost, blue light in his eyes. He had blocked Glacius twice on this peak. He had warned him about greed. Now he stepped forward and knelt beside the falling orc. "You gave it all away," Oskar said. "Even the part that kept you standing." "They live," Glacius said. His voice shook. "The blade lives. That was the trade." Oskar looked at the ice shells around Skara and Throk. Then he looked at the stone under his boots, calm now, no longer shaking. The mountain was restored. The guardian pressed one hand flat to the summit rock. "You returned what you took," he said. "The peak can rest. So it can spare a breath for the one who saved it." A thin warmth rose from the stone. It was not the killing cold. It was the mountain's own heat, held deep for ages. It curled up through Glacius's boots and into his frozen legs. His fingers moved. His chest loosened. The ice shells around Skara and Throk cracked, then fell away in bright shards. His brother and sister dropped to their knees, breathing hard, alive and free of the cold. Skara reached her brother first. She gripped his shoulder hard. "You're ordinary now," she said. "No frost left." It was not a question. "None," Glacius said. "I'm just an orc again." Throk laughed, ragged and real. "Then carry your own sword down." Glacius pulled the blade from his back. The dragon eyes in the guard glowed pale blue. The runes shone. It was finished at last, and it was truly alive. He held it up and felt its weight settle right in his grip. Warm, not cold. Ready. Oskar rose. His face was hard again. "The mountain is whole. My debt to you is paid. But you should know one thing before you leave." He pointed down the slope, past the tree line, toward the low country. "You immobilized the blind war-leader and his riders. Ice does not hold forever, and yours melted when you gave it up. Khar Ironforge walks free now. He tracked you by your magic once. He will not need it twice. He knows your faces." Glacius looked down the mountain. The blade was awake. His power was gone. And somewhere below, an enemy was climbing toward his family with nothing to stop him.