Glacius Frostmaw's Arc

Chapter 7 of 14

The three ran from the shattered fort onto open snow. Behind them Glacius heard shouts. He looked back. Not the trapped guards, but a line of riders spilling from a side gate. The warlord's men had survived, and now they hunted. Glacius counted a dozen mounts closing across the white flat. Throk stumbled, still weak from the cell. There was no cover for miles, and Glacius knew the truth. On foot, they would not reach home. "Keep moving," Skara said. She did not slow. She jerked her chin at a shape ahead, half hidden in a drift. A great elk stood there, white as the snow, antlers dusted with frost. It watched them without fear. "Mine," she said. "Three winters I kept it." She whistled once. The elk lowered its head. The riders gained. At their front rode a huge man with a black beard. His eyes were white, blind, and fixed on nothing. Yet he pointed straight at Glacius. "There," the man called. His voice cut across the wind. "I hear the ice on him. That's the one." This was Khar Ironforge, the warlord's war-leader. He did not need sight to hunt. Skara pulled Throk onto the elk's back. "Ride," she told him. "Take the tree line." Throk gripped the fur. "What about you?" "We hold them," Skara said. She turned to Glacius. "You have power now. Use it." Glacius stopped running. He faced the riders and spread his hands. The frost in his chest answered. He drove both palms down. Ice tore up from the snow in a rising wall. Two horses hit it and threw their riders. But the wall was thin. Men rode around its ends. The power came fast and left faster, and Glacius felt it drain like water through his fingers. Khar swung down from his horse and walked forward on foot. He drew a heavy blade. "Blind man fears no wall," he said. "I follow the cold." Glacius understood. His power had a sound, a hum Khar could track. So he made it silent. He dropped to a crouch and pressed both hands flat to the ground. He did not throw the ice. He grew it under the snow, slow and quiet, spreading beneath every hoof and boot. Then he clenched his fists. The whole field of snow locked to glass. Horses crashed down. Men slid and could not rise. Khar stood alone on the ice, sword up, turning toward a hum that was no longer there. "Run out of tricks?" Khar called. Glacius did not answer. He backed away over the frozen ground and reached the elk. Skara pulled him up behind Throk. The elk bounded for the tree line. Below, the warlord's men clawed at the ice and stayed pinned. Khar stood among them, blind, listening, left behind. The hunt was broken. Now the mountain, and the blade, waited above.