Page 51 of The War of Four Winters

"Niro!"

The general appeared beside me, unharmed aside from a cut above his eye. “You first!” he demanded, pushing me toward the opening.

I jumped. Glass cut my face as I fell. I hit the water like stone, the air rushing from my lungs. Cold seized my body, momentarily rendering me numb. By the time I fought my way to the surface, everything hurt. My first gulp of air burned my throat like fire.

Niro surfaced beside me, already swimming toward a gap in the harbor defenses. Alarm bells rang throughout Homeshore, carrying across the channel.

"The ship," I gasped.

"Too risky." Niro cut efficiently through waves. "They'll expect that. We need another way."

My limbs grew heavier with each stroke. Cold stole my strength, but I forced myself to keep going. Niro seemed less affected, but perhaps his elven blood was better suited to winter waters. He grabbed my arm when my strokes faltered and helped me toward a small cove sheltered by rocks.

We dragged ourselves onto a pebbly shore. Cold air bit at my exposed skin and violent shivering threatened to overtake me. Above, Homeshore blazed with torchlight. Soldiers ran along walls, searching waters.

"Move. Now." Niro was already on his feet, scanning the coastline. "They'll have trackers."

I forced my frozen limbs to work. The wet clothes weighed me down, but fear was a powerful motivator. We pushed deeper into the rocks, staying low. Hounds brayed, the barking steadily growing louder.

Niro pulled me into a narrow crevice as torchlight swept the shoreline. We pressed against cold stone, barely breathing as soldiers passed within twenty feet of our hiding spot. A dog whined, catching our scent, but the handler pulled it toward the more obvious trail we'd left along the beach.

"We need to get to higher ground," Niro whispered once they passed.

"We need to reach D'thallanar," I said. "The Assembly needs to know what Michail is doing."

Niro studied me in the darkness. "On foot? That's at least ten days' journey through hostile territory."

"We have no choice." My sodden clothes clung to my skin. Shivering had given way to a dangerous numbness. "First, we need fire."

Niro nodded toward the coastal forest that began where the cliffs receded. "There."

He led us to a sheltered hollow where thick pines blocked the wind. My fingers were too stiff to help as he gathered kindling and struck sparks from his boot knife against a stone.

The tiny flame that caught felt like salvation. We huddled close, steam rising from our clothes. Ten days to D'thallanar, through winter forests and enemy patrols. It seemed impossible.

But as warmth slowly returned to my limbs, so did resolve. The Assembly had to know what Michail was doing. They had to understand they weren’t just facing an invasion. They were facing the end of their very way of life.

Ruith

Valdrennrosefromthevalley floor, its broken towers black against the winter sky. What had once been the Duskfell clan's greatest fortress now stood as Vinolia's temporary command center. She'd claimed it like everything else she touched, stripping it of history and remaking it in her image.

The cold bled through my gloves as I gripped the reins tighter. My breath clouded in front of me, caught in the unnatural stillness of the air. The pain beneath my ribs flared, a constant reminder of what I'd sacrificed for Elindir. What I might yet sacrifice again.

Katyr pulled his mount alongside mine. "She's not hiding her work." His voice was tight, golden curls peeking from beneath his hood. "No natural storm gathers this way."

I nodded, taking in the frozen landscape. From Valdrenn's broken walls, concentric rings of increasingly severe winter spread outward. The outer ring was buried in drifts taller than a horse while the middle ring was encased in ice so thick it swallowed trees whole. And directly around Valdrenn itself, was an area suspiciously clear, as if Vinolia had pushed all winter's fury outward to form a barrier.

"A display of power," I said. My jaw ached from clenching it too long.

"And to drain resources." Daraith's voice came from my other side, barely audible. "She shows us she can maintain this winter indefinitely while keeping her own space comfortable."

Aryn brought his mount forward. “For the record, I’m still opposed to this entire plan.”

“Noted,” I said, though it was too late to go back now.

My twenty warriors shifted uneasily on their mounts. They wore the blue and silver of House Starfall rather than their usual armor. Another gesture of peaceful intent that felt increasingly like weakness with every passing moment.

I studied Valdrenn's defenses, memorizing approaches, gates, potential weaknesses. The outer walls, ancient stone, fifteen feet thick. The inner keep rising another hundred feet above that, its highest tower piercing the winter sky. Vinolia would be there, in that tower along with her phylactery.

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