Page 2 of Frostforge: Passage Four
Thalia picked up another garment from the basket, buying herself time before responding."What about the shop?Father's —"
"Walls and herbs won't keep us safe if they come."Her mother cut her off gently."Your father would understand."
They worked in silence for several minutes, the rhythm of their movements at odds with the weight of unsaid words between them.Thalia thought of the herb shop, the small rooms behind it where she'd grown up, every square inch of space that her father had fought to keep, the worn wooden counter where her mother had taught her to grind valerian root and steep fever bark.The idea of strangers breaking down their door, of flames consuming those memories, made her stomach clench.
"The trouble is," her mother finally said, "I haven't been able to save much.What little coin comes in goes to food, and I wouldn’t dare touch the bribe.They’re saying the recruiters have followed refugee caravans; fleeing Verdant Port wouldn’t spare us the Selection.And the journey inland isn't cheap.There's no guarantee of work once we arrive."She hung the last small garment — one of Mari's tunics — and wiped her hands on her apron."Some nights I lie awake thinking we should flee immediately.Other nights, I wonder if we're safer with a roof over our heads than on the open road with winter coming."
Thalia understood the impossible calculation her mother faced.Stay and risk the Wardens' advance, or leave and risk starvation and exposure.She glanced down the street to where Mari was playing a skipping game with the neighbor's daughter, her sister's laughter a rare bright sound in the gloomy afternoon.Still, Thalia felt a pang of sadness watching her.Mari was fifteen now, no longer the young child she had been when Thalia had first been recruited to Frostforge.In three years’ time, she would be of age, and the Selection would come for her.
"When would you go?"Thalia asked, her voice carefully neutral.
Her mother looked at her then, really looked at her, with the penetrating gaze that had always seen through Thalia's childhood fibs."That's part of what I've been struggling with.You're due back at Frostforge tomorrow."
The unspoken question settled like a stone in Thalia's chest.Her fourth and final year at the academy loomed before her — a year of advanced metallurgy, combat training, and cryomancy.
"I could stay," Thalia said, the words tumbling out before she could stop them."Help you pack.Protect you and Mari on the road."Her fingers curled around the edge of the laundry basket, knuckles whitening."Three years at Frostforge have taught me what I need to know.I could keep you safe."
Even as she spoke, she felt the weight of her academy oath pressing down on her, the certainty of consequences if she failed to report to the docks in the morning.Desertion wasn't tolerated.Not when every trained fighter was needed for the war effort.
Her mother's expression softened, but her eyes remained resolute."You made it this far, Thalia.Don't throw it away now."
"But you and Mari —"
"Will manage," her mother interrupted firmly."We always have."She reached out to touch Thalia's cheek, her work-roughened palm warm against Thalia's skin."If you don't report to the docks tomorrow, they'll come looking for you.You know that."
Thalia did know.Frostforge didn't let its investments go easily.Students who tried to flee were hunted down, dragged back in chains to face discipline or worse.The academy's reach was long, its memory longer.
"Besides," her mother continued, her voice gentler, "what you're learning there might be the thing that saves us all in the end.The Wardens won't stop at the coast.And I hear the military offers a stipend to all ranked officers.It won’t be much, but it will help."
Thalia stared at the cracked stones beneath her feet, watching a line of ants march determinedly along a seam in the cobbles.She wasn't just a student anymore — she was a weapon being forged for a specific purpose.Her path had been set the moment she'd volunteered for the Selection three years ago, sparing her mother the cost of a bribe and ensuring Mari would never face the same choice.
She looked up at the quiet street, at the dust-filmed windows and empty market stalls.At Mari, laughing as she hopped across a chalk pattern, still clinging to those last vestiges of childhood that Thalia had already lost at her age.At her mother's tired face, still beautiful despite all of the hardships she’d faced.
"I'll write to you from Frostforge," Thalia said finally."Let me know where you go.If...when you go."
Her mother nodded, relief and sadness mingling in her expression."We won't leave right away.There are preparations to make, things to sell."She picked up the empty basket."We have time yet."
But Thalia could hear the uncertainty in her voice.None of them knew how much time remained — not for Verdant Port, not for the coastal kingdoms, not for any of them.
As her mother turned to go back inside, Thalia's gaze drifted toward the harbor, where the masts of the few remaining ships stood like bare winter trees against the darkening sky.Somewhere beyond that horizon, the Isle Wardens were gathering their forces, testing defenses, planning their next assault.
CHAPTER TWO
Thalia crested the final ridge before Frostforge, her boots crunching through the thin crust of snow that always seemed to dust these heights, even in late summer.Her knees still shook from the days at sea; the ship’s voyage had felt more turbulent than usual, though that might have been merely Thalia’s imagination in overdrive, imagining storm sharks roiling the waters around the thick wood of the hull.
Ahead, the academy loomed, its towers and battlements carved from the very mountain face — ancient gray quartz stone, wholly imposing.Every step toward it felt heavier than the last, as if the fortress itself generated its own gravity, pulling her back into orbit after her brief season of freedom in Verdant Port.
Behind her trailed the convoy of Southern students who had shared her ship journey, their faces pinched with exhaustion from the high-altitude trek from the fjords below.Most of them stumbled more than walked, still unaccustomed to the thin air that clawed at their lungs.Thalia's own breath came easier now, after three years of conditioning, but her chest still burned from the final ascent.
"Look at them all," Luna whispered at her side, her voice a conspiratorial hush that somehow managed to sound both innocent and calculating at once."So many first-years this time."
Thalia nodded, swallowing hard as she counted the fresh, terrified faces.More replacements, she thought, for all those who hadn't survived their first, second, or third years.The academy's brutal mortality rate made itself known in the simplest mathematics: many entered, few remained.She had beaten those odds so far.
She took comfort in Luna's presence beside her, the smaller girl draped in a patchwork of furs that made her look like a strange, wild creature of the mountains.Luna's lopsided grin peeked out from beneath a hood lined with rabbit fur, her clever eyes darting from face to face, cataloguing, remembering.One of Thalia's first and closest friends at Frostforge, Luna wore her oddness like armor, allowing others to underestimate her — but Thalia knew better.
"Almost home," Luna said, the wordhometinged with irony.
The massive iron doors of Frostforge yawned open before them, exhaling a cloud of frigid air that tasted of stone and metal.Thalia crossed the threshold into the frost-rimed main hall, and a bone-deep cold embraced her like an old enemy.The chill penetrated her layers instantly, a familiar greeting that whispered:You are back, you belong to us now.You always did.Like the world outside of the fjord, the continent carving its way into the ridges of the Rimspire was nothing but a distant dream.
