Page 32 of Frostforge, Passage Six
"What could do that?"she whispered, more to herself than her companions.
The whale's enormous tail occasionally broke the surface as it moved, the flukes easily wider than their entire ship.Its head remained bowed beneath the water, but its back arched above the waves, creating a relatively stable platform for the fortress that crowned it.The creature seemed conscious of its burden, maintaining a steadiness that spoke of intelligence and purpose rather than mere instinct.
"It's incredible," Thalia murmured, lowering the spyglass.“The Wardens and their animals….”
On the continent, relationships with animals were utilitarian at best—horses for riding and labor, ravens for carrying messages in the North, caribou for pulling sleds in the tundra that settled at the heart of the Reaches.Most creatures were categorized as game to be hunted, pests to be eliminated, or predators to be avoided.The glacier bears of the Northern Reaches, with their blue-white fur and savage strength, were killed on sight whenever possible, never approached with thoughts of partnership or cooperation.
Yet the Isle Wardens seemed to forge alliances with the natural world that went beyond simple domestication.The storm sharks that had towed their escape vessels from Verdant Port's harbor.The gulls that carried their messages across vast stretches of ocean.And most impressive of all, these colossal whales that served as living fortresses, carrying entire communities across waters too deep for continental ships to navigate.It was nothing short of symbiosis.
"It's more than you know," Roran said tensely, as though reading her thoughts."The Isle Wardens follow storm petrels for navigation, believing they're guided by the same currents that fuel storm magic.They consider electric eels to be storm mages who were cursed to live as bottom-dwellers."His expression grew distant, as if he were accessing memories from a childhood he barely remembered."Their stories say that the fortress-whales chose the Wardens, not the other way around.That the first alliance was formed when a whale saved a drowning child, carrying her to shore on its back."
The schooner had drawn close enough now that Thalia could see the fortress in greater detail without her spyglass.What struck her most was the absence of activity along its walls.No guards patrolled the battlements, no lookouts manned the towers.The structure appeared abandoned, its gates secured but its defenses unmanned.
"I don't see anyone," she said, scanning the ramparts carefully."No sentries, no patrols."
Ashe joined them at the railing, her crossbow loaded and ready despite the apparent lack of threat."Could be a trap," she suggested, her eyes narrowed as she studied the fortress."Draw us in with the appearance of abandonment, then spring the ambush once we're committed."
"Or it could actually be abandoned," Roran countered."Like the settlements we passed.Left behind when its inhabitants fled whatever's making islands disappear."
Thalia considered both possibilities, weighing risk against opportunity."We need to get closer," she decided.
Roran nodded, his expression resolute."I'll mask our approach."He raised his hands, fingers splayed as he called upon the storm magic in his blood.The air around them stirred, condensing into tendrils of fog that thickened rapidly, wreathing the schooner in a protective shroud that obscured it from distant observers while leaving their immediate surroundings visible.
Within this veil of mist, they gathered at the chart table, voices lowered despite the improbability of being overheard across the distance that still separated them from the fortress-whale.
"If there are no escort ships, we might be able to approach directly," Roran suggested, his voice tight with concentration as he maintained the fog around them."Bring the schooner alongside, use grappling hooks to climb up."
"And if it is a trap?"Ashe challenged, ever practical."We'd be sitting ducks on those ropes."
"Then we withdraw immediately," Thalia said."But we need to try.If the fortress truly is abandoned, this is our chance to gather intelligence no continental force has ever had access to."
The decision made, they prepared for boarding—checking weapons, securing loose items, ensuring their packs contained only what was essential for a rapid exploration.The fog around them thickened as Roran intensified his control, the moisture beading on Thalia's skin and hair as they drew ever closer to the massive creature and its stone crown.
The schooner eased alongside the fortress-whale with agonizing slowness, the disparity in size more apparent than ever as they approached.The creature's flank rose like a cliff face beside them, its skin a mottled pattern of blue-gray and silver, crisscrossed with scars both ancient and recent.The metal plating that protected its most vulnerable areas gleamed dully in the afternoon light, riveted into place by methods Thalia couldn't begin to guess at.
Roran guided the ship with extraordinary precision, bringing them within meters of the whale's side where a series of barnacle-encrusted handholds had been carved or grown into its flesh.Whether these were natural formations or artificial additions was impossible to tell, but they offered a means of ascent more reliable than their prepared grappling hooks.
"I'll go first," Thalia said, already swinging her leg over the railing."Cover me from here until I signal it's clear."
Before either of her companions could object, she lowered herself onto the first handhold, testing its strength before committing her full weight.The whale's skin felt warm beneath her fingers, almost feverishly so, and she could sense a subtle vibration running through its massive body—not the movement of muscles, but something deeper, like the hum of a plucked string that continued to resonate long after the initial sound had faded.
The climb was easier than she had anticipated, the handholds placed at intervals that accommodated human proportions despite the leviathan scale of the creature itself.Within minutes, she had reached the base of the fortress wall where it joined the whale's back, a junction of stone and flesh that appeared seamless, as though the structure had grown organically from the living platform beneath it.
A narrow walkway circled the fortress at this level, offering access to several arched doorways cut into the volcanic stone.Thalia signaled to her companions below, watching as they secured the schooner and began their own ascents.Ashe moved with the fluid grace of a Northern ice-climber, while Roran's progress was slower but equally deliberate, his concentration divided between climbing and maintaining the protective fog around them.
Once all three stood on the walkway, weapons drawn and senses alert for any sign of danger, Thalia led them toward the nearest doorway.Its massive portal stood partially ajar, offering a glimpse of shadowed corridors beyond.No sounds emerged from within—no voices, no footsteps, not even the creaking of timbers that might be expected in any structure at sea.
They entered in formation, Thalia in the lead with her glacenite blade drawn, Ashe covering their flanks with her crossbow, Roran bringing up the rear with storm magic crackling between his fingertips.
The interior of the fortress was cool and dim, illuminated only by what light filtered through narrow windows set high in the walls.The architecture was unlike anything Thalia had seen before—corridors curved rather than angled, ceilings arched in patterns that mimicked waves, doorways shaped like the mouths of sea creatures rather than the rectangular portals of continental construction.
Despite their caution, their boots echoed on the stone floors, announcing their presence to any who might be listening.Yet no challenge came, no alarm was raised.The fortress seemed as abandoned as the settlements they had passed, its inhabitants vanished without apparent struggle or destruction.
They moved deeper into the structure, past empty chambers that might have been barracks or common areas, through kitchens where utensils still hung from hooks and storage rooms where provisions remained neatly organized on shelves.
"It's like they just...left," Ashe murmured, breaking the oppressive silence."Walked away from everything they couldn't carry."
Thalia nodded, her unease growing with each empty room they passed.
