Page 50 of Frostforge, Passage Six
The words didn't register immediately.Thalia stood frozen, unable to process the sudden shift from accusation to action.It was only when the guards' heavy footsteps approached, the metallic sound of their armor moving in unison, that reality crashed through her disbelief.
"What?No—you can't—" Thalia stammered, but strong hands already gripped her arms, fingers digging into flesh through her clothing.The sensation was so unexpected, so wrong, that her body didn't know how to respond.Should she fight?Submit?The confusion paralyzed her as effectively as any restraint.
"Let her go!"Roran's voice cut through the hall, sharp with outrage.He stepped forward, shoulders tensing as storm magic gathered around him in invisible currents that Thalia could feel prickling against her skin."This is insane!She brought you valuable intelligence about a threat that could destroy us all, and your response is to arrest her?"
Wolfe turned her glacial gaze on Roran, and something in her expression made Thalia's heart stutter with fear—not for herself, but for him.
"Bright," Wolfe said, the softness of her tone more threatening than any shout."Your probation has not yet been formally lifted.The ice beneath your feet remains...precarious."Her lips curved in a smile devoid of warmth."Perhaps you'd like to join Greenspire in the prison wing?You might find the accommodations nostalgic."
The cruel reference to his previous imprisonment hit its mark.Fury flashed across Roran's features, his hands clenching at his sides as small sparks of electricity danced between his fingers.For a heartbeat, Thalia thought he might unleash his storm magic right there in the main hall—and what a disaster that would be, confirming every Northern suspicion about Warden-blooded infiltrators.
"Roran, don't," she said quickly, trying to catch his eye."Please."
He met her gaze, conflict evident in the tension of his jaw, the fierce light in his eyes.But after a moment, he stepped back, though the electric energy of storm magic continued to swirl around him in agitated currents that Thalia could sense even as the guards began to pull her away.
"Instructor Wolfe," she called, desperation making her voice crack, "you're not listening.There's something out there in the deep waters—something far more dangerous than anything we've faced before."
Wolfe turned away dismissively, addressing Marr as if Thalia hadn't spoken."Prepare a full report on this...situation."
"You can't just ignore this!"Thalia shouted, struggling against the guards' grip for the first time."People will die—Wardens, mainlanders, everyone—if we don't understand what's happening in the archipelago!"
Wolfe spoke over her, addressing Senna now."Commander Drake, take a detachment down to the fortress whale.Secure it.Begin containment procedures for every single occupant."Her voice hardened further."The Wardens are not to be brought into the fortress.Establish a makeshift camp on the Crystalline plateau where they can be properly monitored."
Senna nodded sharply, a gleam of satisfaction in her silver eyes as they flicked toward Thalia."Yes, Instructor.It will be done immediately."
Horror rose in Thalia's throat like bile.The Crystalline plateau was exposed, windswept, brutally cold even in summer.The refugees—those who had already endured so much, who had fled their homes with nothing but what they could carry, who had trusted her promise of safety—would suffer terribly there.And worse, they would be treated as prisoners rather than victims, suspects rather than potential allies.
The guards began to drag her toward the exit, their grip unrelenting despite her attempts to plant her feet.Ashe stood rooted in place, her expression a mask of controlled fury as she watched Thalia being hauled away.Her hand rested on her blade, but she made no move to interfere—a soldier to her core, unwilling to directly disobey a superior officer even when that officer was making a terrible mistake.
Thalia's gaze found Roran once more, saw the helpless rage in his eyes, the barely contained storm that threatened to break free of his control.When he took a half-step forward, as if to follow or intervene, she shook her head minutely.One of them in prison was enough.If they were both incarcerated, who would speak for the refugees?Who would ensure Cassia's sacrifice wasn't in vain?
As the guards pulled her through the doorway, desperation broke through her restraint."You're making a mistake!"she shouted, the words echoing off the stone walls of the hall, reverberating through the space like thunder."There are children on that fortress-whale!Families!They came here for safety, not to attack us!"
The last thing she saw before the doors swung closed was Wolfe's back, straight and unyielding, as the instructor continued giving orders to Senna—preparing to treat desperate refugees as enemy combatants, arranging for the containment of people whose only crime was fleeing an ancient horror that would soon threaten the mainland as well.
The doors sealed shut with the hollow finality of a tomb, cutting off Thalia's view of the hall and any hope that Frostforge's leadership might listen before it was too late.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Cold seeped through the stone walls of Thalia's cell, wrapping around her bones like the tentacles of memory—dark, fluid shapes that had risen from the depths to devour her schooner.She huddled on the narrow cot, drawing her knees to her chest, eyes fixed on the barred window where moonlight filtered through frosted glass in pale, ineffectual streams.
The prison floor lay silent but for the distant echo of boots on stone—guards making their rounds, reminding prisoners that the world continued its rhythms beyond these walls, uncaring of promises broken or betrayals endured.
How strange to find herself back here, now on the wrong side of these bars.Not long ago, she'd stood in this very corridor as a visitor, watching Roran through an iron grating as he awaited trial for the crime of his birth.Now she occupied a cell much like his had been—sparse stone walls, a single cot bolted to the floor, a basin of water that had already grown a skin of ice in the perpetual chill of Frostforge's depths.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to the empty air, words meant for ears far beyond these walls.Cassia's face appeared in her mind—weathered features set in determination as the airlock door sealed between them, white braids floating like silver serpents as lightning erupted from her fingertips against the endless darkness.A sacrifice made with the understanding that her people would find safety at Frostforge.
What a bitter joke that had become.She'd promised sanctuary and delivered captivity instead.
The moon inched across her window's narrow frame, the only measure of time's passage in this unchanging space.How long had she been here?Hours, certainly, perhaps a full day.Without the sun to mark morning from evening, without meals delivered at regular intervals, time stretched and compressed like a blacksmith's bellows, expanding minutes into eternities, then collapsing hours into moments of restless sleep.
Would they leave her here for months, as they had Roran?The thought sent panic fluttering in her chest, a caged bird beating against ribs.She forced herself to breathe deeply, to focus on the solidity of stone beneath her fingertips, the tangible reality of her present rather than the uncertain terror of her future.She would not break.She would not bend.Whatever awaited her—trial, judgment, punishment—she would face it standing firm in the truth of what she had witnessed.
A sound broke through her circling thoughts—the distinctive scrape of a key in the lock at the corridor's end.Thalia straightened, every sense suddenly alert.Footsteps approached, measured and deliberate, too heavy to belong to a food-bearer, too singular to be a guard rotation.
The footsteps halted outside her cell.Metal rasped against metal as a key slid into her door's lock.Thalia rose from the cot, heart quickening with the desperate hope for news, for connection, for anything to break the isolation that already pressed against her mind like physical weight.
The door swung inward, revealing Kaine's broad-shouldered silhouette against the dimly lit corridor beyond.His face was cast in shadow, but she recognized the set of his shoulders, the particular way he filled a doorframe with his presence.Relief flooded through her, so potent it nearly buckled her knees.
