Chapter 172: Blizzard Gate

"No," Austin Veyron replied. "It’s a rescue mission, before the north gets hungry enough to bow."

The blizzard took over the western trail.

The storm formed a white barrier stretching from the valley fires to the road ahead. The aid convoy coming from Frostmarket disappeared behind it. For a moment, Austin Veyron could still see the heated sleds moving over the snow as dark figures, but after that there was nothing but the howling, icy wind and what might have been sled bells in the distance. Then even that stopped. Everyone in the valley turned toward where the convoy had been headed. Austin Veyron could see the hope disappearing from their eyes as they stared.

Kaelith didn’t lose her head.

"Volunteers, secure the shelter lines!" Kaelith yelled. "Tie lines of rope from fire to fire. Nobody walks across the square without someone next to them. Make sure all the children are secured first, then the older people, and the runners last."

They all followed her lead, because she knew the name of everyone in the valley, knew the routes they took, and knew where the snow could be hiding holes. Soon there were lines of rope running between every fire like a spider web, and people were using them to cross. Kaelith wasn’t acting as their queen. She was helping them for the next hour, and that was all they wanted her to do.

Tessa had her ear pressed to the relay token. "Frostmarket still has control of the convoy. Orin is tracking heat on the western trail, but there’s too much snow to see the visual path."

She laid the old ice map out on top of a sled and pinned it down with both of her elbows. "The Ice Crown sits on top of hot springs. There’s a tunnel from the bottom of the valley that will take us to the inner gate."

"Can the storm get to it?" Orena asked.

"Not if the old lines are still hot."

Nyra pointed the heart shard at the blizzard. It flickered a dark blue as the wind struck it. She closed her eyes and listened to it, the way a sailor listens for a change in the tide.

"It’s using an isolation clause," Nyra said. "The pale splinter isn’t creating snow. It’s convincing each shelter that the next shelter can’t be reached."

Austin Veyron’s wrist mark burned with sudden intensity.

The blizzard was a source. He could feel it trying to isolate everyone, separating each camp from the others, locking food away, and creating more cold nights to force people into the Crown’s arms. It didn’t need to kill anyone. It only needed to get them to believe they were alone. The cold would finish the job.

DEVOUR told him he could consume all of it.

"Tell me," Veyra said.

"I want to consume the storm."

"What would that create?"

"A winter source within me."

Sable held her crown shard up in the air, glowing white against the snow. "That would still isolate everyone."

Austin Veyron looked at the ropes Kaelith and her volunteers were tying between the fires. They were defying the blizzard one knot at a time.

"Target," he said. "The isolation clause within the blizzard. Not the blizzard itself. Not the snow. Not the trail."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable replied.

Ceryn stayed behind with Kaelith and the spare relay token to help secure the rope lines. The rest of the team headed into the storm.

Rin went first, with a rope tied around her waist. Orena followed with the hot-spring map. Veyra stayed close behind Austin Veyron, keeping one hand on the rope and the other on her sword. Nyra kept the heart shard low, using it as a guide for the others without letting it stand out to the blizzard.

Austin Veyron could barely see Orena a few feet in front of him as the snow blew into their faces. The wind pushed against them, and the cold pierced straight through his gloves until the hand on the rope didn’t feel like his anymore. Every step fought him. The blizzard hid the world from them and tried to convince them it was gone. Austin Veyron knew that was a lie, and he gripped the rope even tighter, because the people at the other end of it were real.

The blizzard formed its first figure out of a snowbank.

It looked like a person dressed all in white, but it had no face, only more snow where a head should have been. It reached for them and tried to grab the rope line, whispering in their ears.

NO ROAD REMAINS.

Rin shot the blizzard construct through one of its hands. It gathered itself back together from the snow and grabbed onto Veyra’s foot. She stabbed her sword into the snow and pinned it down, giving Orena time to pull the rope line out of its grasp.

Another construct appeared behind them.

Sable pressed her crown shard into the snow and wiped away the words crawling through the snowpack.

"Keep going. The first fire line is secure," Kaelith said over the relay token.

Austin Veyron saw the clause inside the blizzard construct.

NO ROAD REMAINS.

"Target," he said. "The no-road-remains clause. Not the blizzard construct. Not the snowpack."

"Witnessed," Veyra replied.

DEVOUR opened. The clause tasted like a map frozen shut.

NO ROAD REMAINS.

He consumed no.

The blizzard construct broke apart and was only snow once again.

The blizzard kept growing stronger, but now they could see a dark line ahead of them. It was the western trail, with Orin’s lanterns lighting it up one after another. One sled came out of the snow, and then another. The runners from Frostmarket had used the heat points to navigate. They looked exhausted, but they were smiling as the sleds rolled toward the valley fires.

Back in the valley, the volunteers cheered for a moment and then went right back to moving supplies over the rope lines. The blizzard no longer made each fire feel cut off from the others. It was still raging, but now it was just weather. Wind and snow and cold could be survived. Feeling alone was what killed people out here.

Tessa found the entrance to the hot springs hidden under the snow by the lower wall of the Ice Crown. "Over here."

They used their spear points and swords to dig through the snow. It took time, but they uncovered the tunnel door. When they pried it open, they all felt the heat at once. Rin laughed out loud, she was so happy to feel warm again.

The tunnel was warm, with black rock surrounding them on every side. Old copper pipes ran along the walls, giving off steam as they went. The air smelled like sulfur and stone, not snow. Austin Veyron felt his fingers thawing. They stung a little as the circulation came back. Nyra pulled her hood off and let the heat wash over her face, and Veyra let out a breath that might have been happiness.

"We’re inside the storm," Orena said. She placed her hand on the stone and seemed to feel something she liked, then moved on, satisfied that it was safe.

The tunnel didn’t stay empty for long.

Ice guards came down the tunnel toward them, four grown court sentries dressed in all-white armor, with pale glowing eyes behind clear masks. These weren’t blizzard constructs. They were people. Each of them wore a survival-debt token around their neck.

"You need to return to the valley," the lead sentry said. "The Crown will keep you all safe if you accept the Share."

"We’re here to stop the blizzard from forcing that decision on you," Veyra said.

The sentries lifted their frost spears toward them.

Rin shot the first sentry’s spear. The arrow struck it and splintered ice across the tunnel. Orena pulled Nyra behind one of the pipe beams, and Veyra blocked the first sentry’s attack with her sword.

Austin Veyron grabbed the chain holding the second sentry’s survival-debt token. The words glowed beneath his fingers.

WARMTH FOR OBEDIENCE.

He named the target. "Target. The obedience clause in the token. Not the sentry."

"Witnessed," Sable said.

DEVOUR opened before Austin Veyron’s eyes. The clause tasted like a warm coat that tightened every time you moved.

WARMTH FOR OBEDIENCE.

He consumed obedience.

The sentry stopped moving and slowly lowered his spear. "I was told the blizzard would kill my family if I didn’t stay at the gate."

"Your family is at the rope lines in the valley," Kaelith said over the relay. "They’re safe, and they have food and people around them."

The sentry’s face changed beneath the mask. He had been holding something in for a long time, and it finally left him. His grip loosened until the spear rested on the ground.

The other ice guards stood there, unsure of what to do. They looked at one another, and then down at their own survival-debt tokens. Veyra stepped back from them.

"You can use the tunnel to get down to the hot springs if you want to," she said.

One by one, they set their weapons down. Two of the guards took off their survival-debt tokens and dropped them on the ground, where the heat slowly melted the frost off them.

The rest of the team climbed up the tunnel and stopped at a barred opening. From above, they could see into the Ice Crown’s inner hall. The room was massive, and its ice walls were so clear that they could see the storm raging beyond them, gray and white and endless, as though the whole fortress were floating inside the blizzard.

Below them, the pale splinter floated above the Ice Heart. Six grown witnesses were trapped inside frost circles with their hands on oath ledgers. Queen Ysara stood in front of them with both of her hands raised. She was dressed in her silver armor, now covered in frost, and the crown of ice on her head cast cold light across the floor. From where Austin Veyron was lying, she didn’t look as big as she had on the balcony, but she was just as intimidating.

"The Ice Heart will control the blizzard," Ysara proclaimed, "and our Winter Share will ensure the roads remain open."

The witnesses’ breath came out white and red as they stood there. One of the women tried to break free of the frost circle around her wrist, but it only created more ice and drew red lines across her hand. She cried out and let go of the ledger. The others didn’t try to break free after that.

The heart shard was vibrating in Nyra’s hand.

"She’s using the witnesses to attach the pale splinter to the Ice Heart," Nyra whispered. "If we break them out without relieving the pressure first, it will freeze their lungs."

"There’s a valve behind the throne." Tessa studied the steam pipe map. "If we can reach it, we can release the pressure through the tunnel."

"Then we need to get the valve open first." Veyra looked down at the inner gate. "No sudden rescue that ends in death."

The pale shard pulsed once more.

Below them, the inner gate began to close.

Austin Veyron looked at the people being used as hostages, at the Ice Heart, and at the blizzard raging beyond the walls. His mark was pulling him toward the pale splinter, but he resisted it. Veyra’s shoulder was next to his, and he leaned into her warmth.

They had reached the Ice Crown.

Now they just had to destroy it.