The truck sat in silence, its engine a dull hum beneath the suffocating weight of ice. The narrow gap of jagged frost closing them in like teeth. Now, with the catlike swarm gone and nothing stirring outside, Renn finally broke the silence.
"If we...melt that wall in front of us," he said, his voice low, tired, "we'll be able to get out."
Lira glanced at him, then at the frozen barrier blocking their way. It was solid, thick, pressed tight by centuries of unyielding cold. She unbuckled her belt and stood, her expression steady though her shoulders sagged from exhaustion. "Fine. Stay ready."
She stepped out into the crevice, the air so frigid it clawed instantly at her lungs. Her sword glowed faintly as she drew it, and then the glow deepened as she poured Vyre through it. The blade seared with heat, melting ruts into the ice with every slow, precise cut. She carved down, then across, then down again, steam hissing and drifting upward into the night.
The final stroke cracked the barrier apart, and the wall collapsed with a thunderous groan. A rush of air surged inward, sharp as knives. It was colder than anything they had felt in Glacierfang so far, an unnatural, biting frost that seemed alive.
Gray instinctively wrapped his arms over his chest. 'That's… worse than anything from before.'
Lira, as if indifferent to the cold, returned quietly to the truck, pulling the door shut behind her as Renn started the engine again. The wind outside screamed against the cracked windows, whistling through the small gaps. Frost spidered over the glass where the seals had broken.
"Block everything," Renn ordered, his voice quick. "Scrap metal, whatever you can find. If we sit here like this, it'll kill us faster than any monster."
They worked hurriedly, jamming bits of bent plating and blankets into the cracks. Korr pulled a bent panel free from under a seat and wedged it into a gap in the door. Orrin shoved strips of cloth into the edges of the window, muttering under his breath. It wasn't perfect, but the whistling lessened, the frost spreading slower.
When they had finished, Korr climbed over the bench and pressed his back against the side of the cabin, rubbing his forehead where the bruise from earlier still throbbed. He stared at the deep gouges in the truck's side, long claw marks carved into the steel. "Think they'll follow us?"
Renn gripped the wheel tighter, his knuckles pale. "I don't know. If we stay in one place too long, they'll smell us. So we don't stop."
No one argued.
The truck crawled forward, its tires crunching over solid sheets of ice. The crevice gave way at last, opening into a valley, endless and terrible. Walls of jagged frost rose high on either side, dark blue and glassy, like frozen waves locked in motion. No fog. No monsters. Just silence.
Gray stared out at the vastness, his throat dry. "It's like… everything else in Glacierfang was alive. This feels dead."
"Don't say that," Adel muttered, her arms shivering.
They drove on, minutes dripping into an hour, until Renn slowed the truck near a tall spire of ice rising like a pillar from the valley floor. He frowned, leaning forward. "We'll need to know where we're going. This is too wide. If we get turned around, we won't ever leave this place. Someone should—"
"I'll climb," Adel said, her tone sharp before anyone else could offer. She drew her daggers and pushed open the door, ignoring Lira's questioning look. The cold instantly hit her. She gritted her teeth and pulled her cloak tighter around her body. She then,with quick and practiced motions, scaled the ice. Her blades biting deep as ice picks. Her breath puffed white with every exhale, but she climbed without falter, vanishing against the pale-blue spire.
Minutes passed before she returned, boots hitting the ice as she dropped down. She closed the truck's door quickly, her face pale, her eyes darting.
"Well?" Lira pressed.
Adel hesitated. "It all looks the same. Valleys. Ice towers. No path. No exit." She paused, swallowing, her hands tight around her daggers. "But… I saw something. Brown. In the distance. Not far. It didn't belong here."
They didn't ask each other for the next move, that was enough.
They set off again, the truck groaning as it rolled over the uneven ground. The cold worsened with every passing minute, leaking through the metal walls, stealing the feeling from their fingers. Renn hunched closer to the wheel, jaw clenched.
"We should save Vyre for fights," Adel said suddenly, breaking the silence. "But if we freeze, it won't matter." She exhaled, a faint mist wrapping her body as she drew Vyre inside her, her form rimmed with a subtle shimmer of heat.
The others said nothing, but their eyes lingered on her faint warmth.
At last, the shape appeared. A small, broken structure of wood, shattered and half-buried in ice. A house, or what had been one, no larger than a single room. Its walls were bent, roof caved in, timbers blackened by age.
Renn pulled the truck to a halt. "We'll check it."
Gray and Lira stepped out first. The cold slammed into them like a wall. Gray pulled his arms tight, teeth clenched as his breath fogged thick in front of him. He quickly activated Frozen Veins to numb the pain.
Lira's sword glowed faintly, heat rolling from the blade. She offered it to him without a word, but he shook his head.
'Maybe Frozen Veins isn't that bad...'
They crossed to the shack. The door had long since splintered. Inside, the single room lay in ruin, the floor warped with frost, the ceiling caved open to the pale-blue sky.
A body lay collapsed near the wall. Gray crouched near it, staring at the shriveled form frozen into the floorboards. When he brushed it with his hand, it disintegrated into shards, scattering like broken glass. He flinched, wiping his hand quickly on his sleeve.
"Empty," he muttered, scanning the shadows.
"Not empty," Lira said. She had moved toward a table, its surface covered in ice. A page was frozen flat beneath it, trapped like an insect in amber. Gray bent low, squinting. The letters scratched onto it were strange, shapes he half-recognized but could not read.
"It looks familiar…"
"It's ancient Jskander," Lira interrupted.
Gray blinked, looking up at her. "Ancient? There's… there's an ancient Jskander?"
She nodded slowly. "Older than us. Older than the Kaan. But I can't read it. I can barely recognize it."
Gray stared at the page a moment longer, then exhaled, defeated. "Then it's useless."
They turned to leave, but just as they stepped outside, Gray froze. A drifting, icy mist curled at the shack's edge, pale and strange. It swirled in unnatural shapes, reaching almost like a hand.
Without thinking, he reached toward it.
But Lira suddenly grabbed his wrist, pulling him back. Her eyes narrowed, her grip firm. "Don't touch anything that looks wrong. Ever."
He swallowed hard, nodding.
Back in the truck, Renn was already waiting. He glanced at them but didn't ask. "We keep moving. Deeper into Cryostead."
No one argued, though Orrin's voice broke the silence after a moment. "We're running out of food. The Kaan packed what they could, but it won't last more than a few days."
Lira reached into the ration cabinet, pulling free a cloth wrapping. Biscuits. Hard, stale, but food. She split them evenly, handing each person a piece. They ate in silence, chewing slowly as the truck rumbled deeper into the valley.
Hours slipped by. Korr and Orrin drifted into sleep, their bodies slumped against the seats. Lira's head dipped, exhaustion dragging her down until her breathing grew steady. Renn kept his hands on the wheel, eyes never leaving the road.
Gray sat awake, the cold pressing into his bones, fighting to stay still, to conserve what little strength he had. Adel sat across from him, silent, her daggers sheathed, her gaze unfocused.
The truck's temperature had fallen. Every breath hung heavy in the air.
Gray's skin prickled suddenly, an ache crawling up the back of his neck. He turned, peering out through the frost-coated window. For a long time he saw nothing but ice, endless and cruel.
Then something shifted in the corner of his vision.
A shape stood atop a glacier, far off, just barely visible. Its outline was wrong, too large, too jagged, its body blending with the ice around it.
And then the eyes opened.
Bright yellow. Vast, shining like two little stars.
Gray's breath caught in his throat. He instantly remembered the memory.