Chapter 14: An Icy Welcome

The landscape shifts as the carriage trundled north. Saffron is heavily bundled in furs as the temperature drops the closer they get to the border. What began as soft flurries of snow has increased to heavy, damp clumps that smack the carriage wetly.

She had drifted into an uneasy doze but was startled awake by a strange dream. The feeling of unease lingered even while she is awake. Elric pulled her closer to him, giving her some of his warmth. "We are nearly there. Thank the gods we aren't going to the King's castle. It would be another week of traveling in this. Not to mention he built his castle into the side of a cliff. Dreadful place," he said to her, his arm wrapped tightly around her shoulder.

Saffron was intrigued. She wanted to see this treacherously placed castle. It sounded like something from the fairytales her grandmother had read to her when she was a child. She pushed past Elric a bit to glance out of the window. The terrain was rugged and rocky; the trees wiry and s