All Chapters of Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

January 2005It was a cold January night. The winter wind was blowing throughout the valley village of Ravenna. The nine-year-old Rowan was lying in her bed in her family’s cottage. The window by her bed was closed tight, but she could still feel the freezing wind creeping in and gnawing at her beneath her blankets. This hardly bothered her, however, as she had lived through many winters just like this one in her young life. In fact, Rowan often found the cold to be rather soothing, as it helped her to drift off to sleep, but she was having trouble closing her eyes tonight.Rowan sat up in her bed, keeping her blanket wrapped around her, and stared blankly around her room. It was dark; the only source of light came from a candle flickering somewhere outside her room. It was quiet in the cottage, as it was every night. Being the youngest of the family, she had been put to bed f

January, 2012Somewhere in the north-centralregions of the Dark Zone Night falls early in the heart of winter, casting its shadow over the vast mountains with a deep blanket of darkness. To the eyes of a small child, the end of the day is terrifying and fills their young minds with nightmares of the unknown. However, there are some who have never been bothered by the dark; those who have been molded by it, and welcome the darkness each day as both an old friend and an unfeeling enemy. So it had always been to the people of the lost Seluitah tribe, and their descendents, the brave and passionate Ravennites.For many generations the Ravennites’ civilization thrived in a vast, secluded territory of the Adirondack mountains known to the outside world as the Dark Zone. The name was given to the Ravennites’ territo

They had been running for a couple of miles, stopping on a few occasions and only for seconds at a time to catch their breath. After training and fighting with his team of Runners for many weeks, Alex had built up incredible levels of stamina and endurance. The freezing air no longer bothered him as much as it had the previous winter. He had become so acclimated to the cold now that he almost felt as though he was a part of it as he ran across the snow as rapidly and stealthily as a deer.Alex’s focus was set solid on their objective to track down the Domineers, but at the same time, he thought about Rowan much of the way. While her brother, Delmar, maintained his authority at the Citadel, Rowan had spent much of these months out in the mountainous frontier with Alex and the other strong Ravennite warriors as they pushed the Domineers back. Delmar had certainly become more confident in his sister tha

Hearing the commotion from the base of the small cliffside, the hairs on the back of Rand’s neck suddenly stood up. The rest of the Domineers were jumping to their feet and murmuring anxiously amongst themselves again. “They’re here,” Rand muttered to himself. The messengers from the other Domineer party were growing increasingly on edge. Rand suddenly turned his attention back to his company. “What are you doing!?” he scolded them. “Spread out and find them! Kill them all!” With that sentiment of authority, the Domineers immediately drew their swords and hurried out into the woods.Rand stepped closer to the Domineer messenger. “Listen carefully,” he said as he surreptitiously removed one of the many pouches from his belt. “You say your message is very important, and the Runners are very dangerous, but if you listen to what I say, I can see

Caine knew that he had free reign of his actions in the south. When he departed from Ramon’s camp, he led his chosen team of Domineers directly south along a path leading through a gap in the Dividing Mountains of the Dark Zone. When he first proposed his plans to Ramon, he had been sure to take every element into account. He told Ramon that, given the events he witnessed take place at the Citadel, he knew what sort of strategy they would need if they had any hope of taking down the Ravennites before they attacked first.The first thing Caine took into account about the Ravennites’ Citadel was its fortifications. The fortress was perched at the top of a lone plateau and was encircled by a formation of mountains. The plateau itself was too steep to be scaled, and it was true that the only way in and out of the Citadel was across a narrow strip of eroded land that formed a natural bridge from the