Lahat ng Kabanata ng Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane: Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 60

For several hours, Alex lay awake on the dirt floor of his cage, watching through the wooden bars as the light of dawn slowly began to appear. From what he was able to hear, the Citadel sounded unusually quiet this morning. As he rested his head back against the ground, his attention was captured by the sound of somebody ducking their way into the tunnel. It took him a second to react, but Alex suddenly sat up in his cell and peered out.He could make out the dark figure of somebody approaching him, but it was still too dark for him to know who it was until they stopped before his bars and spoke in a kind, familiar voice. “Good morning, Alex.”Alex shifted his head in surprise. “Altha?” he uttered. “Is that you?”Sure enough, Altha grabbed and lit one of the torches from the tunne

It was so quiet in the Citadel now. Alex could feel the silence enveloping him like a veil, almost as though he was back in his dreams again. He had spoken to nobody else since he was released from the cages, and part of him believed those few who remained after the Ravennites departed were doing their best to avoid him. When he had finished preparing to leave the Citadel and never return, Alex found a moment to himself standing before the bank of the small lake. It was still frozen over, but it never failed to give him a much needed vibe of tranquility, especially when he needed to soothe the scars in his heart.Alex left his weapons back in his quarters. There would be no need to carry them any longer. Altha had generously given him a couple small loaves of bread for his journey back to his true home. That, along with the clothes on his back, was all he

Rowan spent hours after dawn lying asleep in her quarters. She had never even woken that morning. She continued to sleep as though a fever came over her, a fever that seemed to be escalating.In time, Rowan’s dreams soon began to turn dark, as if they were products of her anger and her misery. Only one thing was on her subconscious mind right now; the bitter, never-ending conflict between their two peoples. Rowan squirmed uncomfortably, sweating as she was seeing visions of her people fighting their enemies. She could see her brother up in arms. She could see her friends; Matheus, Malachai, and countless others, and she saw the traitor, Caine, slaughtering his own family once again. For a moment, in her dreams, she thought she could see the vision of the Outsider, Alex, but it was all overshadowed by the horrifying sight of Ramon Morenno facing down

At the very last second, the hearts of the Domineers were suddenly overcome by fear. Those among the first of their lines rapidly began to falter in the face of the newfound rage of their enemies. They began colliding with each other in disorder, and the Ravennites charged into them with full force, knocking many of them clear off their feet and trampling them as the violent battle resumed.Alex was no stranger at this point to the sheer brutality of combat against the Domineers. After slaying several adversaries who came his way, wielding his sword and shield as harmoniously as his own beating heart, Alex looked around as the Ravennites pushed their way through them like hundreds of battering rams. Alex could feel the rush coursing through him. He felt powerful, watching as the Ravennites were quickly turning all odds against the deteriorating morale of

Rowan had been running through the woods and hills for hours. She stopped only to catch her breath, but as she made her way deeper into the northern territories of the mountains, she was all but exhausted. She could feel the cold sweat in her hair and the sting of the winter air in her throat with every breath she took.Rowan was not sure if this was fate or irony. She knew the path she was taking up the mountainside well, for she had been through it years ago when the last of her family escaped the onslaught in Ravenna. Now she was heading back the same way to fight beside her brother and her people in the battle that would end where it all began.As Rowan climbed to the peak of the snowy hills, she could not help but collapse to her hands and knees in exhaustion, dropping her spear into the snow. She could barely breathe; tears were forced out of her eyes by