I recall only one word. 'Folly'.
Did he speak other than that? I cannot remember. We stood on the crest of the pass, looking once more down towards the great rift in tthe ice, the weather finally clear enough for us to attempt the icewall. My heart heavy but determined as we looked out over that vast white field. His word a numbing truth, and a goad to action. What else is there? What does one do when one doubts one's lord? The oath itself must suffice, duty when love is breaking.
We made good time in the ice rift. A river, frozen in time flowing through a white canyon. He is silent as he follows me. I feel his determined resignation beating against my back. Would I send him away, for fear of leading him into this folly? Could I move on, homeless, now my oath flies ragged in the wind?
The canyon becomes deeper, the sides narrowing the afternoon sky to a thin strip, a cold clear blue. The world upends itself. I am standing on the white clouds, looking at a blue river on earth. The walls rise, higher, almost touching, sky a sliver...sky.. gone. All becomes ice, the ice river, ice walls, there is only water, trapped in time, squealing and cracking its words to itself. Before us, the ice opens itself to us, a great maw, heavy teeth hang in its jaws threatening to crush ... us?
No. me. The words begin as we step into the cavernous mouth. Caught in the howling wind that rushes forth to greet us, stepping from the bright ice world into the dim blue other. I cannot make them out as they rush past me, as I try to step forward in the sudden darkness. They pluck at me, questioning words like hard hands, pulling at my mind as though it were a cloak. The voices - the voice - is old and cold and harsh, a merciless and unforgiving testing, blasting through the throat of ice, tasting my alien flesh, stripping thoughts from me, chill and unwelcomed.
Behind me, a second presence rises, as old and as knowing as the one that sends its icy tongues into my head. Against the vastness of the malevolent cold this sets itself. I feel it, one flame at my back, growing in brightness as the cold intensifies. His hand sets itself in the small of my back, at his touch I remember what I am, my shield rises to defend us.
