Free Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens) by Heath Pfaff

continued to walk for what felt like hours. Haley was just growing footsore when the mist began to clear and a bitter-cold wind swept across her skin. It wasn't a subtle change of temperature, instead it was like stepping out of a fire-warmed room into a snow storm. A flake of snow drifted by her face, and then several more. In a few steps she was standing in blizzard, the gusts of snow blowing past her and nipping at her exposed skin. She wasn't appropriately dressed for such freezing weather, but with her axe at her side the cold was only an inconvenience. The cursed blade gave Haley a resistance to pain, discomfort, and injury on top of making her stronger. Kassa was shivering fiercely without the axe’s protections. The fae queen didn't seem to notice the cold even though she was still completely naked.
    The forest terrain turned rocky, and the trees cleared as the three travelers emerged onto a wind-swept, open pass covered in foot-deep snow. Haley looked back over her shoulder to see that the forest had vanished to be replaced by a bleak, wintery landscape nothing like the one they'd left that morning. To her left, cold gray and black stone stretched into the sky, reaching up through the storm like the jagged tooth of some immeasurably large monster. Mountains. She'd heard of them, but she'd never been so close to them before.
    "Where are we?" She asked loudly, speaking over the screaming wind. She wasn't sure whether she was asking Kassa or the queen, but she hoped someone knew the answer.
    "The ragged claws of earth reached for the stars, forever seeking what they can never have." The queen's voice carried over the wind, though she didn't seem to be speaking loudly. "Here passed the shadow. Here passed death." She looked at both the women that had accompanied her as though they should know exactly what she was saying. When it was clear they weren't going to respond, the queen spoke again. "Here passed the shadow. Here passed death."
    Kassa spoke up hesitantly. "Is she talking about Xandrith?"
    Haley was about to respond, but the queen interjected quickly. "Xandrith. Here passed the shadow. Here passed death."
    Haley's heart nearly skipped a beat. "Are you saying Xan is alive, and that he's near here?"
    The queen pointed along the edge of the mountains in what appeared to be an easterly direction. "Here passed the shadow. Bring the shadow light." As her words ended a sharp gust of wind kicked up and threw massive amounts of snow into the air. The world vanished in a rush of white for a moment. When it cleared, the queen was gone. Not even her footprints remained. Kassa and Haley stood alone in the bitter cold shadow of the great mountains, the Ragged. Their guide had vanished, leaving them with little more to follow than a cryptic message that they were to search for a friend they thought was dead. Still, Haley felt more alive than she had in ages. Hope had rekindled in her heart, and so she began to walk east.
    "Where are you going?" Kassa asked, falling in at her back. "Do you have any idea where we are?"
    Haley shrugged. "I'm going after Xan."
    "For all we know we might have misunderstood the queen. We don't know that Xandrith is really out there." Kassa’s voice was tight and accented by the slight shivering that was causing her jaw to rattle.
    "Xan is too much of a bastard to die." Haley said confidently. "Do you really think he'd die with unfinished business? He's an assassin. He always gets the job done." Hope. It would have been so easy to fall into despair at their situation, but Xandrith wouldn't have wanted that.
    Kassa trudged forward, walking up beside Haley. She was quiet for a few moments, but finally she spoke. "He is one hell-of-a bastard."
    They trudged on in silence for a time, but it wasn't long before Kassa's skin began to take on an unhealthy blue tinge and her shivering became almost violent. Haley wasn't sure what to do for the other woman. Other than the weapons they had strapped to their hips