Chapter Six

She stared until the man and Leif were out of her sight, then left the headland in a fury. The man was completely infuriating. Insufferable. Intolerable. Plumes of white breath billowed from her mouth as she marched across the half-frozen landscape trying to dispel the anger and frustration burning in her chest. When she reached the small wood on the east edge of the village, she invoked the words of power that allowed her to pass through the protective spell her mother had placed there. Heading straight for the clearing in the middle, she inhaled the warm air and reveled in the nature that surrounded her.

The meadow there lived in perpetual summer with green grass underfoot covered in vibrant wildflowers. Chittering and chirping from the small animals and birds that were found there welcomed her. The wood was her refuge from her father's otherwise frigid, windswept lands. No one could come here but her mother and her acolytes. Only those who were trusted with the ancient incantation