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In the rateful for that rateful to Frost, but she couldn’t help it She and the wintereach other alive

But what he’d just said et any favors he’d ever done her

"What do you mean, ‘Don’t scream’?"

Frost narrowed his eyes Ice-blue mist swirled up from them "Precisely what I said You ant to scream You will be afraid But I swear to you that I will not drop you"

They hadperhaps another half e, they saw the troops , but others were on patrol Collette found herself strangely unafraid of encountering Atlantean soldiers, but if they were seen and a patrol raised the alarht answer that call

She turned to Frost "I won’t scream"

The winter man nodded If he doubted her, he did not put voice to those doubts

He burst into a swirl of snow and ice Frigid wind buffeted her Collette shivered again and turned up her collar Before her eyes the stor The blizzard rose twenty feet in the air and spread a dozen in either direction

She held her breath, staring in amazement at the power of the storasped as the blizzard rushed at her It whipped around her, circling a moment, and her teeth chattered Her rip of the stor her up into the sky as though she had been catapulted, Collette nearly did screa wind seared her throat and she clamped her lips Her eyes ide and she could not even curl in upon herself for war her, carrying her on a slingshot wind, in a cocoon of driving snow Her bones ached with the cold and she tried to breathe but found she could not The wind lashed her face and she felt despair grip her heart How could she survive this?

Barely aware of what she was seeing, she glilass in the distance, festooned with sails She saw troops rip of the blizzard

Then the wind lessened She found herself sliding doard, drifting The blizzard buffeted her, blasted her, keeping her aloft Her arround rushed up At the last ust slowed her fall Collette landed in a pile of fresh snow, turass and rocky earth

The cold withdrew The warift Her flesh was seared Her cheeks burned with the bite of the cold that had enveloped her It was like nothing else she had ever felt and she wondered if she had frostbite

The thought frightened her, but slowly, feeling and warmth returned to all but her hands and cheeks Carefully, she sat up

The snoas gone Frost stood over her

"We have to go The hours before dawn are few, and we have no time to lose"

Collette stared at hiain"

His eyes narrowed "What else--"

"Leave me behind, next time"

She wasn’t sure if she meant it, and it seemed clear Frost was not sure either Collette didn’t care She got up andIt took a very long ti to return to her hands

They’d gone only a few dom of Euphrasia spread out to the east and west Already, Collette felt safer, and less inclined to be hostile toward Frost

A Euphrasian cavalry patrol stopped theers walking north were Frost of the Borderkind and Collette Bascoend-Born, a kind of euphoria seeave Collette his horse As she slid into the saddle, she felt a grim determination settle into her They had arrived at last Survived, at least this long And now the ould truly begin

Frost flowed through the air beside her as she rode, and one of Hunyadi’s horsemen paced her on the other side The familiar feel of the horse beneath her, the leather reins in her hand, filled her with new vigor

They rode through the battle lines set up by Euphrasian troops, ere dug in and waiting for the attack they kneould conaled to the soldiers on the ground and soon voices could be heard Collette heard the her name At first she didn’t understand How could any of these people know her naend-Born," and she understood

The human soldiers were all Lost Ones She represented the hope of their parents and grandparents and ancestors For those who had been born in her world and crossed over themselves, she would seeend said she could get theain And for the others, she would see them to the Promised Land

If only they knew that the world they so wanted to return to was only a more ordinary reflection of this one, she wondered if they would still long to go there But perhaps they would This world wasn’t home Not really They wanted to be reunited with their people She could understand

The thought made her wonder about Oliver She had done her best not to think of him over the past few hours But Collette felt sure he was all right She had co happened to him--if death came for her brother--she would know Once, the idea would have seemed foolish to her But now she kneas not so far-fetched

Hope went through the ranks as they passed When she rode into the ca the battlefield, the word continued to spread She could al beside her, a blizzard sliding through the night air, but she could al from the storm he made

The dour winter roup of men and women in unifore tent at the apex of the hill Twenty yards away, the cavalryman who’d accompanied them held up a hand to halt them Collette pulled on the reins She and the horseman both dismounted The wintersoldier--no irl, really--ran over to take the reins of the two horses and led them away Another, a boy of perhaps sixteen, came over and saluted the cavalry that Frost has come with Collette Bascoasp, and then he grinned as he turned to bolt up the hill toward the tent of King Hunyadi Collette’s heart soared at the reaction her arrival had brought out in the troops, but a shadow lingered there as well These people had no idea of the kind of horrors Atlantis had ht, but the soldiers likely did not She feared for them

Moments later, the boy came back down the hill Behind him walked a bearded man with a wide-brilinted in theofficers, they fell silent and shifted slightly away from him Power seemed to radiate from him Yet fro

The nored Collette coht to see you alive again"

The winter ers were like ice knives and from the way he stood, Collette wondered if Frost would attack the man or embrace him He did neither

"Are you disappointed?" the winter man asked

"Quite the opposite," the tall, bearded lance at Collette and a smile touched his lips "You’ve done well, Arcturus"