Carliene Stark

II Chapter 77

Carliene

It felt like the wall itself was shivering beneath my feet, as I stood on the balustrade and watched the frozen meadow in front of the castle. Trenches, spikes and pits of tar were barely visible in the growing gusts of snowflakes and mist, and the darkness that seemed to come with the cold. Already my cheeks felt numb and raw and every snowflake that hit my face felt like the prick of a needle. My eyes burned as well, but I could not tear them away from the storm that approached.

It looked utterly terrifying but also fascinatingly beautiful in a way. Like an enormous, slow-moving wave of ice and snow and darkness, growing ever taller in front of us, about to swallow all of us whole. Somewhere behind me I heard the nervous croaking of ravens, soon drowned out by the low guttural growl of a dragon, much closer to me. And yet my eyes remained on the storm and the foot of this winter wave, where creatures on horseback were barely visible. But they were there and I could feel them. And at that moment they were more terrifying than any army of undead corpses could be. As they walked their horses slowly towards the castle, it seemed almost impossible to look at them as their armour played strange tricks on the eyes. These are the creatures Old Nan told us stories about. The wave seemed to follow them and I could feel my knees begin to tremble at the realisation that there was nothing that would be able to stop them. As if to prove my point a loud screech came from somewhere above and I managed to look up just in time to watch one of the dragons dive into the storm, engulfed in pale golden fire, that looked as bright as sunlight in this darkness. But it put no dent into the darkness it opposed and the beast disappeared inside the cloud, the glow of its fire growing ever dimmer. I took a step back, the screaming ravens behind me growing louder again. So did my heartbeat, with every league the creatures walked closer to the castle. Soon the storm was towering over us, a great threat that could crash down at any second and my heart beat so loud that I was afraid it would shatter my eardrums. I knew someone was calling for me and that some brave soul was trying to shout some brave encouragement, but I heard none of it. I could only stare at the looming wave as it seemed to halt for a terrible moment in which time itself seemed to have frozen, before it suddenly came crashing down and I realised that everything I thought I had known about the cold was wrong. 

I though I had been freezing before. With my toes numb in my clunky boots and my hands unable to keep a proper grip on anything for the last few days and my cheeks always red and burning. But never had I been able to imagine the kind of cold that man could feel. The storm came crashing down, and I had to close my eyes immediately as I could feel the very moisture of my eyeballs feel like it wanted to freeze. I would have screamed at the pain that it caused me, only I felt my lungs collapse and my chest tighten at the cold, driving out all the air a the gust cut like knives through every inch of my clothing. 

I sat up abruptly, pressing my hands to my chest and pulling at my shirt as I opened and closed my mouth like a fish. For a few terrifying moments I thought I may never be able to breathe again as my body had forgotten how in the shock. But then I gasped, forcefully pulling the air into my burning chest as I rolled off the bed and came to kneel on the cold floor of my tent, coughing and gasping as I sat there bend over in the dark. I knew that it was a cloudless night and probably one of the coldest the south had seen in decades, but in that moment I felt almost like I was in a tent in Dorne in the midst of summer. It was pleasantly arm compared to what I had experienced in my dream. Not just a dream, I reminded myself, a vision. The thought made my stomach twist violently, and for a moment I feared I would throw up as well. But I managed to calm my breathing and soothe the tremors that shook my body somewhat. My heart I could not calm so easily and the nervous sweat that clung to me remained as well. I climbed back into the bed, sitting on the cot, with furs draped around myself as I stared into the darkness.