The caravan began to move again. The heavy oak tree had been cleared, but the road was now a graveyard of monsters.
Kai sat on the edge of the lead wagon next to Elara. He kept his boots near the wheel, ready to jump down at the first sign of movement.
As the adrenaline of the fight left his body, a new pain arrived: hunger. It wasn't the normal hunger of a missed meal.
The Fire Mark was a parasite. Every time Kai channeled his power to turn his blade red, the Mark consumed the calories in his body. His stomach felt like it was folding in on itself.
Kai reached into the small bag on his waist belt. He pulled out a hard, grey puck of Traveler's Mash.
It was a mix of ground beans, animal fat, and heavy salt, dried until it was hard as a brick. It was the only food dense enough to keep a Scourge bearer from collapsing.
He bit into the puck. It didn't crumble; he had to use his back teeth to saw off a piece. It tasted like grease and salt.
He chewed it forty times before swallowing, forcing his body to accept the fuel. He could feel the warmth of the fat hitting his stomach, slightly easing the shivering in his hands.
Elara looked at the grey puck in his hand. She reached into a small crate behind her seat and pulled out a strip of dried venison.
"Even the dogs won't eat the mash," she said, tossing the meat to him. "Eat real protein. As I need you strong for the pass."
Kai caught the meat with his good hand. And didn't thank her. He just ate it in three large bites. He then took a long pull from the salt wine flask.
The liquor burned his throat, but it helped wash down the heavy mash. As he ate, he could feel his hunger reducing.
"The girl," Kai said, gesturing toward the back wagon where Miri was. "She can't eat that salt meat. Her stomach is too weak for that. She needs grain or soft bread."
Elara nodded. "I have a sack of oats in the second wagon. We will boil a pot when we stop for the mid-watch. But we can't stop for long. Food is fuel, Kai. But without life we can't enjoy it. In Oros, the longer you stay out, the more likely you are to die."
The road began to tilt upward; the flat moorland was ending, replaced by high, jagged walls of black rocks.
This was the entrance to the Dead-Man's Pass. The mist here was even thicker, trapped between the stone cliffs like a thick, white soup.
Kai looked up at the cliffs. He couldn't see the top, but he could hear the wind whistling through the cracks in the stone.
It sounded like a thousand voices whispering at once. His Fire Mark began to itch again; not a burn, but a sharp, biting itch.
"Quiet," Kai hissed to the guards. He stood up on the wagon seat. He reached into his waist bag and took out one of his three remaining glowing stones.
He didn't light it yet. He just held it, his thumb resting on the cold surface.
The temperature dropped ten degrees in a single minute. The breath leaving the horse's nose turned into solid frost before it hit the ground.
The Breath of the Void was so strong here that the salt wine in Kai's flask began to slush into ice.
From the mist ahead, a rhythmic sound emerged.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
It was the sound of something hard hitting a stone. It wasn't just one monster. It was the rhythm of a march.
"They aren't hunting us anymore," Kai whispered, his eyes wide. He looked at the narrow canyon walls. "They are herding us."
A massive shape appeared in the fog above them, perched on a stone ledge. It wasn't a Stalker.
It was larger, covered in a shell of frozen ice that acted like armor. It looked down at the tiny caravan and let out a roar that shook the very rocks of the pass.
The roar of the armored beast caused the horses to scream. They reared up in their harnesses, nearly tipping the lead wagon over.
Kai grabbed the side of the seat to stay upright. The sound was so loud it felt like a physical weight pressing against his chest.
The creature on the ledge was a Frost-Giant. It was a mass of muscle and Void energy, ten feet tall, with a thick layer of magical ice covering its shoulders and head like a helmet.
It leaped from the ledge, landing in front of the caravan with a crash that cracked the stone road.
"Archers! Fire!" Elara shouted.
Joram and the last remaining guard raised their short bows and let fly.
The arrows hit the Frost-Giant's chest, but they didn't pierce the ice. They simply shattered into splinters, falling uselessly to the ground.
The giant swept a massive arm across the road. It hit Joram's horse, sending the animal and the rider flying into the canyon wall.
Joram slumped to the ground, unconscious or dead, his armor bent out of shape.
Kai stepped off the wagon. His boots hit the ground, and he felt the freezing air of the pass try to enter his lungs.
He didn't draw The Scourge immediately. Instead, he took the glowing stone in his hand and pressed it hard against the Fire Mark on his shoulder.
This time, he didn't just light the stone; he forced a massive surge of heat into it.
The stone turned from grey to a blinding, sun-bright white. It hissed as the moisture in the air turned to steam around his fist.
The Frost-Giant flinched, its four eyes squinting at the sudden light.
"Miri! Everyone! Cover your eyes!" Kai Yelled.
He threw the stone. It didn't hit the monster; it hit the ground at the Giant's feet.
The sudden heat caused the frozen stone road to expand and shatter, creating a cloud of dust and sharp rock shards.