Chapter Two The ChallengeMai stopped outside the great gates with Akra and Kalin. She watched as two ice soldiers signalled to more soldiers, who were also wearing silvery metal helmets and blue armbands that decorated their white uniforms. They stood on the ice wall high above them. To the sound of splitting ice, the great silver doors slowly opened. A gush of ice-cold air hit their faces as the doors separated. A path led into the city, which spread out and disappeared into the darkness.
The city was nothing like Mai had imagined. Even though she knew very little about the ice city, and even less about the waterclaspers’ ways, she had not been prepared for the overwhelming sight of a pure white city. White ice buildings spread as far as the eye could see before the shadow of the night c
