Chapter 64: The Vain Strategy
Nerida collapsed forward against the iron boundary gate, her gloved fingers wrapping around the frozen vertical pickets to keep her trembling legs from giving out entirely. The iron was so bitter that the cold burned straight through the padded leather of her gloves, sending a dull ache into the small bones of her palms. She rested her forehead against the crossbar, gasping for air while the seventy knot gale battered the hood of her red down parka, tearing the white fur trim sideways across her eyes.
Her heart pounded in her throat, each beat loud, fast, and irregular, like a wounded animal thrashing inside a cage.
She turned her head to look back across the white desert of Crestline Avenue. Through the blinding curtain of swirling ice crystals, the massiv
