CHAPTER 22 : THE CONCLAVE OF ELEMENTS AND THE BLOOD OF ECLIPSES
PART I : THE BARS OF FROST
The silence of the tundra was not an absence of sound, but an oppressive presence, a weight of ice that pressed down on the warriors’ chests. Elara, in her wolf form, led the pack with heightened vigilance. Beside her, Thalys’s snow leopards and the wolves of the Sun-Bearers glided like shadows, their breath creating clouds of vapor that crystallized instantly.
As they approached the foothills of the Refuge of Silent Snows, reality seemed to shatter. Without warning, the snow on the ground rose in furious spirals, solidifying in a fraction of a second. Ice spikes of surgical purity erupted from the permafrost, soaring over ten meters high to form a perfect circular cage around the convoy. The trap
