Chapter 13 - Trial of the Glacier
Lord Vane stared at the ledger, his face flushing a dark, angry crimson. The surrounding northern warriors began to murmur anxiously among themselves.
"You think a few numbers written by a human clerk can break the pride of the frost clans?" Vane roared, drawing a massive, jagged broadsword from his back. "If you want the north to bow, human, you take the trial of the frost. Prove your blood is worthy of the throne, or freeze in the snow where you stand."
Aldric stepped forward, his claws elongating, fury radiating off him in waves. "I will tear him apart," the Alpha King snarled, his voice shifting into a dual register that made the very air vibrate.
"No," Senna said firmly, placing a hand against Aldric's chest, stopping him dead in his tracks. She looked up into his golden eyes. "This is my fight. If your pack is to accept me, they must see that I do not need a King to shield me."
Aldric stared at her, his heart hammering against her palm. Slowly, agonizingly, he nodded, stepping back into the shadows of the courtyard, though his entire body remained coiled like a struck spring, ready to slaughter every soul in the fortress if she was harmed.
Senna turned back to Vane. She wore no armor, carried no sword. She walked out onto the frozen arena circle etched into the courtyard ice.
Vane grinned, a cruel, predatory expression. He swung the massive broadsword in a wide, crushing arc meant to cleave her in two.
Senna didn't try to block it. As the blade whistled through the air toward her neck, she dropped flat onto the ice, sliding beneath the heavy swing with breathtaking agility. As she slid past him, she drove the heel of her boot directly into the back of Vane’s knee joint.
May you like
Crack.
Vane roared in pain as his leg buckled, sending him crashing heavily onto the ice. Before he could recover, Senna was up, spinning around and planting her boot firmly onto his chest, pressing the edge of a small hidden dagger right against his throat.
