Adair nodded and rose, scattering furs as she strode down the throne room and through the doorway to the main halls. Silver lead the way, twisting in and out of smaller hallways and up and down small staircases. They traveled to the north wing of the castle, high in the rafters, where she'd set up Silver's private room and his watchman's post. Today they headed for the watchman's room, a room of ice that sat butted up to the stone of the mountain. This meant it was an irregular shape, with a sloping roof and dim lighting. Silver had set up a lamp made of a sheet of rock with animal fat in a carved out hollow. It smelled terrible but it gave off just enough low light to be able to maneuver through the room, but not enough to disturb what went on in this room. Mainly, the observance of her entire realm of the Northlands.

In the near-middle of the room stood a pedestal of ice growing without a seam from the floor. It was twisted and roped, like a large vine, and at the top it curled around a stone bowl. Within the bowl was a heap of snow, piled to the brim. Nothing remarkable to look at, yet a strange vibration seemed to surround it, as if the air was moving. Adair, completely used to the phenomena, walked straight up to the bowl and raised a hand over it. The snow slowly melted, turning to a liquid that was not quite water. It shimmered and moved on its own, a deep and dark black color.

Silver stood by her shoulder as she pictured the southern slopes in her mind. A moment later and the dark liquid in the stone bowl rippled and then settled on an eagle's eye view of the very mountains she'd been imagining. Only these were real, and she hadn't imagined the small group of men breaking camp on a rock shelf between two of the main slopes. She grit her teeth and flicked her fingers, bringing the view closer.

"I didn't notice them last night, but when I checked this morning they looked as if they'd been there a while," Silver said.

Adair's heart began to beat faster. She clutched the edge of the stone bowl until her knuckles went white. What could a band of soldiers want in the Northlands? Everyone from the small villages that came close to the border knew that her lands were not to be trifled with. No one just walked into the north and expected to go unharmed. Hadn't she made a point to scare off travelers trying to get to the North Sea on the other side of her mountains? Hadn't she stationed her wolves and bears to patrol the border and make sure this sort of thing didn't happen? There was no way the soldiers could have avoided her animals, which meant that more than likely their blades were stained with blood. Adair growled softly.

"They're fools if they think they can test me," she said, raising her hand once more. Her fingers hovered over the image of the scouting party. "They'll soon see why this was the worst mistake of their lives."

She made a fist and then flicked her fingers open. At first nothing much happened, just the sky growing darker above the men. Then flakes of snow began to fall, followed by more flakes, until a flurry of white engulfed them. Adair waved her hand over the stone bowl, back and forth, each pass making the snow storm stronger. Soon the bowl only showed shifting white as a full-grown blizzard raged on the southern slopes.

Silver sucked in a sharp breath. "They'll die if you keep that up," he said.

Adair shrugged, strengthening the blizzard with another pass of her hand. "They deserve it."

Silver looked from her face to the bowl and then back again. She knew that worried glint well. He always wore it when she used her powers against something living. As if he thought she might become lost in it. She hated that look on his face. It made her want to do whatever it was that he was worried about even more. She flattened her lips and stared down into her blizzard.

"Adair, at least think clearly," Silver said. "They're a scouting party. They're here to let someone back in the villages know what the conditions are like. If they disappear without any word back to their commander, then more scouting parties will be sent out. They'll keep coming and coming, no matter how many you kill, until they get the information they need."

"They can send the entire army if they want. I can keep a blizzard going for a week," she said, though the strain of keeping this one so intense was already seeping into her bones. She shivered, the coldness she'd learned to live with deepening.

"If you let some of them go, they'll be able to warn against coming into the mountains. The commanders aren't stupid enough to ignore a scouting party that comes back short the majority of their men due to hazardous weather."

Adair paused. She didn't want to let any of these men go. They'd come onto her lands, killed her animals. Yet, she knew Silver spoke the truth. She'd save more energy if she let one or two escape from the blizzard and run back with their tail between their legs. The tales it might generate would be useful in quelling anyone else with an adventurous spirit as well.

So, as much as it irked her, she closed her hand and withdrew it. The snow tapered off, soon revealing the mountains once again. The snow had fallen hard and fast, trapping men in drifts and causing others to fall down precipitous cliffs. Only three men were still left standing, huddled under a rock outcropping. They looked surprised to see the snow storm stop as suddenly as it began, and they wasted no time before moving. Adair watched long enough to make sure they were headed back down the mountains before sweeping away from the bowl.

"I'm going downstairs to check on our wounded elk," she said, pulling her wolf-pelt cloak closer. When he didn't answer, she glanced over her shoulder.

Silver stood over the bowl, staring into its depths. Though nothing about his face suggested anything other than alertness, something within her pulsed in alarm. A vague feeling of unease clung to Silver and it didn't sit well on Adair's heart. She looked away quickly, hoping that it was merely him pouting because she hadn't listened to him earlier. But even as she walked down the hall and away from his rooms she knew that something was off about Silver, and that ice and snow wouldn't be able to mend it.