The tavern had become eerily silent.  The only sound was the wind as it howled through the hole where the door used to be. The patrons had all turned to stone and only their nervous eyes twitched and glanced around the room.

"Answer me!" Kashant growled in his rasping colourless voice. To punctuate his impatience a black tentacle lashed out from his cloak and smashed a nearby table into splinters.

At first nobody dared to speak to the stranger, but then one of the villagers stood up from his table.

"I've seen them royals that you're after," the man drawled in a drunken country accent.

Alesson's heart was in his throat. He reached under the table and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. The villager came forward and Alesson saw that it was one of the Inn's stable workers. Someone who knew who they were and where they were staying. His sudden rush of adrenalin turned to pure anger when he realised that the villager was going to turn them in to the demonic Kashant.

"They're camped just out the back of the village," lied the villager and Alesson quickly swallowed his fury and tried to keep his emotions under control. "They was far too stuck up and fancy to stay with the likes of us," muttered the man in a disgruntled tone of voice.

"You lie," said another voice from another table, and Alesson's heart skipped a beat or two as a new wave of panic set in. "They left this morning you dolt. They'll be halfway across the ice fields by now."

"I don't think so Ingent," said the first villager. "I saw them with me own two eyes just a few moments ago."

"I think you've had too much to drink, Assa. They most certainly left this morning," the man called Ingent called back.

"Did not," Assa shouted.

"Did too," Ingent retorted.

Then Assa lunged at the other man and knocked over the drinks of several other occupants in the bar. Soon the whole bar was brawling, beer and tables were being thrown everywhere, as the drunken brawlers shouted at each other.

Deltain had pulled the twins down under the table, away from the violence. Alesson was just about to join in with the hostility when an apple rolled gently under the table toward them. Alesson looked up in the direction that the apple had come from and saw a serving man hunched down behind the bar, the man beckoned to them when their eyes met.

"Oh, those damn fools," Deltain whispered.

"What Deltain?" Linta asked the old man.

"This is all a diversion to help us escape, but throwing themselves in front of that monster is just going to get them killed," Deltain mumbled sadly. "But I have no choice. I must get you two to safety. Stay low and get over to the bar."

Alesson did as he was told, he took his sisters hand and half crawled, half scurried across to the bar, with Linta close behind.

"Quickly Your Highnesses," said the barkeeper as he lifted a trap door that went down into the cellar, and then he grabbed a lantern and thrust it into Deltain's hand. "Take this and move to the hatch at the back."

"Thank you," Deltain said quickly, before dropping down into the damp dark cellar, with the twins close behind him.

The trap door was closed, and the musty cellar became dim, lit up only by the light of the lantern. Deltain pointed towards the rear hatch that was slanted upwards to allow easy access and motioned for the twins to walk toward it.

Just as they got to the hatch, a loud detonation sounded from above and they heard the shadowy Kashant bellow angrily. Deltain flung open the trapdoor and started pushing the twins up and out into the cold twilight. Another loud booming sound came from behind and the shouts of the riotous drinkers turned to screams of agony.

Alesson was torn between his duty to save the villagers and his urge to run and warn his friends. Alesson drew his sword, and the weight of the blade comforted him slightly as he tried to decide what to do.

"No Alesson, don't you even think of going back in there," Deltain whispered.

"But they're dying," Alesson replied with tears standing in his eyes.

"They're dying so you can live to fight on, Alesson," Deltain said solemnly and gave the prince a little shake. "I need you to run as fast as you can to get the others from the Inn, while Linta and I go to the stables and prepare the sleds. Go quickly and take care, there might be more of those monsters in the village."

"Ok, I'll go," Alesson said and turned on his heels and ran speedily over the crunchy snow to the Inn. The Innkeeper looked up startled as Alesson slammed the door open.

"Get out quickly. There's a demon over in the tavern, get your family and run," Alesson shouted at the man while he bounded up the stairs to his quarters.

Again, he slammed open the door, Garlent and Rakk instinctively jumped to their feet and stared at the flustered boy.

"Alesson, what's the matter?" Rakk said urgently.

"The black rider from the gorge is here," Alesson said in between heavy breaths. "He's killing the villagers in the tavern. Deltain says we need to go, he and Linta are preparing the sleds."

"What about Narlia?" Rakk said as he looked at Garlent.

"I'll get her. You get Alesson to the stables quickly," Garlent replied briskly as he pulled on his rusty iron chainmail shirt.

"I will," Rakk said and saluted smartly, then he grabbed Alesson's arm and pulled him back out of the room and towards the back stairs. They rushed down the stairs two at a time and exited out the back door into the stables.

Frostbite saw the panicked prince and bounded over to his friend. Alesson patted the wolf's soft head and checked he was ok. Behind the wolf were Deltain and Linta who were organising their new dogsleds. Osha was frozen all year round, which meant keeping horses was impractical, so the villagers used small sleds that were pulled by teams of hounds. Deltain had used a lot of their money to purchase two sleds and twenty-four, flesh and blood, dogs to pull them.

"We need to hurry. Chal says the tavern's burning and the villagers are still fighting the black shadow," Rakk said as he rushed to help harness the grey and black hounds to the first sled.

Alesson was not used to herding the dogs into position. The hounds kept looking nervously at Frostbite who was growling at any of the dogs that dared to move or struggle. Alesson and Rakk had just harnessed the last dog to the second sled when Garlent, Narlia and Wansu hurried into the small courtyard.

"Good timing." Deltain said when he saw them. "We're just about ready to go. Is Narlia ok to travel?"

"She'll be fine now," Wansu wheezed in his thick nasal tone. "But just in case here's some extra medicine and a supply of bandages and other things you might need."

Wansu gave the small bundle to Deltain and then he looked at the princess and stepped over to the shivering girl. "Here Your Highness, it's the book you liked. Please take it and travel safely to Antar."

"Thank you Wansu," Linta said softly, and she hugged the old man. "Please don't do anything rash, your lives are just as important as ours. Get out of the village and run from that...that thing."

"I will Your Highness, but first I'll cover your tracks so the demon cannot follow. Now quickly go Your Highness"

Before Linta could say any more the old man had turned away from her and Rakk had picked the teary-eyed princess up and put her on the sled. Alesson jumped up next to her and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"He'll be fine," Alesson said to try and calm Linta's fears, but the Princess just buried her head in her hands and tears rolled down over her book.

Rakk shook the reins and the sled slid forward quickly, the dogs yelped a little when they saw the flaming buildings, which made the sled wobble slightly. However, the snow sleds were much faster than the old rickety carts and it was not long before the village of Osha was disappearing into the distance.

Alesson and Linta were sat in the two rear facing seats of the larger sled, while Rakk and Narlia sat at the front. The prince stared at the burning village and his anger returned sharply when he saw more explosions consume the small huddle of dwellings. Just when would this end? It seemed like no matter how far away from Scorvain he went, the darkness would always catch up with him. Then he thought about all the people that had been slain by Inemi and his terrible army, first Scorvain had fallen, then Entarus and now the village of Osha. Alesson decided that Inemi was going to pay dearly for all the turmoil that he had caused.

Then a loud guttural howl of pain sounded from back in the village and Alesson hoped that the men and women of Osha had beaten the dark ghoul. The howl however quickly changed to a roar, another explosion shook the village and several of the buildings collapsed.

"The shade Kashant cannot be killed by normal conventions," the Soul of Light said softly in Alesson's head. "He is like me, but he eats minds completely and controls his host's body with his thoughts."

"But there must be a way to kill him?" Alesson whispered under his breath.

"Right now, Son of Scorch, killing him is impossible. You must hurry to the ice crystals shrine quickly before all is lost," said the Soul and then he was gone.

The sleds glided smoothly across the Ice fields and the sound of the snow swishing underneath made Alesson feel sleepy, but he dared not doze, not while Kashant was somewhere behind him. They travelled across the snowy plains all night and Alesson watched the rolling banks of snow appear and disappear like ghosts. The night seemed to go on forever and the red smudge of the burning village never passed beyond the horizon.

The next day dawned bright and clear, the snow had stopped falling completely and the red sun rose briefly above the horizon for a few hours. Narlia said that as they got closer to the top of the world it would seem more like they were travelling in perpetual night.

The ice fields stretched out as far as Alesson could see. He could see long wavy dunes of snow and ice, which meandered randomly all the way to the northern horizon. Occasionally they would pass a small copse of dark green pointy trees, which broke up the sea of white. Several times Alesson lost track of where Frostbite was as the pale wolf blended into the snowy background.

Deltain eventually called a halt when the sky turned black again and they set up camp at the edge of a nearby patch of trees. The hounds were exhausted after traveling for so long and their passengers were also greatly fatigued. As soon as Alesson's head touched the soft new pillow, his eyes instantly closed, and he fell sound asleep.

The snow started falling again overnight and when Alesson awoke, he was blinded by the brilliant whiteness around him. After eating breakfast, he helped Deltain to feed the hounds and he found the company of the dogs to be quite appealing. Alesson rubbed their bellies and fed them meaty leftovers from breakfast time along with their rations. He was just feeding a smaller grey and black patchy mutt, when he saw a strange white and grey tube rising out of the horizon. The tube wiggled slowly from side to side and Alesson got the feeling that it was spinning very fast.

"Deltain, what's that?" Alesson called to his old teacher.

Deltain raised his hands over his eyes and peered at the strange phenomenon and Alesson saw all the colour drain from the man's face.

"A frozen twister!" Deltain said worriedly. "But that's impossible. Down in the south on the thunder plains there are more twisters like that. They are big columns of spinning air that can tear buildings to shreds and can launch people and animals high up into the air."

"So, it's dangerous then?" Alesson said as he looked at the strange wiggling line.

"It is very dangerous Son of Scorch. As the Sage said, it is not natural for a cyclone to be this far north. It is being controlled by Kashant. He has sent it after you to slow you down so he can catch up," the voice said suddenly in his head.

"Oh," Alesson said stunned and he looked hard at Deltain. "It's Kashant, he's controlling that thing."

Deltain's face fell, and he looked very worried. "I think we'd better go back and tell the others."

Alesson and Deltain rounded up the hounds and hustled them back to camp, they then told the others what they'd seen and what the Soul had told Alesson. The group fell completely silent as they contemplated how to beat the incoming force of nature.

"I doubt that Kashant can see exactly where we are to drop the twister right on top of us," Garlent said. "So why don't we change direction and let the twister just go past us."

"But that's what he wants us to do, so he can catch up and destroy us himself," Alesson answered the big bald warrior.

"So why don't we head for the Anectar Forest instead?" Narlia asked. "He won't be able to pinpoint us in amongst the tree's, will he?"

"Kashant can probably sense our minds, just like the Soul of Light can," Linta said. "But he won't know precisely where we are."

"Going to the forest won't detour us that much," Garlent said as he rubbed his head. "Let's try it."

"The twister looked like it was about half a day behind us, and the forest is about the same distance away, which means it'll be a race," Deltain said.

"Then we better get going," Garlent replied and then he strode off to start packing the campsite away.

It was not long before the two sleds were zipping across the snowy flats towards the Great Anectar forest. The trees stood tall and spread out like a green carpet over the frozen ground. The winds had picked up and were starting to stir up a blizzard around Alesson and his friends. The twister was gaining on them and what had started off as a thin squiggly line had quickly grown into a menacing twirling column of intensely cold air. The gales were getting so strong that the hounds were struggling to keep control of the sleds, which were snaking along behind them.

Alesson and Linta sat on the back of the sled all wrapped up in thick coats with their hoods pulled tightly around their heads. They watched as the cyclone got nearer and nearer and then without warning the sleds entered the forest and slowed to navigate between the huge tree trunks. The plan had been to get to the forest before the twister and then to quickly change direction away from the frozen tower of wind. The trees, however, were densely packed together, which meant that Alesson had to dismount and help Rakk lead the dogsleds through the large looming vegetation.

A loud crash signalled that the twister had reached the forest and Alesson looked up through the bending treetops to see the grey twister between the branches. Smaller trees were uprooted by the powerful winds. Trunks were sucked up through the funnel and then launched far into the distance.

The cyclone was now so close that Alesson could not hear anything over the roaring winds, and he felt them try to tug him up and away from the ground. The hounds started yelping loudly as they too struggled to stay down. Then Linta screamed as the sled lifted briefly into the air. The sound of Linta's scream made Lars spring into action, the green snake stretched out into a massively long and sticky vine that coiled in, out and around the hounds, the sled, and the humans. The vine snake then anchored itself around a nearby tree and then tightened securely around Alesson and his companions.

The twister was now even closer. Alesson was lifted off the ground alongside Rakk and a few of the dogs, and then the vine around his chest became taut and he hung in mid-air. Chunks of ice fell from the twister and smashed down around him and the sled. Alesson could not see the other sled that Deltain and Garlent were on, but he hoped that they were far, far away from this new stormy menace.

The cyclone hung overhead for what seemed like an eternity, more ice fell, and larger trees were torn out of the ground by Kashant's unnatural weapon.

Slowly the twister passed through the forest. Alesson felt the wind beneath him dissipate and he fell a few feet to the ground. He laboured to his feet and looked around to check the others were all ok. Rakk had landed awkwardly but had not sustained any major damage; Narlia and Linta were fine because they had been strapped down to the sled by the incredible green snake. Frostbite and the other dogs were all ok apart from one small dog that had sprained one of its rear legs badly.

"I can't believe we survived that," Rakk said as he caught his breath.

"Me neither," Alesson said and then he looked at the small emerald snake. "Thank you, Lars, you are a really useful creature to have around."

Linta grinned proudly at her brother's kind words, then she picked up the little snake, which had now returned to normal size, and she nuzzled her face against his scaly head.

"Linta? Alesson?" called Garlent's voice from somewhere deeper in the forest.

"Garlent?" Alesson shouted back, and then after a short time Deltain and Garlent emerged from the thick foliage with the other dogsled.

"Are you all ok?" Garlent asked.

"Yes, somehow, we're all fine," Narlia answered the big man.

"Good," Garlent replied softly to her, and his cheeks glowed slightly red.

They all quickly resumed their trek through the thick, dark foreboding forest.

"Oh, we are silly," Deltain said suddenly.

"What?" Garlent said, looking angrily at the old sage.

"Why are we slogging through all these trees when we could just follow the path the twister has made through the forest?" Deltain asked and he began to laugh.

Then Garlent began to chuckle too as he realised what Deltain meant. "Oh, Lord Deltain that's brilliant."

"What is?" Alesson asked.

"Kashant sent the twister after us to slow us down, but now we can follow it through the forest and probably make better time than before." Garlent answered the puzzled prince.

Alesson's eyes grew wide as he understood, and he started grinning too, at the thought of using Kashant's hindrance against him.

They tracked back across the woodlands until they found the path of the twister and started to follow it through the Anectar forest. The cyclone had made the ground very uneven, and it had left a few large holes in the ground where it had pulled trees out of the soil. This meant that the journey was not as easy as Alesson had hoped it would be, but at least they could ride on the dogsleds now instead of having to walk. It took the better part of a day to get to the far side of the woods where they settled down to camp for the night.

Alesson awoke sharply the following morning and when he climbed out of his tent, he discovered that it was still dark, only a lighter patch of sky towards the east showed that morning was approaching. As the light increased Alesson saw an amazing sight, beyond the Ice Fields were several tall thin mounds of ice that stood straight up, like someone had pushed their fingers through a white sheet so that only their thin digits were showing. The Frost Spires stood tall and proud, like a massive gateway to Antar. As the sun rose above the circumference of the planet, it cast strange shadows over the many towers of ice and snow.

"Impressive, aren't they?" Garlent said as he came up behind Alesson. "The last time I was up this way I saw them glow like candles, everlasting frozen candles."

Alesson looked at the giant man who had become so strangely soft suddenly. "Are you alright, Garlent?"

Then the steeliness came back into his face, and he shook off his previous demeanour. "What say you about having a quick early morning sword lesson?"

Alesson nodded and ran back to his tent to collect his sword. He had not done much training over the last few days because of the constant travelling to keep ahead of the black shade. The two men scuffled for a while until their ringing blades woke the others from their slumber.

They ate quickly, mounted up and set off towards the Frost Spires. As Alesson got closer he saw just how big the spires were. The pillars of ice climbed upwards and disappeared into the clouds, which made some of the fingers looked like they had been sliced off. The sun had only been up briefly that cold cloudy day, and darkness soon fell again as the sleds started to circle round the icy pillars as they searched for a way through to Antar. The fingers of ice all looked identical which made getting lost in amongst the Frost Spires very easy.

Alesson and his companions came to a narrow gap between two of the spires and just as they reached the narrowest point, a wall of black flaming shadows erupted out of the ground ahead of them. The dogs yelped in surprise and the sleds swished to a halt.

"Garlent, what is that?" Linta shouted as she watched the dark tendrils flicker between the two icy walls.

"I don't know, but we're now trapped here," Garlent replied.

"Oh, come now Commander Garlent," said a new voice from behind them. "My master said you were a smart one."

Alesson turned to see the black rider Kashant on an exhausted black horse. The shadowy shade dropped down from his tired mount, and then the horse instantly collapsed to the frozen ground and died.

A low rumbling, scraping noise came from the black shrouded entity and Alesson's blood froze when he realised that the sound was Kashant's laughter.

"Did your master also tell you how I was going to kill you?" Garlent taunted the ghoul as he drew his sword and put himself between the twins and the monster.

"No," growled Kashant in his deep toneless voice and flickering black tentacles thrashed out from his swirling cloak of shadows, "But he did show me how you fight. Now come on you oversized lump of blubber, come kill me, if you can?"