Chapter 35 The Capital

• The capital was everything the Frostpass was not.
• It sprawled across a valley like a living thing, its towers and spires reaching toward the sky like frozen fingers. The streets were paved with pale stone, and even in winter, they bustled with merchants and soldiers and nobles wrapped in furs. The smell of roasted meat and fresh bread drifted from every corner, mixed with the sharper scents of smoke and perfume and too many people.
• I had never seen anything like it. Not in this world.