Excerpt: Frost

It was the wee hours of the morning, but the castle was already hectic, abuzz with activity and anticipation. The cooks had been working all through the night to prepare a feast for the evening’s festivities. Throughout the castle, servants swept cobwebs from every corner and scrubbed every inch of stone flooring. Fires were lit and kept stoked in every fireplace the castle had, in order to keep the stone building warm even with the chill of winter outside.

Even the townspeople were awake and excited. Some had lined the road to the castle at dawn, anxious to have a good spot for just a glimpse of the elusive aesi. Families shivered, steamy breath coming in short puffs from their mouths. They wrapped themselves in blankets and pressed together for warmth, unwilling to relent to the cold that had frosted over the town. There was no snow yet, but the thick clouds in the distance were likely bringing it closer as they lumbered slowly across the sky.

“I met an aesi once,” a man was saying in hushed tones to another man nearby. He was rocking back and forth on his heels while simultaneously rubbing his arms, hoping the combination of the movement and the friction would be enough to keep him warm.