Disclaimer: Anything I used from the Abhorsen trilogy belongs to Garth Nix, and the rest of the person, place, or thing belongs to me.

Author's Note: If you happen to find any awkward grammatical errors or any others in my writing please tell me if you want in a polite fashion. Sometimes my mind and my fingers do not cooperate with each other! Final exams are coming up, oh joy.

Chapter 2: Death comes to the Clayr's glacier

Damiel tried to light a fire with Charter magic; amusingly it only produced a small flame barely large enough to warm my fingers.

I spoke a few words and his little flame roared with a blazing heat. I could feel myself become warm again as the rest of the icicles melted and dried off under the intensity of the heat. My numb fingers could actually feel each other again.

My friend Damiel looked at me from across the flicking flames watching me with an inquisitive gaze. The silence of the white snowy hills around us contrasted sharply with the mercurial activity of the fire.

Then suddenly a furious Rosaline came strutting out into the frosty winds bundled in her winter gear. She looked like she was about to strangled us with her bare hands.

"Kalla and Damiel, you two get back in here right this instance! Both of you are going to have extra kitchen duties for three weeks in the Infirmatory, you hear me!"

She sighed exasperatedly and then went on telling Damiel that the Clayrs need him for the Watch right now. Damiel gave me a quick goodbye and quickly ran off towards the glacier domain. Then Rosaline turned towards me slowly.

"Kalla, I don't know what to do with you galloping about when you should be at you lessons. You complete them in five months. Please don't go around skipping you classes like this."

I looked at her concerned, drawn face and felt bad for making her worry about my welfare when she had other businesses to deal with. She was the head healer for the Clayrs. As I was about to softly make my apologies to Rosaline, I felt an awful sensation of decay and death.

Then suddenly over the horizon of the bleached, white hills, I saw humanoid shapes that were somehow disproportioned walking slowly our way. Rosaline's face was flushed with fear and recognition.

I've never encountered such creatures and I knew at once they couldn't be alive anymore. They were walking straight at us and there was a crowd of them coming closer. The sun was setting and the figures turned more stretched out and inhuman as the shadows grew darker.

I summoned up a few Charter marks and sent them in the midst of decaying flesh. The golden sparks blazed through a few of them and burned slowly burned them enough to stop their march forward. The Ratterlin separated us from them but it was far from the roaring river of the summer. The river was partially frozen and I could almost make out the grotesque facial features of the undead.

I grabbed the arm of Rosaline as she stood frozen to her spot. Then her legs finally decided to move along with her petrified mind. We speedily ran back towards the safety of the glacier. As I turned back around to check the progression of the undead, I saw that they were near the river. One fell in it with an inhuman scream of finality.

We open the heavy iron doors as the Charter sending brushed our Charter marks to make sure they were true. Before the closing of the doors, I could hear bodies splashing into the swift Ratterlin. Then there was the silence of our domain again with the exception of our harsh panting from the sudden burst of speed over a substantial amount of distance.

Rosaline stared at me in a mixture of curiosity and confusion. "Those were some powerful spells you emitted out there. I didn't know you had such an aptitude as a Charter mage. I think it's time to alert the others of the intrusion of Dead Hands."