Platon knelt down on one knee and picked up the broken bow examining each end carefully. Sighing he stood up and tossed the bow at Silas his right hand man.

"Do you recognize it?" Platon asked him.

Silas only took a minute to look over the intricate vine work and said, "Cievo."

"Correct. Anything else?"

Platon looked up at the sky estimating it was around three o'clock, then he switched his gaze to the tallest tree he could find and took the triangular piece of wood out of his pocket. Platon never went anywhere without it.

"The North. Its from the North part of Ellestar...Doesn't Haldit run that part of the kingdom?" Silas asked.

"Correct again. You should win a medal...The question is," Platon began pointing one end of the triangle at the tree and putting the other end to his eye while walking back.

"What were they doing in the mountains?"

Silas shrugged and looked around at the high walls of rock.

"Haven't a clue," he answered.

When Platon had walked far enough back for the triangle point to reach the top of the tree he quickly knelt down and pulled a rope out of his pack that was marked with inches and feet.

"Give me a hand will you?" he said, handing Silas one end of the rope.

Platon walked over to the tree all the time unraveling the rope until he made it to the tree.

"How long?" Silas called.

"65 feet."

"Do you think its tall enough?" 

Platon looked from Silas to the top of the tree and shaded his eyes.

"Only one way to find out."

Dropping his pack Platon climbed up onto the first branch, quickly shifting his weight to another branch as the first one began to bend and creak. Taking a deep breath he reached for the closest branch - which was not very close - and pulled himself onto it with a great heave, barely managing to scramble up before the branch he was using for purchase broke.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Silas called from the ground.

"Do you have a better one?"

Platon had managed to get halfway up the tree before he came to the tiny breakable branches. It would not be easy to get to the top, but it was possible...if he tried hard enough. Platon grabbed the leather strap from around his neck - one that he had remembered to take out of his pack - and twisted it into a figure-eight, stretching each loop onto either foot. Then he gripped the main body of the tree and jumped, grabbing either side of the tree with each foot. The twisted strap on his feet gave a little more purchase as the bark sort of clung to it. Slowly but surely Platon shuffled his way up, grabbing around the tree with his arms and pulling his feet farther up resulting in a very slow yet effective way of climbing the natural resources. Whenever he saw a branch that he thought was sturdy enough Platon would grab onto it and pull his way up as much as possible, but that was a rare luxury, especially as he got closer and closer to the top. Once he tried grabbing the tree and it started to bend...Platon knew that was as far as he could go.

"IS IT TALL ENOUGH?" Silas shouted from the ground.

Platon looked out over the rocky mountain that was now 65 feet below him and realized that unfortunately it was indeed tall enough.

"IT SURE IS!" he called back to Silas.

"I CAN SEE THE WHOLE CITY! EVEN THE PALACE!"

Silas kicked at the rocks and ran one hand through his shabby brown hair, giving a grunt of displeasure.

"ALRIGHT I'M COMING DOWN NOW!" Platon shouted.

He carefully took the strap off his feet while holding onto the tree with his hands, letting the leather piece fall to the ground. After a moments pause Platon took a deep breath and loosened his grip on the tree, sliding down it at a steady pace. Soon he reached the larger branches and from there it did not take long before he was on solid ground once more.

"You know you gave me quite a scare climbing up like that. You could have hurt yourself and then who would Sylvia blame? That's right...me!" Silas complained.

"Well I'm fine aren't I? Not to mention Sylvia probably would have known it was my own stupid decision."

"Oh so you admit it was stupid?"

"No just Sylvia would have thought it was stupid."

"Would have? Don't you mean 'will'? You have to tell her, you know that right?"

Platon sighed while stuffing the leather strap into his pack and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Yeah I know," he said quietly.

"You know if you had just agreed with becoming king than you wouldn't have this problem," Silas told him.

"Oh yes I would. Not to mention neither of us wanted the throne. It was all just a matter of happenstance that Sylvia ended up on the throne."

Silas shrugged his shoulders and started towards his horse who was feasting on a good bit of snow. The mountain horses ate snow and frozen plants instead of grass. It was too cold for grass to grow up there.

The two young soldiers mounted their steeds and made their way up the mountain path towards Salitask, the city of ice. You could say anything you wanted about the snow people, but they certainly found any way they could to use ice and it paid off in the most beautiful architecture. Each building was built completely of ice, crystals hanging from the edge of roofs, snowflakes scratched into the walls and ice formations decorating the front yard. People dressed in white furs rode by in cutters of sleek frozen water also carved with intricate scroll work, the whole thing frozen onto blades carved from stone to allow the form of transportation to glide across the frozen streets of Salitask, pulled by the sturdy white horses of the mountains. Towering in the center of it all was the magnificent palace of Queen Sylvia...and staff. Its many towers were tall, elegant, and an incredible icy blue. Which is only expected, it being made of ice and all. The frozen building was carved from top to bottom with intricate snowflake patterns resulting in the shiniest, most beautiful thing in all the North. The wall around it  was also made of solid ice and had sentries on guard at all times. Inside was the courtyard filled with royals and peasants alike. On either side of the staircase leading to the palace were two frozen fountains with the most stunning ice formations, looking something similar to ocean waves frozen in place.
As you may have guessed the people of Salitask are not bothered by the cold. Most of them do not even wear gloves. In fact twenty below for them is like seventy five for us. The perfect temperature.

"Platon I'll take the horses into the stable if you want," Silas offered generously...Too generously.

"Oh no you don't! You're coming with me!" Platon said, pulling on his friend's sleeve.

The two young men got off their horses and gave the reins to the stable boy, tossing him a gold coin each. They both trudged up the snow covered steps and marched in through the tall doors which opened automatically (Meaning there were guards inside staring through peepholes to open the doors whenever someone came up the steps). Platon looked around at the empty corridors of shining ice and shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess Sylvia hasn't had much company today," he said quietly, starting up the round staircase in the entrance room.

Silas followed close behind as Platon marched at a steady pace through all the winding halls and twisting staircases until the came to Sylvia's chambers. Platon knocked on the door and listened for a reply. When he did not get one he knocked again.

"Come in Platon!" Sylvia's voice came from inside.

Whenever there was more than one knock on the door she knew it was Platon. No one else would disturb her, meaning if she did not answer she was probably very tired and wanted to be left alone.

Platon opened the door and walked in, holding it open for Silas who was less confident in entering.

Sylvia was looking out the window at the courtyard bellow making rather a splendid figure. She was dressed in flowing white robes that were embroidered all over with pale blue flowers. Two layers of sleeves were sewn onto the dress, the white under layer tight and going all the way to her wrists while the top layer was split at the shoulders and flowed gracefully to the floor with the same pattern as the entire dress. Her surcoat was white and only had straps on the shoulders, showing off the turtle neck dress underneath. Around her waist was a wide silver band with shining snow flakes running up the center. Similar snowflakes lined the rim of her gown and around her neck was a simple silver chain. On her head Sylvia wore a crown of white pearls, each one embedded in a flower of precious metal. Her strait blonde hair was twisted elegantly around the back of her head making her look very mature and...Queen-like. Of course being her brother all Platon saw was his sister in a stressed out mood.

"How are you feeling?" he asked with a light hearted tone in his voice.

"Ugh. Tired and annoyed," Sylvia answered quietly.

"Why can't people just mind their own business?"

She sat down in her ice chair that had a polar bear fur draped over it and fiddled with her necklace.

"Berglund giving you trouble again?" Platon asked, sitting down in the seat across from her.

"He always does. I don't understand it. We have literally no ties with that man yet he finds some way of blaming us for everything that goes wrong with his plans."

"Mmmm," Platon answered mildly, grabbing a pear from the crystal fruit bowl.

"At least we import our fruit from Salliet instead. Otherwise we would be in a fix."

"That would be a problem wouldn't it. You know sometimes I wish you had taken the thrown instead...Sit down Silas you're making me nervous."

Silas, who had been pacing, ran one hand through his hair and coughed a little, sitting down awkwardly and looking out the window.

"Is something wrong?" Sylvia asked, noticing Silas's paranoid state immediately.

"Well uh, you see, we came upon a bit of problem down in the valley," Platon explained.

"Oh?"

"Yes. We found a broken bow and there's no doubt about it, its Cievo made."

"Well maybe it could have belonged to Adrastea?" Silas remarked, trying to find an explanation that did not lead to bad news.

Sylvia shook her head silently and drummed her fingers on the crystal table top next to her.

"Adrastea doesn't use a bow. Strictly knifes, remember?"

"What I want to know is who was careless enough to leave a broken bow for us to find?" Platon remarked.

"Maybe they wanted you to find it," Sylvia suggested.

"It doesn't make sense. Why would they want that? If they wanted us to find it the only reason I can think of is for them to ambush us while we were up there. But they didn't so that's not really an option either."

"Maybe this has something to do with the tree," Silas said quietly.

"What do you mean? What tree?"

"Platon and I found a tree down in the valley that was tall enough for someone to see over our walls. That is if they can climb properly."

"Most Cievens can," Sylvia answered promptly.

"Yes anway, so we are most likely being watched, correct?"

Platon and Sylvia both nodded their heads silently, trying to see what Silas was getting at. A lot of times Silas was a bit out of the loop but every once in a while he came up with some very good ideas.

"So I was thinking, maybe someone wanted us to know that the Cievo were watching us. Why else would they leave a broken bow lying around?"

Sylvia got up from her chair and paced around the floor in her bear feet (She almost never wore shoes), thinking over what Silas had said. It was incredibly important that they make no mistakes and to that they would have to make sure all other options - if they had any - were better. Eventually she turned to Silas and said, "You could be right."

"Do you think its Adrastea who's trying to tell us?" Platon asked distractedly.

It was really just a random thought and he did not really expect it to be true.

"No," Sylvia answered.

"If she wanted to tell us she could just walk up the road and say it to our faces. Not to mention is no more friends with Cievo than we are."

Platon grabbed a grape out of the fruit bowl and popped it into his mouth saying, "So the question is, who's snitching on our friend Haldit?"