Lane, Sean’s beloved, dies of his wounds in the middle of a dark, ice-cold forest. The girl buries him and, no longer believing in success, moves on: until Karinholl, where their kin live, there are still two weeks of travel, and provisions are left with very little. The bitter cold grips the world, and only hungry wind-dogs roam the deep-winter nights. Suddenly, Sean notices strange flowers. Where did they come from, here in the midst of freezing? Moving toward them, the girl steps out into an enormous abandoned city…