They descended the road into the valley, where the village lay. Black silhouettes of its houses and lights burning in the distance could be seen.
The riders were approaching them. White armor, white horses with predatory teeth. At the head of the squad rode the woman with white hair and the crystal crown upon her head. The Cursed realized that it was already too late to run. He grasped the crystal he kept in one of the compartments of his armor.
The riders stopped in front of them. The Ice Queen turned her head toward the Judge.
"Have you seen a man with black hair and a beard? Wearing technological armor?" she asked.
"He is here, my lady. I can feel it!" said one of the white-haired warriors accompanying the Queen. He scanned the surroundings with a displeased, hostile expression.
The Judge looked at the Ice Queen in silence. Her eye color shifted from violet to red.
The Ice Queen smirked darkly.
"Seems like you've grown tired of living."
She raised her hand, and a freezing surge engulfed the Judge. The Judge staggered back. Her dark, ancient armor was covered with frost. She snatched her sword and advanced on the rider with the crown. She struck with a powerful blow — the woman fell from her horse, and the horse was cleaved in two. Then she cut down two white-haired warriors who charged at her on horseback with drawn ice spears.
The Ice Queen rose and struck the Judge with icy magic, using both hands.
At that moment, the Cursed came up from behind and drove his sword into the Ice Queen's back up to the hilt. She exhaled, letting out a long moan. The blade slid out of her, and the wound closed without a trace. The Ice Queen turned, searching for her enemy with cold, furious eyes, but found no one.
She raised her hand and unleashed a freezing storm at random across the nearest stretch of ground.
"He is here!" she shouted. "Follow me! We'll kill him!"
She seized a horse left by a fallen warrior, flew onto it, and raced toward the forest. Straight for where the Cursed was fleeing with the crystal in his hand. He slipped in among the trees and saw the Ice Queen reined in her horse at the very edge of the forest, peering hopelessly into the darkness, her crystal crown brushing against the branches. For a few seconds, she let out a helpless roar. Then she spurred the horse into a bolt and raced off to the side.
The Cursed knew that this time she would not abandon the chase so easily, and that he had to press on as quickly as possible.
After several hours, he crossed the forest whose temperature had fallen too low for life. He passed the bodies of animals, stiffened by sudden, deadly frosts that had struck the forest in the middle of autumn. He saw frozen bird corpses that hadn't had time to fly away, still perched on frost-covered branches. His own legs barely obeyed him. Only the strength of a vampire kept him going—and even that might not last long.
He emerged from the forest and saw ahead a snow-covered plain. Scattered across it, at fairly distant intervals, stood lonely houses.
He reached the first house when the mounted squad appeared behind him, racing in his direction. Inside the house lay bodies, frozen to death by the cold.
The white-haired riders with grim faces burst into the house, but found no one. The Cursed slipped away through the basement and a hidden underground passage that led him farther out onto the plain.
He found himself among the snows again, running under the dim moonlight, saving his life from the icy horror racing at his heels.
The second house. Again, bodies frozen by the cold. The riders reached it, but he escaped through the attic, jumped from the roof, and ran on.
The third house. Again, the dead. The riders surrounded the building. They circled it several times and disappeared.
Dawn was breaking.