The Lament Way had changed. The broken bells no longer hung from branches or lay scattered on the ice; the chains were gone, the bronze fragments vanished as though the glacier itself had swallowed them overnight. The corridor between the ice walls felt wider now, the overhangs less oppressive, the air less thick with the scent of old grief. Even the wind had gentled—carrying only the clean bite of snow instead of the metallic tang of sorrow.
