It took a long while for the surging cold to gradually subside. The extinguished torches were relit, but the temperature in the burial chamber did not rise at all. Instead, it continued to fall.
Viserys leaned forward slightly and looked into the coffin. Then even his breathing unconsciously grew a little quieter.
Once everyone had readjusted to the light and arranged for the frozen people to be carried away, those who remained looked into the coffin, and all of them drew sharp breaths.
There were no skeletal remains or magical objects connected to the Others inside the stone coffin, as they had imagined. Instead, a person lay within.
No, not a person.
She wore some sort of blue-white magical fabric. It shimmered faintly blue in the firelight, showing no sign of damage from time or damp.
And her skin had the pallor peculiar to the Others, tinged with the same corpse-like blue as Benjen's, like the color of ice formed beneath moonlight.
Her hair was blue-white as well, spilling over her shoulders and the edges of the stone coffin. Her eyes were closed, her hands folded over her abdomen, and she looked so peaceful that she might merely have been asleep.
But when the torchlight fell on her face, everyone saw her clearly.
Her features were exquisitely formed and elongated, with high cheekbones and a prominent brow, but her lips were bloodless. It was the beautiful face of a female Other.
She lay in the stone coffin without the slightest rise or fall of her chest. Clearly, she was dead-or perhaps merely in some temporary state of suspended animation.
All that cold had emanated from the female Other's body.
At some point, Benjen had approached the stone coffin.
He squeezed past Viserys, Robb, and the others from behind, moving step