 Why does the story take place somewhere cold?
While she waited he spun a dream, attaching it to the crags that loomed over the pass, and to the frozen ground underfoot. Var saw with some surprise that all the walls were sheathed in ice—warm to the touch, bound fast against melting by the Watcher's will. Behind them began a tinkling of falling water, thawed from the glacial ridges above to descend sheet-wise over the cave mouth, freezing as it fell into lengthening icicles. Hot food and drink were before them almost at once. And before very long, I'm sure, I would have performed some deed which Groz would recognize as a worthy exploit, and would thus have healed the feud between our families.
 The history of the area is such that warmth and resources have been taken from the land
 The history of the area is such that warmth and resources have been taken from the land  A volcano has blocked light from the region making everything cold  The mountains are the only place Var and Neena can hide  It isn't actually cold, because of the lava