Valley View served not the King of Eldon but this so-called Snow Queen. They provided her with food and supplies and kept her existence a secret from the world. And Sterling was not a villager, but a long-time servant of this queen. He carried her commands between her distant Palace of Ice and the village. And any lawbreakers were sent back with him, to serve the Snow Queen in whatever way she saw fit. None of them ever returned to the village.
“What do you think she does with them?” asked Giselle, as if reading my thoughts.
I threw up my hands. “I have no idea. Turn them into giant sculptures of ice to decorate her throne room?”
Giselle paled even further, and I felt instantly guilty.
“No, of course she doesn’t,” I said quickly. “Ignore me. I’m sure she has them doing the usual servant things. Preparing her food, cleaning her rooms, tending her fires.” I considered. “Well, maybe not that last one. Not if she lives in a palace of ice.”
Giselle’s eyes widened. “Surely it’s not really made of ice. Surely it’s just a name…”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t put anything past her at this point. Would you?”
Giselle’s thoughts seemed to have wandered down a different track. “So do you think this magical object we’ve been chasing even exists?”
I rubbed at my temples, briefly covering my face as I considered her question and my own foolishness.
“Yes,” I said at last. “Something is protecting this village from the weather. And something is blocking my powers. But I don’t suppose it all happened the way Sterling described it. We’ve been able to tell since we arrived that there’s something wrong with this place. With these people. But it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with ice. No one seems frozen…”
I swallowed. “I didn’t think it was the same thing as what’s infecting the rest of the kingdom. But clearly it’s all coming from this so-called queen. Which means while the object may work against enchantment, it clearly doesn’t work against this strange ability she must have to destroy people’s hearts and minds. Which means it would never have worked to free the palace anyway. And if I had listened to my instincts warning me about Sterling, maybe I wouldn’t have been so quick to do something so stupid…”
Giselle looked away, apparently not willing to absolve me, and I couldn’t blame her. Because it hadn’t been trust in Sterling that had led me astray. It had been my own pride and over-confidence. I had let myself rely too much on my new powers. And then, when they were stripped away, I had been so determined to prove my strength—to prove how useful I could be all on my own without powers or even help—I had behaved not with strength but with recklessness. And someone else had suffered the consequences. I deserved far worse than Giselle’s condemnation.
“So why bring us here at all?” Giselle sounded bitter. “If you’re right, and it’s Oliver he wanted—or rather she wanted, I suppose—why not take us straight to her? We wouldn’t have known he was leading us away from the village.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. I can’t know for certain, of course, but I think that was probably his original plan. Only the weather was worse than he expected. We were in a bad way after that blizzard, and he must have decided we needed to rest and resupply.”
Giselle looked at me grimly. “And the blizzard did something else, remember. It exposed your powers. Maybe he thought his queen wouldn’t be so pleased if he showed up at her ice palace with a girl who can lob fireballs in tow. He must have had to improvise. Try to come up with a plan to separate us from Oliver.”
I groaned. “And we played straight into his hands.”
Giselle glared at me.
“Well, I did, at any rate” I corrected quickly. “Me, and Oliver’s stupid nobility.” I thought it over, remembering the way Sterling had disappeared when we first arrived. “What did that elder say? That we hadn’t asked? I think Sterling commanded them to lock that hut and forbid all access to it. On the Snow Queen’s orders, of course. He probably told them not to give us any information on the object, and not to tell us anything about anything unless we specifically asked. Easy enough instructions for everyone to follow, but safe, too, since none of us would ever have thought to ask about a Snow Queen.”
I groaned. “We were too busy asking about the mirror which was likely never here at all.”
How strange that I had been so right to mistrust Sterling even though it now seemed as if he couldn’t be responsible for the thing that had made me doubt him in the first place. Because if his queen wanted Oliver alive, it didn’t make sense for him to have caused the cave in.
Silence fell between us as we both pondered the most important question. If it was Oliver the Snow Queen had been after all along, then what did she want with him? I had a sinking suspicion it must have something to do with his being the heir to the throne. Perhaps she had grown tired of ruling a distant mountain and a single village. And if she offered him a marriage alliance in exchange for lifting the curse on Eldon, would he agree?
Would he have any choice?
“What do we do now?” asked Giselle, and for once I remembered that she was only fifteen and years younger than me.
I hadn’t actually considered it, but I found I knew the answer all the same.
“We go after him, of course. We get him back, and we melt this ice palace to the ground.”
Giselle met my eyes and actually smiled, her expression ferocious. “Well, what are we waiting for then?”
The elder had been able to tell us only that the Snow Queen’s Ice Palace lay to the north. Or, in other words, up. We didn’t bother questioning anyone else. If no one taken there ever returned, it seemed fruitless to hope any of the villagers would know the way. And I couldn’t imagine they’d tell us even if they did.
At least they didn’t try to stop us leaving.
It took longer than I would have liked for us to prepare, but Giselle had insisted that we both sleep and eat, at least a little, before starting out. Reluctantly I had to admit that she was right. We wouldn’t get far on a sleepless night and empty bellies. And we’d sleep better here in the house—despite the destruction I’d wreaked on it—than we would out in the snow.
And then, of course, there was the matter of our packs. With only the two of us, we had to abandon many of the supplies we’d used on the way up to Valley View. I had never been so conscious of the fact that Sterling and Oliver had carried the heavier packs. So even more time passed while we unpacked and laid everything out, carefully choosing which things we most needed.
Despite our early start to the day, it was well into the afternoon when we finally set off. My feet seemed to bound forward, eager to be on our way, but I had enough experience now to know that wouldn’t last. Not for long, anyway. The mountain and the snow would soon sap my energy and weaken my muscles.
But it wasn’t only the desire to be off after Oliver that drove my steps forward. I couldn’t wait to be free of this valley. Since none of us had seen any other way out during our time here, Giselle and I had agreed to backtrack to the narrow rock entrance and go from there. I just hoped we could find some sign of Sterling and Oliver’s passage to guide us after that. Because if we couldn’t…
But all my doubts fell away as we stepped clear of the rock passage and out into the deep snow, the frozen landscape still piled high from the recent blizzard. Giselle immediately sat down to strap on her snowshoes, but I just stood there.
I closed my eyes, already full of more emotions than I knew how to handle. The inferno that burst into bloom inside my chest raced eagerly down my arms and sprang from my fingertips in dancing flames. I swirled my fingers, forming the fire on each hand into a ball, and hurled both of them at distant trees.
They hit with a bang and sizzle, shaking clumps of snow from the branches. I laughed, and Giselle applauded.
“We needed some good news,” she said, still fastening the clasps of her shoes.
Grinning back at her, I thrust out my palms and sent
a rush of hot air racing away from me. The trees in front of us bent and creaked, more snow falling to the ground.
“Whoa there,” said Giselle, climbing back to her feet. “Let’s not bring the forest down around us.”
I nodded, my momentary elation subsiding as I remembered our situation. I quickly sat and attached my own snowshoes, my thoughts turning dark.
“He’ll be ready for me, you know,” I said. When Giselle looked at me blankly, I added, “Sterling.”
Understanding crossed her face.
“I knew we didn’t want him to find out about my powers.” I wobbled a little as I stood, my legs taking a moment to remember how to walk properly in the strange contraptions.
“Well, I for one am glad you didn’t let us die,” said Giselle, but I could see the worry in her eyes.
I gestured at the valley behind us. “It doesn’t seem promising that this Snow Queen can apparently dampen my powers.”
Giselle winced, but her eyes were thoughtful. “The enchantment on that valley is obviously of very long-standing. And this Snow Queen clearly is no follower of the High King. She isn’t a godmother. She must be fueling her magic with objects she has somehow acquired, twisting them to her purposes. As you said, there must be an object hidden in the valley somewhere. One that works against enchantments, but not against her control over people. So, one that wouldn’t have helped us,” she added before sighing.
“So far I’m not feeling encouraged.” I made a face at her.
She rolled her eyes back at me. “My point is that just because this object deadened your powers, doesn’t mean any of the ones at her palace will. I can’t see why she would want to nullify enchantment there. Her palace would probably melt around her ears.”
I grinned, cheered by her logic. Fire danced across my fingertips. “I think I might be able to help with the melting thing.”
Giselle smiled back at me. “I’m counting on it.”
To my utter gratitude, we easily found tracks leading further up the mountain. I didn’t know what method Sterling had used to compel Oliver’s obedience, but it looked—as far as my limited knowledge could tell—to have only been the two of them. The track they had left behind them didn’t look packed enough to have been used by any others.
And the existence of the broken trail raised my spirits for the first time since I had burst into the storage hut. It was even better than I had hoped since it both showed the way and eased our own journey. For the first time I began to think we might actually have a better than decent chance to make it to this distant palace.
“As long as it doesn’t snow,” I muttered, too low for Giselle to hear.
By the time darkness fell, forcing us to stop, I felt more relieved than I cared to admit. I had thought I was starting to grow accustomed to the exertion on our earlier journey, but apparently even two idle days had caused all my muscles to rebel.
We succeeded in finding a cave to shelter in, at least. It was shallower than I would have liked, but a great deal better than nothing. And at least I didn’t have to worry that a snow leopard might have made her den in the distant reaches of the cave.
I hadn’t even thought of gathering wood as we traveled, so we had only a meager fire that wouldn’t last the night. A much smaller problem than it otherwise would have been without my powers. We ended up curling up to sleep back-to-back so that my internal fire could keep us both warm. And from the way we overslept, it worked all too well.
Once we saw how far the sun had already risen, we raced to pack up and get back on the trail, neither of us speaking much. I looked out of the cave with trepidation, but no fresh snow had fallen. I heaved a sigh of relief as we resumed our journey. I had no idea how far ahead they were. They had left in the middle of the night, so perhaps they weren’t even stopping for darkness. Some fresh enchantment drove them on, perhaps. Either way, I didn’t have any hope of catching them before they reached this Snow Queen. But that didn’t mean I wanted to waste any time either. Who knew how quickly she would want to seal an alliance?
For reasons that didn’t contain any logic, I had expected the scenery to change past the village, but it continued to look much as it had further downslope. The snow was thicker, courtesy of the blizzard, and some of the paths were a little steeper, but otherwise the trees looked the same—tall firs interspersed with the occasional bare trunk of something else—and the mountains still rose around us.
We saw no sign of any snow leopards, and I suspected they had all fled lower, like the one Oliver had been forced to hunt down. We did find a couple of deep valleys with drops so steep we couldn’t even slide down as we had previously. Instead we had to pick our way down what felt like rock faces, using our boots instead of our snowshoes.
We took our time on these, although the burning inside me always increased at our extra slow pace. But I let off the pressure by throwing the occasional fire ball at the opposite slope rather than hurrying. We couldn’t afford for either of us to fall. Neither Giselle nor I would be able to drag the other either onward or back to safety. Not on our own.
The second night we couldn’t find a cave, so had to make do with a small depression in a cliff face. We had gathered some wood as we walked that day, but I suspected we would have been in trouble without my powers.
The next night we found a deeper cave, perfect for our purposes. A fact I assured myself of by exploring its full length with blazing fire springing from each hand. We were the only occupants. We slept much better than the previous night but woke to a sight that filled me with dread.
Snow. Gently falling from the sky, flakes so soft and light they danced on the light breeze before hitting the ground. But hit the ground they did.
Giselle and I exchanged a loaded look, but neither of us spoke. Instead we packed and attached our snowshoes with fumbling haste. The path was still visible—for now. But I had no idea what we would do when it disappeared.
The morning passed in a blur, a race against the falling flakes, with all my attention focused on the disappearing trail ahead of us. To make it worse, our progress slowed as the packed path gradually filled with fresh powder. My eyes barely left it, afraid that if I moved them away, I wouldn’t be able to find it again when I looked back down.
At some point my neck began to spasm, but I barely noticed. My eyes ached from the strain of staring at the bright white of the snow, but still I tried not to blink. The lines were so faint now, our progress so labored and slow.
I blinked, my eyes watering, and when they reopened, I saw only a flat expanse before us. I swiveled my head desperately, pushing ahead. There. I saw a packed down line, the path appearing faintly before me again. I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to pick up the pace. I knew Giselle followed close behind, but I had no attention to spare for her.
Several minutes later, I blinked and lost the path again. This time I couldn’t find it. I stopped, my eyes still glued to the ground, my heart beating faster.
“Can you see it?” I asked. “Can you see the path?”
Giselle shuffled up beside me, close enough to touch my arm. Gripping it, she squeezed, making me look up at last from the snow.
“I don’t think it matters anymore.” Her voice was a breathless whisper.
I followed her gaze and gasped.
Ahead of us and slightly to one side, a tall structure rose from the distant slope. Steep towers and impossible curves and long arching bridges.
I drew in a shaking breath. “I could have sworn your brother said your palace was one of a kind.”
Giselle slowly shook her head. “He’d never seen this one.” She whistled softly. “And I think this one might actually be made of ice after all.”
“Welcome to the Palace of Ice,” I said softly. “Domain of the Snow Queen.”
Chapter 26
The palace had looked shockingly close, but as with the mountains themselves when we first started this journey, it didn’t seem to get any closer for a long time. It didn’t help t
hat our pace had slowed even further now that we had to break our own trail. We took turns at the task, swapping regularly and taking much more frequent breaks.
I occupied myself by keeping my internal fire running at full heat, carefully balanced just below breakout level. I kept expecting it to wink out when we approached too close to the palace, and my fear easily fueled the constant burn.
But finally, finally the palace did begin to creep closer, and no icy fingers reached out to steal my fire. At some point the snow had stopped as well, the latest fall only deep enough to cover Sterling and Oliver’s trail. I no longer begrudged a single aching, tired muscle from the pace at which we’d pushed ourselves the last few days. We’d made it just in time.
The now clear blue sky began to slowly change, tinging with pink and orange before deepening into indigo. I frowned at the palace which now loomed over us, close but not close enough. We wouldn’t make it today, after all.
Giselle seemed as reluctant as I was to stop, but neither of us wished to face the Snow Queen in the middle of the night, either. So when Giselle noticed a small cave off to one side of our current track, we reluctantly changed course. I had been far too distracted to gather wood, so we picked up what we could now. As we worked, I felt the silent presence of the Ice Palace casting its sinister shadow over everything. I found myself facing away from its fantastical shape as often as I could, but it took me some time to realize what was bothering me.
“There are no animals,” I said.
Giselle looked up from breaking off a small branch and peered around with a frown.
“It’s so silent.” I swept my own gaze around the area but saw nothing to refute my statement. “When was the last time you heard a bird, even?”
Giselle’s brow crinkled in thought, but she couldn’t come up with an answer.
“I’m sure I haven’t heard one since we saw the palace,” I said. “I couldn’t work out what was bothering me so much at first.”
A Crown of Snow and Ice: A Retelling of The Snow Queen (Beyond the Four Kingdoms Book 3) Page 20
