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 on
ly 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 that 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.”
I noticed a slight tremble to Giselle’s hand as she reached for a couple of twigs that had broken off her branch and fallen to the snow. I bit my lip. I shouldn’t have said anything. The whole situation was unnerving enough.
So when Giselle later gave a wordless cry from the mouth of the cave where she had gone to fill a pot with snow, I jumped up immediately from the small fire which I had been tending. As I hurried to join her, various terrifying possibilities raced through my mind. But when I staggered to a stop in the cave entrance, my mouth fell open. I hadn’t expected this.
“That’s…”
“Beautiful,” she breathed, not taking her eyes from the sky. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I don’t remember seeing it last night…” I couldn’t blame her for her wonder.
“We were in a deeper cave,” she reminded me. “And I don’t remember coming out after dark. But perhaps this only happens here. Part of the enchantment of this place.”
Enchantment seemed the right word for it. I had never seen or even imagined such a thing in any of the kingdoms I had visited. Spectacular ribbons of violet and turquoise and emerald streaked through the dark night sky, throwing reflections of color down onto the white snow. As we watched, the ribbons pulsed and danced across the heavens.
“You don’t think they could hurt us, do you?” asked Giselle, after we had stood there for endless minutes in entranced silence.
I shook myself slightly and looked at her. But irresistibly, my eyes were drawn back to the incredible phenomenon.
“Surely not?” I whispered.
“It’s hard to believe something so beautiful could come from someone as evil as the Snow Queen.”
“Perhaps it doesn’t,” I said. “Or even if it is the result of one of her enchantments, not everything about them is bad. Think of the one that protects Valley View from the storms and snow. Her magic is a corruption of the objects of the godmothers, so it must have had some good purpose originally.”
Giselle nodded, her eyes still riveted on the sky. “I can’t imagine how I’m going to sleep now.”
It was a long time before we dragged ourselves away to cook some food, and then we brought it back to eat at the mouth of the cave. Eventually we lay down to sleep there, back-to-back, leaving our little fire to die out on its own and relying on my heat to keep us from freezing.
Neither of us thought we would actually be able to sleep, not with the outline of the Snow Queen’s palace black against the unending beauty of the sky. But eventually our long day of exertion overcame us, inexorably drawing us down into sleep.
I woke with a start, Giselle mumbling and twitching in her sleep beside me. A cold, clear day greeted me, the sky returned to its normal shade of blue. The stillness made the absence of other sounds stand out. Nothing flew through the sky or rustled in the trees. And not a sound emerged from the palace which, unlike the day before, now seemed closer than I remembered.
If I didn’t know better, I would believe us all alone up here, confronted with an empty building of ice. But we weren’t alone, and we’d do well not to forget it.
The reassuring warmth of my inner fire still burned, unaffected by the proximity of the Palace of Ice. It reassured me, somewhat, but I still remembered how easily it had been taken away. And how foolishly I had then behaved. I had worried that the powers had changed me, but in my efforts to prove I was the same person I was before them, I had overcompensated and rushed into action without proper thought.
The truth was that they had changed me. As had the rest of my experiences in Eldon. And I had to work out how to take all the new parts of me and make myself into a stronger whole. Because, with or without my powers, there was no going back to who I was before.
And now my fire had returned—and I was glad for it—but I couldn’t make the same mistakes. My new power was merely a tool. It didn’t define me, and it wasn’t what made me strong. My mind, and my determination, and the hours I had spent building my skills were just as valuable. As long as I remembered to use them.
Quickly I prepared some food and cleaned up our little camp, my mind lingering on the many unknowns about to confront us. When Giselle appeared, sleepily rubbing her eyes and claiming some breakfast, I was staring down at our packs.
“I think we should leave them here,” I said.
“Good morning to you, too,” she murmured. She took a bite. “Leave what?”
“Our packs.”
When she looked surprised, I raised my brows. “Do you want to face unknown dangers from a bizarre palace built of
ice and a woman claiming to be some sort of queen of winter with a giant, heavy pack on your back?”
Giselle blinked at me, obviously still struggling to think so early in the morning. “I can’t say that I do, now that I come to think of it.”
I nodded once. “Exactly. If we leave them at the back of the cave, they should be safe enough.” I bit my lip. “I hope.”
It would be a deadly trip back down the mountain after we rescued Oliver if something happened to our packs while we were gone. Especially since he hadn’t taken his when he left Valley View, so we would have to share Giselle and my meager supplies between the three of us.
But that was a problem for later. We had to actually rescue Oliver first. And while I would love to think it was just a matter of marching into the palace, burning the place down, and marching back out with Oliver in tow, I didn’t really expect it to be so easy. Who knew how long we would be gone?
Giselle’s stiff posture as she broke a trail ahead of me told me she felt as unsure as I did. But neither of us said anything. Since neither of us had any intention of abandoning Oliver or Eldon, there was nothing to be done but press forward.
I just wished my mind didn’t insist on dwelling on all the awful things Oliver might have endured since being brought here. What would this Snow Queen do to him if he refused her wishes? My heart sped up a bit. And what if he agreed?
Shivers shook me only to alternate with bursts of heat so intense I could barely control them whenever I remembered Oliver’s arms around me and his lips against mine. Surely he would not agree to marry this woman who was tearing his kingdom apart. Assuming marriage was, indeed, her goal. Surely he would not.
The closer we got, the more incredible the ice palace became. The blue-green color reminded me of the marble used in the royal palace of Eldon, but it was different, too. Translucent in a way the marble couldn’t match.
A long sloping staircase emerged from the snow and led up to huge double doors. I didn’t exactly want to barrel through the front entrance, but I could see no other openings at ground level, and our progress with the snowshoes was so slow that I hated the idea of trying to circle the structure looking for another way in.
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