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“Why can Solveig understand you, too, but Papa and Sigrid only heard roaring?”

The bear sighed softly, as if grieved by this. “I have only a very little magic, and it is borrowed. It was an unexpected gift that she understood me. I thought only you would hear my words.”

Gytha chewed her lip as she thought. The cold seeped through her coat and her boots, and she shivered. Without thinking, she leaned a little closer to the bear, letting her shoulder rest against his again.

“Let me talk to my family and I will tell you my decision tomorrow morning,” she said at last. “But I think I want to say yes.”

Alexander twisted his head around to look at her again. “What? Why?”

She took a deep breath. “Because you asked it.”

Chapter 3

For hours, Gytha treasured that early morning conversation without sharing it with the others. She turned Alexander’s words over in her mind, remembering the tone of his deep, rumbling laughter, the feel of his hot breath on her face, and the trembling, exhausted strength and solidity of his shoulder. The blood-crusted gouge down his long muzzle. When she had made her decision, she told her parents.

“You’re out of your mind,” Ivarr said firmly. “Absolutely not.”

“Pabbi, please.” She stood and walked around the table to kneel in front of him. She took his hand and put it to her forehead. “The fever is gone, and Alexander did it. He could have held healing over my head and bargained with me forit, but he didn’t.”

“But it’s a bear!” Her father’s voice rose. “Bears eat people!”

“His name is Alexander, and he didn’t eat us. He gave us food and healed Mamma and me.” Still holding his hand, she said, “You scratched his face pretty badly. He wasn’t even angry. He said you were brave to face a bear to save your family.”

Her father’s blond eyebrows drew downward in disbelief. “How did it tell you that? Animals don’t talk.”

Solveig said, “I heard it speak, too, Pabbi. He has a nice voice, all rumbly and soft.”

Ivarr looked from one girl to the other. “Sigrid? Have you heard it talk?”

The girl bit her lip and reluctantly shook her head. “No,” she said. “Not in words. I only heard growling and rumbling. But I saw it breathe into Mamma’s face and then she was well. It didn’t growl at her or bite or anything. Just breathed at her.”

She looked at Hlif for support, and Hlif reluctantly nodded. “I felt his breath on my face like a hot wind, and it felt like clean fire in my bones, burning away the fever. I can believe he is not an ordinary bear.” Then she frowned. “But I agree that the task is not safe, and I would risk myself sooner than I would risk you, Gytha. Will he take me instead?”

“Mama!” Gytha said, shocked. “The little ones need you! Papa needs you!”

Hlif said sharply, “You are my child, Gytha! It is my right and duty to protect you.”

“But I must do what is right!” Gytha cried.

The argument went for hours, until everyone had wept at least once. Even Halvard and Brinja cried, for they were not used to raised voices or disagreement of any sort.

In the end, Ivarr all but barred the door. “I won’t keep you a prisoner, Gytha,” he said at last. “But even if I believe that you hearing it talk wasn’t the fever but the true words of the bear,I cannot think it wise to go traipsing off to the wild north with a predator as your only companion. Whatever it wants, it can’t be good for you.”

“He has been kind to us, Pabbi, and I want to help him.”

Ivarr stopped pacing and faced her. “No good can come of it, Gytha. Don’t do it.”

She stepped closer and put her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest. His heartbeat in her ear felt like his steady, reliable strength. Even now, she was not tall enough to put her chin on his shoulder as Mamma did. He wrapped his arms around her, and she realized he was afraid.

She looked up at him. “I’m not frightened, Pabbi. If he meant to hurt me, or any of us, he has had so many chances. If I am hurt, then I know it will not be by his choice.”

He sighed and tightened his arms around her, but he said nothing else.

Long after the lamps were blown out and everyone was in bed, she heard her parents talking in anguished whispers.

She woke long before dawn and dressed quietly. She wrapped some bread and cheese in a clean rag and stuffed them inside her coat. Then she peeked outside.

The bear stood at the edge of the trees, a shadow lost in the shadows until it took a step forward. Silently he strode to her until they stood face to face.