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The queen laughed aloud. “Hehaschosen! He chose me!” She smiled wickedly. The illusion she had used to make her lips red, her skin white, and her hair black was gone, and the gray of her face was as cold and merciless as stone. Her teeth were sharp and white, and this was no illusion.

“What alternative did you offer him?” Gytha asked, still working her way toward the front of the crowd. Most of the goblins had fallen silent and looked between her and the queen, and Gytha could not tell if they approved or disapproved of her argument. Perhaps they merely thought her foolish and expected to see her thrashed or killed in some entertaining way.

The queen’s smile widened. “Does it matter? He has chosen me above all others.”

“Did you even give him a choice at all?”

Javethai grinned wickedly. “How foolish he would be, to choose anyone but me!”

“What about me?” Gytha cried.

She could have bitten her tongue. What had possessed her to say such a ridiculous thing? She didn’t want to marry the bear prince! Or at least, she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Maybe she would someday, but not yet.

Still, Eshkeshken had suggested offering the queen a bargain. Gytha steadied her frayed nerves. “What about me?” she repeated, hoping her voice didn’t shake too much. “If you say he has chosen you above all others, he must have other choices.”

The queen sharp eyes scoured her like the cruelest winter wind. “You dare speak in my presence, foolish human? Silence, fool.”

Gytha trembled at the menace in the goblin queen’s tone, but said bravely, “How can you say he has chosen you when he has had no choice at all? Surely you are not afraid to let him see me?”

The queen opened her mouth to refuse, but Arenenak, the older goblin who had greeted Eshkeshken, spoke from just behind Gytha’s shoulder. “Your Majesty,” he said in a most courteous tone. “It would be most enjoyable to see the bear prince choose you publicly. I think you deserve that honor.”

Another goblin, whom Gytha did not recognize, said, “Your Majesty, it would honor you in my eyes to see the bear prince revere and love you for your power rather than merely fear you. Perhaps you might offer him the girl as a much inferior alternative?”

Queen Javethai’s eyes flashed dangerously, and she growled deep in her throat. The bear rumbled behind her, but as the guards had given him a little space, he did not strike out at anyone. He shifted uneasily.

“Three days, Your Majesty.” Gytha smiled as sweetly and innocently as she could. “Give me three days to convince him to choose me publicly. Doesn’t he have a human form? He should be in that form, so that he can speak clearly.”

The queen frowned at her and then looked out at the crowd. The murmuring and whispering of the ice goblins sounded like gravel grinding together, and Gytha felt the menace in it. The crowd was volatile, dangerous both to her and to the queen.

The bear appeared to have heard, or least to have understood, nothing of this, for he swung his head from side to side, growling, as if to defend himself from unseen attackers.

“Three nights,” the queen said at last. “For three nights, you may enter his bedchamber, and if he remembers you in the morning and asks for you, I will let him choose between us. If he cannot even remember you, then that is his choice, isn’t it?” She smiled, and for a moment the illusion flickered again: berry red lips, ebony hair, and fiery eyes.

Gytha’s heart sank. The queen’s confidence, and the cruel light in her eyes, promised that this would not be as easy as it sounded.

Would the bear prince remember anything? It took courage indeed to resist such an enchanting woman, full of magic and beautiful beyond all others. But he knew her cruelty;he had seen this illusion of her before! Gytha held tightly to her fragile hope.

The queen cried to the crowd, “Hear this now! After three nights, we will have a wedding here, in this very court! Come and see the wedding of the queen!” Then she smiled down at Gytha again, and said more softly, “Foolish child.”

With a graceful motion, she dismissed the onlookers. She turned and barked an order at the guards, who poked and prodded the bear until he roared in frustration and bolted into the white castle.

Gytha cried out in frustration and tried to follow, but someone grabbed her arm. She flinched away before realizing that it was Arenenak, with Dakjudr not far behind him. She looked for Eshkeshken with wide eyes but did not see him among the many ice goblins. Their faces blurred together, gray skin and gray hair indistinct among the silver-tinted shadows.

Someone leaned close to whisper in her ear, “Foolish human child.” She spun and could not identify who had said it; the crowd was still dense, though the goblins were dispersing among the many shadowed alleys and icy buildings.

“Follow me.” Dakjudr caught her eye and waited until Gytha nodded before she led her into one of the buildings. Arenenak followed them, and shortly afterward they were joined by Eshkeshken and the scarred young goblin, Wirkelshen.

The ice goblin prince leaned back against the wall of ice and said, “We must get Gytha to the bear prince’s quarters tonight.”

“Your Highness?” Another goblin joined them, and Gytha gathered that this was Iphreshken, another ally who had apparently not known until now that the goblin prince was alive. From the quiet conversation and explanations, Gytha inferred that Eshkeshken had been missing for years, and most people thought the queen had murdered him. She had murdered manyothers with lesser claims to the throne. “I thought Javethai had had you murdered.”

“She would have if she had known who I was,” Eshkeshken said grimly. Gytha gathered that Eshkeshken had been in hiding and disguised for years.

After some discussion, it was determined that Eshkeshken and Dakjudr would rest in Arenenak’s quarters. Gytha was a little startled by the prince’s lack of argument about resting; he was usually the first to get up after a rest when they had been trekking over the ice. But now he looked decidedly ill.

Wirkelshen and Iphreshken were to escort Gytha to the bear’s quarters and remain there to ensure that her efforts to convince the bear to marry her were not interrupted. Arenenak pressed a packet into Gytha’s hands with a quick explanation before he turned his attention back to the prince. After another moment of conversation, they set off in different directions.

When Eshkeshken turned to follow Arenenak, he stumbled and would have fallen but for Dakjudr’s grip on his arm. Gytha bit her lip and looked after him for a moment before starting after her guides.