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A strange, fraught silence followed this. Eshkeshken’s icy eyes flicked to Gytha and then back to Wirkelshen’s hard features. “I am surprised,” he said in a low voice. “I did not think you so trusting of the queen’s servants.”

“I wasn’t.” Wirkelshen bowed deeply in apology.

“But the guard on the second shift, after Gytha entered the room, is my cousin, Karantikai; I hunted seal and fished with him a thousand times before he entered the king’s service.

Like many of us, he suspected Javethai in the king’s death, if not your mother’s.

He never approved of the bargain with the bear prince, but he did not see any way to help the unfortunate prisoner.

When I told him of the queen’s new bargain with the bear prince, that the prisoner might be free if he chose Gytha publicly, Karantikai gave me what information he could. ”

The ice goblin bowed again, as if a little afraid of what Eshkeshken might say.

Eshkeshken’s face contorted for a moment, and he pressed a hand to his chest, his breathing shallow and uneven.

“Your Highness?” Dakjudr asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” The prince’s voice was rough. “The drink is easy to avoid, but he will freeze without the blankets. I imagine the queen has enchanted those to keep him insensible; even if he wishes to remain alert, he cannot do so and live.”

Gytha said, “Can we get him other blankets? Where did mine come from?”

Eshkeshken looked at Arenenak, who answered, “Our people do not keep furs or blankets often, for we have little need of the warmth. These are borrowed from several friends around the city, and I know of no others. ”

“I can give him mine,” Gytha said promptly. “My clothes are warm enough.”

The ice goblin prince looked at her for a moment, his expression difficult to read. “Barely. You would risk death for him yet again? You hardly know him, and he cannot possibly repay you as you deserve.”

Gytha’s cheeks heated, and the feeling was exacerbated by the frigid air.

She wondered how obvious her blushing was.

“I know he is good and kind and brave, and that he saved my family from a miserable death. I’m not doing it because I want anything from him.

” She bit her lip and tried to hold Eshkeshken’s steady gaze without looking away.

“I want to save him from the evil queen because he has been captive for so long, and he must feel so lost and lonely and forgotten.

“No one should feel that their existence doesn’t matter, least of all him. Out of his loneliness and despair, he still chose to be kind to me. How can I forget that and leave him in her power, knowing that I could have fought harder to free him?”

The ice goblin prince held her eyes a moment longer and then nodded, looking down at the floor of ice.

He pressed a hand to his chest and coughed.

“Sleep, then, if you can, and we will give him the blankets so that he may not freeze. If he keeps himself from the enchantment tonight, he may be able to speak and understand his peril and what he must do. For I wonder if she has not so enmagicked him that he remembers little or nothing of recent days other than the pain of the spears in his sides.”

Gytha swallowed, feeling colder than ever. “What about a needle and thread? Or sinew? I can make some of the blankets into clothes for him. Anything would be better than what he has now.”

Eshkeshken nodded and looked to Arenenak, who disappeared for some time into the city before returning with a small wooden box with a bone needle and a great quantity of fine thread.

Meanwhile, Dakjudr offered Gytha a plate of seal meat and whale blubber, both raw, with a faint crust of frost already forming over their surfaces.

“Is this what the bear prince eats?” Gytha asked.

Although she did not want to complain, the food was not to her taste in the slightest. Someday, she hoped, she would be able to make bread again with her sisters and teach them how to score the tops of the loaves to make lovely patterns.

Warm, fresh bread with a good crust and butter melting into it was a homely delight.

Eshkeshken gave her a flat look. “I’d be surprised if she’s fed him in days. She wants him weak and bewildered, not clear-headed, at least until she has gained his cooperation. Bring a plate of food for him tonight, and you might save his life.”

Gytha nodded, feeling her heart twist with sympathy. Cold, raw meat and fat were unfamiliar and unpleasant, but they were kindly meant and generously offered.

“Your Highness,” Dakjudr said gently. “Can you eat a little? Please?” She knelt before the prince and offered him a plate.

He nodded and took the plate with a tired smile. “Thank you.” She bowed her head to him.

No one could find scissors, but Dakjudr lent Gytha a sharp knife.

Gytha spent some time figuring out how she would turn the blankets into clothes that would be as warm as possible.

Trousers were challenging, but she made them with several layers, a drawstring waist, and cinches around the ankles to keep out the cold air.

The coat was also made of several layers of fabric and left very long, so that with a belt it might keep even the worst drafts out.

She knew how to make clothes, of course, but she had never been in such a rush to make something warm before.

These were rough and unlovely, but at least they would be better than what he had .

Her eyes were bleary and she was beginning to fall asleep when Eshkeshken touched her shoulder.

“Sleep,” he said. “There will be time to work when you wake.”

So she went to the other room to sleep. She lay on the ice with one arm under her head and stared at the darkness. It still seemed strange that the bear was a human prince. But the scar on his face was clear evidence.

What would he be like as a human? He had instinctively put himself between her and the queen’s anger when the queen had come in a rage at the end of the bargain.

His voice, at least his bear voice, was deep and calm, with quiet strength even when sorrowful.

Would his human voice be as compelling as his bear voice, when it wasn’t rough with sleep? Would he remember her at all?

What if he thought she meant to capture him the way the ice goblin queen had, and resented her for it?

The sound of the ice goblins talking softly in their own language in the other room was a low, grinding background to her whirling thoughts.

Eventually she drifted into an uneasy sleep.