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A lexander dropped Gytha’s hand and stood, his movements a little stiff.

“Can you walk?” the ice goblin said. The question was not sympathetic; there was an edge of irritation in his voice.

“Yes.” Alexander straightened painfully and followed the goblin into the hallway. Gytha caught up the lantern and hurried after them.

“I can carry it, if you like,” Alexander said belatedly. “They usually don’t let me have a lantern.”

Gytha handed it to him, and he held it a little to the side so that the light spilled in front of her feet as well as his.

The goblin led them through a series of corridors and then out into a vast courtyard under the open sky, an enormous black expanse full of sparkling pinpoints of light. The air was as cold and still as death.

A thin layer of snow had fallen since they had last been outside, making their steps creak and squeak softly. The goblin said in his rough voice, “You will not see them at first, but your friends are near. Be of good courage.”

Alexander looked at him in surprise. “I thought you…”

The goblin’s eyes glinted dangerously. “You are not the only one who suffers under Queen Javethai,” he hissed softly. “There was little chance for change until now. The lost prince has returned, and the queen has much to answer for.”

Gytha’s mouth dropped open.

He waved them toward a high wall of ice blocks which glowed softly from the inside.

An enormous archway led into another courtyard even larger than the first, nearly full of ice goblins.

At the far end of this enormous space stood a dais like the one from a few days before, but even larger.

Five lanterns stood on each side of the dais, casting flickering light over the whole front of the courtyard.

Queen Javethai stood silently on the top step of the dais, her eyes fixed on them.

Even from this distance, Gytha shivered at the hatred in that gaze.

“Follow me.” The goblin led them through the crowd, which parted before them with soft, grinding murmurs. Alexander held his head high and proud, as if he were not afraid. Gytha tried to follow this example, but her eyes were continually drawn to the dais, where the queen still stood motionless.

At last the goblin stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Go.” He motioned them upward toward the queen.

Alexander raised his eyes to the ice goblin queen and a shudder ran through him. Nevertheless, he raised his chin and strode up the steps toward her.

Gytha began to follow him, but the queen said, “Stay,” and ice crept up over Gytha’s feet and ankles, binding her to the ground .

“Yes, Your Majesty?” Alexander set the lantern down and bowed courteously to the queen.

The queen gave a faint sneer and tossed her head, throwing her iron gray hair over her shoulder.

She spread her arms wide and looked at the crowd.

“I have been generous, haven’t I? I have been patient.

” Her voice rang out like the crack of ice breaking upon stone, clear and merciless.

“For three nights, a foolish human girl has tried to steal my betrothed!

I was patient and generous, allowing this greedy, opportunistic farce to continue.

“Now, bear prince, choose whom you would wed!” Her voice rose, bright and hard.

“I don’t think you can even pick the human out of a crowd, can you?

What good could a human do you here? Choose now: me, Queen Javethai the Glorious, or the common, worthless human?

” She gestured broadly at the crowd, inviting Alexander to look out at them too.

Any hint of a murmur in the crowd quieted. The silence was eerie. Chills crawled up Gytha’s back, both of cold and of terror. This was not natural, and there was no free choice to be made.

Alexander turned and looked over the crowd. There was an odd stillness in his expression, a blankness that Gytha had not seen before. He swayed as if a wind gusted, but there was no wind.

“Yes?” the queen said.

“I don’t…” he whispered.

“He doesn’t even remember!” Javethai crowed. Her laughter rang out triumphantly.

“Wait.” Alexander gasped and clutched at his head. “What am I supposed to remember?”

“You agreed to marry me, remember?” Javethai laughed again. “Give me the magic, bear. It is mine !”

Alexander doubled over, digging his fingers into his hair. “No!”

“Submit to me! Marry me now! Or I will cut your heart out and eat it before these witnesses!”

The queen gripped Alexander by the throat with one hand and lifted him off his feet as she pulled a long, sharp knife out of her skirts with the other hand.

“I will not submit,” Alexander gasped.

Several ice goblins shouted, and the knife flashed.

A sudden commotion in the crowd near Gytha resolved into Eshkeshken and several others charging up the steps toward the queen.

A goblin touched Gytha’s feet, and the ice around her ankles cracked. She wrenched her feet free with a ferocious jerk, ran up the steps, and lunged at the queen without any plan at all. But the goblin prince was ahead of her.

The queen turned toward Eshkeshken and shrieked in rage. She flung Alexander away and put her hand up toward Eshkeshken, her lips drawn back in a snarl.

Eshkeshken shouted in a voice as sharp as lightning, “Javethai the Usurper, I charge you with treason! I am Eshkeshken, son of Jiehteshken! Stand down and beg for clemency, or die now for your crimes.”

The queen cried, “Eshkeshken the Coward? Eshkeshken the Weakling? I thought you long dead. You were hiding in plain sight, I see.”

Eshkeshken drew himself up even straighter, but beside the queen’s tall, powerful figure, his slim frame was hardly imposing. “Stand down, Javethai,” he said more softly. “My patience is at an end.”

He took a step forward, extending his hand for the knife.

The queen sidled a little to one side and then sprang.

Though Eshkeshken was smaller and unarmed, he was just as quick as she was, and he sidestepped her stab and gripped the knife with one hand .

She bashed her forehead into his face, and his knees gave way for a moment.

With shocking suddenness, a lance flew through the air and skewered them both.

Locked in their vicious embrace, they staggered and then collapsed half-atop each other, with the lance shaft sticking out of the queen’s back. The shaft had penetrated her completely, and stuck deep in Eshkeshken’s chest

The queen fought to push him away, but he was as helpless as she was, and instead they fell to one side, so that they faced each other as they lay dying together.

A roar of discordant goblin voices rose like thunder.

Dakjudr ran up the stairs and stood over Eshkeshken and Javethai. “Watch!” she cried. “Watch and see whose claim is just!”

She yanked on the lance, but the weapon would not come free. She put one foot on Javethai’s shoulder to brace herself and jerked again, producing agonized groans from the queen and Eshkeshken.

At last, after a few more bone-crunching heaves, she pulled the lance from their bodies and held it aloft. A clear, shimmering orb glittered on the point, dripping with gray blood that sparkled with silvery magic.

The queen gasped, “Give it back! That’s mine!” But she could not rise. She reached for Dakjudr’s ankle with one hand, grasping and clawing.

“Look! Behold your king!” Dakjudr’s voice rang out, sharp and hard. She looked down at Eshkeshken, her eyes gleaming with emotion. “The lance pierced his heart. You saw it. See the ice heart!”

Eshkeshken pressed a hand to his chest and gave a strangled groan. Then he rolled to his stomach and slowly, painfully, pushed himself to hands and knees, and then to his feet .

Dakjudr knelt before him and held out the lance in both hands. “Your Majesty.”

Eshkeshken took the lance and straightened, his thin shoulders back and his head high. He cast his gaze over the ice goblins. At last he said, “My name is Eshkeshken.”

Perhaps his voice was a little rougher than usual; an ice goblin might have been able to hear the edge of pain or fatigue in it.

To Gytha, he sounded as confident as any king.

The gray blood that streaked his shirt had already frozen, so that the thin fabric stuck to his skin around the dark, ugly wound.

“Javethai the Usurper is my aunt. Was my aunt.” He looked down at her.

She lay sprawled upon the ice, her eyes glazed with approaching death.

“I knew she would not give up the throne she stole without bloodshed, and I thought that by letting her have the throne she coveted, I would save you, my people, a bloody war.

“I was wrong. She called me a coward, and perhaps she was right to do so. But I will be a coward no longer.

“I waited and hoped for her to change, but she only grew more wicked. I determined at last that I would be no prince at all if I did not oppose her.”

He looked down at her again. Her fingers twitched, and her lips moved, but no one could hear what she said.

Eshkeshken took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking more regal by the moment. “The winds froze my heart,” he said at last. “A unique protection against the lance the winds also provided.

“I did not recognize it at first, but look.” He held the lance high above his head, and the broken ice that had encased his heart fell to the ground and shattered.

The tip of the lance shifted and glittered, catching the starlight.

“The magic kept it whole until you could see it, even as it passed through the usurper’s body. Do you see this?”

Eshkeshken moved the lance a little, letting the light catch the tip of the lance again.

His thin lips lifted in a faint smile. “It is the lost scepter of my grandfather, the king. Javethai never wielded all the power of the ice goblin monarchy. The winds kept it safe for me, even as I shrank from my duty. But no longer!”