Page 36

For a full day Gytha and Alexander rested, but Alexander said not a word for many hours.

At last Gytha said gently, “Have you really recovered enough to walk several hundred miles in the snow?”

Alexander buried his face in his hands. “No,” he admitted at last. “Not as a human. I doubt I could even with the king’s escort. Nor could I keep you safe.”

In her heart, she knew she could have pressed him to a quicker decision. She could have asked him to become a bear, to take her home, to do anything at all.

He would have done it for her.

But he had been hemmed in, his honor used as a weapon against him for so long, that she merely waited patiently.

He was a man, and a prince, and though he had been imprisoned and tormented for generations, he was still, somehow, not entirely defeated.

With quiet kindness and patience, she would help him remember who he really was.

For some time he remained silent, his face still hidden in his hands. Then he took a deep, shuddering breath, and looked up at her with his haunted eyes. “If the king can make me a bear, it is the safest way to get you south. I will carry you as far as I can.”

She reached out to slip her hand into his.

Accordingly, they were provisioned with enough food for a month.

The food was arranged in a clever pack of soft gray cloth that would fit over Alexander’s bear shoulders like saddle bags.

Other preparations were made, too; new, warmer clothes had been made that fit Alexander’s gaunt frame better, and both Gytha and Alexander were provided with small items such as fat-soaked tinder, flint and steel, bone fish hooks, and strong fishing line.

When Eshkeshken and Dakjudr had showed them everything, the king and queen began to pack it all away with the quiet competence with which they had so long performed their duties as servants.

Alexander said, “This is generous, Your Majesty.”

Eshkeshken paused and looked up at him, his pale eyes catching the lamplight.

“You have been generous to me. You have every reason to hold me in bitter contempt; if I had been bolder, you might have been free sooner. Yet you have not even thrown my cowardice in my face, much less shown any justified hatred.”

Alexander hesitated and then said, in a thick voice, “Your Majesty, if I ought not dwell in the grief and pain of what I have lost, you ought not dwell in regret.” His pale lips worked, and he looked down. “That is easier said than done.”

The ice goblin king paused, one gray hand on the gray cloth, as if he wanted to say something else. Then he nodded sharply and focused on the work. Without looking up, he said, “When you are ready, I will enchant you into the form of a bear. You can remove the enchantment when you wish.”

Alexander’s face had that mask of stillness again, almost entirely expressionless. He swallowed. “Do you know how far it is from Elestar to Gytha’s home near Langaholt?”

“Elestar?” The ice goblin prince frowned. “It is on the coast, isn’t it?”

“Yes. ”

Eshkeshken folded the top of the pack over and laced it securely. “I don’t know Langaholt. Tell me how you got there.”

After Alexander had recounted the days he had run to and from Langaholt and the landmarks he had noted on his way, Eshkeshken nodded and said, “I think perhaps two hundred miles? Two hundred thirty? I think Gytha’s home is on the western branch of the Skjaldafoss, though farther south than I have ever been. ”

The ice goblin king raked his gray eyes over them both and said, “You would travel faster if Gytha were also able to run and sleep without fear of freezing.”

Alexander flinched. “No.”

The king’s gaze flicked to Gytha’s face.

“Do you mean you would make me a bear, too?” Gytha asked. Her voice felt small and trembly.

Eshkeshken’s voice was gentle, and with a distant part of Gytha’s mind, she appreciated the effort that it must have taken to soften that sharp, gravely tone.

“Only for a time.” His gaze slid to Alexander’s face and then back to hers.

“Your bear prince possesses a strong mind and stalwart character. It is said that when the magic changes a human to an animal, it is difficult for the human to remember what they once were.”

The fear in Gytha’s heart fluttered like bird wings, and she took a deep breath that stung her lungs. She held Eshkeshken’s gaze for a moment and then looked at Alexander.

“I can be stalwart.” She raised her chin.

The ice goblin king smiled, his thin lips drawing away from his teeth.

A year ago, Gytha would have been frightened by that smile.

Now, she saw that he was pleased with her courage and stubborn hope, and he wished to help her.

“I will make you both bears,” he said. “When you want the magic to be undone, you must wish yourself to be a human again, with a clear and fierce desire for your own natural form. ”

He hesitated and then said, “I think the magic will be strong enough to allow you to wish yourself to be a bear again, and take the shape off again.”

Alexander’s eyes widened. “I don’t want to be a bear any longer than necessary to get Gytha south, to lands where humans can live.”

“What if the magic wears off while we are bears? What if we can’t change back?” Gytha asked.

Eshkeshken closed his eyes and tilted his head, frowning thoughtfully, and then said, “You will change back,” he said at last, meeting her eyes again.

“When the spell wears off, you will return to your natural human form, even if you are not ready. I think the spell should last many years, probably longer than you will live, and while it is upon you, you can change back and forth as easily as thought, if you wish it clearly. Nevertheless, do not stay in bear form for too long. My magic will not have Javethai’s malevolence in it, but it is still goblin magic, strange to your human minds and bodies, and it may be difficult to remember yourselves in the bear form.

If I were you, and I wanted to live and die as a human, I would not stay in the bear form for more than a few months at a time. ”

Alexander shook his head hurriedly. “No. I have no desire for that.” He swallowed. “You are sure, Your Majesty, that we will be able to change back into humans?”

“I can put it on you now and let you try it before you depart.” There was a faint edge in Eshkeshken’s voice, as if he were perhaps a little offended but had decided to ignore whatever insult he had perceived.

The prince shuddered and then said, “Yes. I will try it before Gytha.” He met the ice goblin king’s gaze. “I am ready.”

Eshkeshken bowed. He stepped forward and put one pale gray hand on Alexander’s shoulder. He grimaced with effort and his fingers dug into the taller man’s jacket .

Alexander shivered violently once.

Then the goblin king stepped back. “It is done.” His voice rasped.

Alexander stared at him and nodded. Between one breath and the next, his gaunt frame transformed into that of the great white bear Gytha had known first.

The bear turned to Gytha, walked around the room, and then returned to the same spot. Alexander took his human form again. “It is different,” he said breathlessly. He sagged and put a hand on the table to steady himself.

Eshkeshken stepped back, giving the two humans a moment for private conversation.

The room was so quiet that the distant grinding sound of goblin voices was heard for a moment as the speakers passed by the end of the corridor. Then the silence fell upon them again, and Alexander looked down. His long hair fell over his face, hiding his expression.

The weariness in his shoulders tugged at Gytha’s heart. “Is it too terrible?”

Alexander hesitated and then took her hand.

“The king’s magic is kinder than Javethai’s was, but it is still cold and alien, like ice in my veins.

The wild, fierce strength of the bear makes it easier to endure the brutal cold, but harder to remember my humanity.

I forgot my home and my mind before, and I do not want to do so again.

” His dark eyes searched her face. “But you are strong enough to endure it well,” he said at last. “It is not that I think it too difficult for you. It is only that I have asked so much of you already, and it is unjust to ask this too. My debt to you piles up like snowdrifts, thick and cold and heavy. I do not want you to suffer for me.”

Gytha felt the weight of his regret, his guilt, his grief, and the tenuous thread of hope that he still did not want to voice.

“I have not endured what you have,” she said, choosing her words with care, for she did not want to hurt him.

“Yet I am not easily broken, either. If Eshkeshken can make us bears together, I think we can return to your home.” She hesitated and then said, “I do want to see my family, and I think they would like to see you, too.”

The desperate longing in his voice brought tears to her eyes. “Do you think so? They must be as generous as you are, to forgive me for taking you away.”

She gripped his hands more firmly. “They will love you. You’ll see.” She took a deep breath and ignored the fear still quivering in her belly. “I am ready.”

For another moment, his haunted eyes searched her face, and then he nodded. He turned to Eshkeshken. “We are ready, Your Majesty.”

They had nearly forgotten Dakjudr was in the room too, for she had been silent and had stepped back to stand by the door while Eshkeshken transformed Alexander.

They remembered her only now, when they saw her at Eshkeshken’s side.

He had clasped one of her hands in his and bent to speak into her ear.

The goblin king straightened now and stepped forward, still clasping the queen’s hand. “Is it painful?” he asked Alexander. “I can make it wear off faster, I think.”

Alexander hesitated and then shook his head. “No, Your Majesty,” he said in a low voice. “I feel it, but it is not painful. It is only when I am a bear that I feel the tug of madness. Your magic is not like Javethai’s was, though it is powerful.”

Eshkeshken nodded gravely. “If it troubles you, come back to my lands, and I will remove it. But I think it would be no bad thing if you could transform when you wish, as long as the magic does not cause you suffering.”

He glanced at Dakjudr, who said, “Gytha, I wish to give you a token of friendship. You were kind to me when I was a servant. Now that I am a queen, I will give a gift worthy of the friend of a queen.” She smiled, and her pale eyes were lit with affection.

In the palm of her hand she showed Gytha a golden necklace with a single enormous diamond pendant.

Then she folded it carefully into a piece of leather and slipped it among their supplies.

“That is very generous of you,” said Gytha, surprised and touched. “I didn’t expect…”

Dakjudr’s smiled widened, and her sharp white teeth glinted in the lamplight. “I know. That is why it touched me. You expected nothing in return, and still you were kind. You will always be welcome here, Gytha.”

Eshkeshken nodded. “Go in peace, humans.”

At Gytha’s nod of readiness, Eshkeshken put his cold gray hand on her shoulder. A flood of icy chill went through her like the shock of falling into a frozen pond, and she shivered, with sparkles in her vision like snowflakes swirling under the brightest sun.

Then she stood looking down at Eshkeshken. Her feet were wide, white paws, and her ears flicked. She could hear the goblin king and his queen breathing, and the great breaths of the bear beside her.

“Can I talk?” She was relieved to find that she could.

She wished herself to be a human, and she transformed in a moment with a rush of icy magic.

“How very strange!” she gasped. She wished herself back into bear form, and the transformation was just as quick, with a shiver that ran down her spine and through her mind.

Alexander transformed again, and the goblins put the pack on him. It would be easy to remove it once he took his human form; the straps would fall off him.

A vague memory of Eshkeshken’s words to the winds caught at Gytha’s mind and tugged at it like an insistent breeze. “Aren’t we beyond the edge of the world, east of the sun and west of the moon, where only the wind can go?” she asked. “How can we walk to the human lands?”

Eshkeshken looked up and smiled, bright and proud. “I have my magic,” he said. “I can take you across the icy water where only the wind could go before.”

Soon they set off into the cold, dark, endless winter night. Ribbons of light danced above them as if in celebration, and Gytha thought that if they listened hard enough, they might almost hear the stars singing. The ice goblins walked side by side without talking, and the bears followed.

For many hours they walked, until at last Eshkeshken stopped. He swept one arm through the air as if sweeping an invisible tent flap aside, and ushered the others through. A slight pressure weighed upon Gytha’s fur as she strode past him, and there was a rush of icy wind upon her face.

In that moment they stepped by magic from one place to another far distant.

They now stood upon a low, rocky hillside a little way above the snow-swept plains over which Alexander had carried Gytha.

The goblin king pointed to the west, where the mountaintops caught the faint starlight above their shadowy sides.

“Elestar is that way.” He pointed to the south.

“Gytha’s home is that way, not quite so far. ”

“Thank you.” Alexander shifted into his human form again, perhaps to test that he could, and also to bow to the goblin king. Gytha did so as well.

After short farewells and well-wishes, Alexander and Gytha set off toward the city he barely remembered.

As bears, with the ice goblin magic in their veins, it was not difficult to run for hours, and their steps were sped by magic, so they covered miles faster than even the fastest dog sled, much less horses.

Sometimes they ran in silence. At other times, they slowed and spoke quietly of what they had endured.

When Gytha asked, Alexander said that Javethai’s magic had been cruel, freezing his blood with every step and driving him onward, though his urgency had needed no outside force.

He had grown so accustomed to the pain that it was strange and startling to feel only the wild strength of his bear form.