Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow - Jessica Day George [22]
“I recognize these,” she said in excitement. “This says something about whales, many whales, coming ashore.” She looked back at the bear. “They’re like the carvings my brother Hans Peter makes. He taught me what some of them mean.” She ran her hand over the carvings, feeling a spike of homesickness. She would not see Hans Peter again for a long time.
“Your . . . brother?” The bear came over to her, squinting at the engraved symbols. “You can read them?”
“Yes.” She held out the sleeve of her parka. “But I can’t read these. I’ve tried, but it doesn’t seem to make any sense. It looks like the same sort of thing, though, don’t you think?”
Now the bear squinted at her parka, studying the red and blue embroidery that ran in bands around the sleeves and the hem. Suddenly his eyes widened and he reared back, giving a roar. The lass cowered against the pillar, and Rollo took up a protective stance between them.
“Where did you get that?” The bear’s voice was thick with some emotion that the girl thought might be rage, but might just as easily have been fear. “Where?”
“It was my brother’s,” she said with a little quaver in her voice. “Hans Peter. The brother you met. He gave it to me. You were there.”
He came down on all fours, still quivering with emotion. “Yes. I remember.” Leaning forward, the bear squinted even harder at it. “Where did he get it?”
“I don’t know,” the lass said, nearly whispering. “He went to sea when I was small, and when he came back, he had it. Something had happened to him, something that made him sad.”
The bear made a strange barking noise that caused the lass to start sliding sideways, hoping to put the pillar between them. Then she realized that he was laughing. It was a hollow, bitter laugh, but still a laugh.
“Made him sad?” His voice was mocking. “I wish that were my only complaint.”
“What is your complaint?” She said it shyly, still halfway around the pillar.
The isbjørn stopped, and he began to sway again as he had at her house. “Can’t say,” he managed finally. A moment ago his words had come easily, easier than at any time before. But now his speech was labored again. “Can’t say!” The words rose to an angry roar. The bear wheeled around and ran off, disappearing through a door at the far side of the hall.
“Well,” the lass said to Rollo, blinking in shock at the bear’s strange behavior. “I suppose it’s just the two of us now. Let’s explore.”
It was so warm in the ice palace that she shrugged off the parka and the extra boots and carried them. They walked around the large hall, admiring the carvings and the enormous fireplace at the far end. The mantel and hearth, the entire structure was of ice, and yet the fire that burned brightly in it did not melt anything. There was a gorgeous rug laid in front of the hearth, and a chair upholstered in a cloth that the lass thought might be velvet, though she had never seen or felt it in real life. The chair was just the right size for her, she found when she sat in it, and there was even a small tapestry footstool placed at exactly the right angle. Other than the fabric and cushion-stuffing, both chair and footstool were also carved of ice.
“This certainly isn’t for our isbjørn,” she told Rollo, stretching her feet toward the fire.
“No, it’s for you, my lady,” said a voice from behind the chair.
The lass was so startled that she lunged forward and ended up on the hearthrug on her knees. Rollo dropped to a crouch, hackles raised and teeth bared.
“Oh, dear me,” said the voice. And then a little person who stood no taller than the lass’s shoulder came around the chair and into view.
He wasn’t human. Nor was he an animal, or at least any animal that the lass had ever seen. The upper part of his body looked like a man’s: he had a bare, muscular chest; two human arms; and a human-looking face. He had a beard and curly hair, both of the same reddish brown color. But there were two slender horns coming out of his hair, and his eyes were golden, with slotted pupils, like a goat’s. From the waist down, he was very much a goat,