Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow - Jessica Day George [23]
“What are you?” the lass gasped.
“I’m Erasmus,” he said. “Oh.” His brow wrinkled. “You asked what I am? I’m a faun.” He said this as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
To the lass, however, it was even less natural than an enchanted isbjørn. Magical creatures such as white reindeer or bears that lived in palaces were the stuff of every fireside story she had ever heard.
Men that were half-goat were not.
“Can I help you to your feet, my lady?” The faun bent over her solicitously.
Feeling rather foolish to still be crouched on the hearthrug with her jaw agape, the lass waved away Erasmus’s offer and got to her feet herself. She tapped Rollo on the head, their signal for him to “stand down,” and he stopped snarling. However, he did continue to stand between his mistress and the stranger.
“I’m to serve you for as long as you stay with us, my lady,” the faun continued when the lass was standing and facing him. He did come only to her shoulder, but she could tell from the fine lines around his eyes that he was much older than she was, although there was no gray in his hair or beard. “Would you like me to show you to your apartments? Or would you like something to eat?”
“Er.” The lass looked down at herself. She was damp and grubby from traveling, and very tired. But she was also ravenously hungry. She had not had time to eat the lefse and cheese that her father had packed for her.
“Why don’t I show you to your apartments,” Erasmus said kindly. “You can wash and change your clothes, and then I can bring you a tray with something to eat in your sitting room.”
“That would be lovely,” the lass said, all the while thinking, I have a sitting room?
She followed the faun down a long passageway that led off the great hall, Rollo at her heels. They went up a curving flight of stairs, and along another passageway, and then stopped in front of a door of beautifully carved bronze.
“Here are your apartments, my lady,” Erasmus said, and he pushed open the door. “I must say, it is a relief that you can understand me.”
Jaw agape, the lass gazed about in wonder. The room beyond was larger than her family’s entire cottage. Thick carpets of green and blue covered the frozen floor, a massive fireplace with a roaring fire took up one whole wall, and there were satin-upholstered chairs and couches scattered around the room. Most of the walls were covered in tapestries, but across from the door there were panels where the ice was so thin that she could see the night sky outside, only faintly distorted with a greenish cast.
“Oh, this room is too fine for me,” she told the faun. “Please, isn’t there something simpler?”
“No, my lady.” He shook his head. “Only the servants’ quarters, and you are not a servant.”
He crossed the room to the right and threw open another carved wooden door to reveal the bedchamber. It was just as large as the sitting room, with a fireplace that the lass could have stood up inside, had a fire not been burning there, too, and a bed that could have comfortably slept ten people. The bed was also carved of ice, with slim posts at each corner that rose up to support a canopy of white silk. The pelt of a massive isbjørn lay across the foot of the bed, and another, smaller brown bear pelt served as a hearthrug.
Erasmus walked through that room as well, and into another, smaller room lined with wardrobes. There was no fireplace here; instead there was an enormous mirror and a small table covered with glass jars and bottles.
“Your dressing room, my lady,” the faun told her. He opened one of the carved-ice wardrobes and pulled out a gown of stiff peach satin. “There are some gowns here, but I’m afraid that they will have to be altered.”
“I can wear my own clothes, can’t I?” the lass said, defending her ragged sweater and hand-me-down trousers and boots.
“Of course,