Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow - Jessica Day George [45]
“Yes: I shall be with my family for only five days, and then I will meet you here to return to the castle,” she said. It was an awfully short visit, but the isbjørn was insistent that she not stay one day longer.
“And?”
“And I shall not speak of any of our secrets,” she added. Then she reached out and laid a hand on his head, a lump rising in her throat. “Be safe. Don’t let anyone see you.”
“Won’t.”
She blinked back sudden moisture in her eyes and turned away. “Come, Rollo.” They hurried out of the little copse of trees that concealed them and onto the road that led to the city. “We’ll be back in five days,” she called back to the bear.
The bear gave a roar in answer, and the lass saw a flash of gleaming white as he turned and loped off into the deeper forest. “Just five days, and then we’ll be back home—I mean, at the ice palace,” she said to herself.
“Do you know how to get to Askeladden’s house?” Rollo’s nails clicked on the hard paving of the road.
“No, but once we get into the city, we’ll just have to ask,” the lass said, hiking her huge pack up higher on her back. “Surely someone will know where the king’s hunter lives.”
Rollo just grunted in a skeptical way. With the isbjørn’s influence fading, he was panting more and his head hung low. “Just as long as it’s close,” he said.
“Stop complaining,” she told him. “In an hour or so, we’ll be sitting in front of a warm fire with Father and Hans Peter, just like old times.”
“Or so we hope,” Rollo muttered.
The lass didn’t ask about his dire statement. She felt strange too. It wouldn’t be just like old times. Her father was injured, perhaps dying. She knew some of Hans Peter’s secrets, and the family’s fortunes had drastically changed.
All because of a bear.
Chapter 17
It was nearly dawn before they found Askeladden’s house. The streets of Christiania were confusing to someone who had never seen a village of more than fifty inhabitants. And since it was the dead of night, there was no one from whom they could get directions.
Finally they made their way to the gates of the palace itself. The human palace was square and made of warm yellow stones that looked friendly even in the dim light of the torches placed around the outside. A fatherly vaktmann inquired as to her business, and she said she was looking for the home of Askeladden Jarlson.
“Oh, the king’s hunter? Are you one of his many sisters?” The man laughed kindly. “Just down the road there, that big gray stone house,” he said.
The lass’s head reeled a little. Askel lived in a big gray stone house? Just “down the road” from the palace of the king? She glanced down at Rollo, who looked startled as well.
“Thank you,” she told the man when she had recovered.
When she got to the house she was sure there was some mistake. It was such a grand house, with a slate roof and rich curtains covering all the windows. A fine carriage with a pair of matched bays stood in front of the house, and the servant holding the reins looked at her curiously.
Feigning confidence for the sake of the man watching her, the lass raised her hand and knocked loudly on the door. Almost before she unclenched her fist, the door was flung wide.
A young man stood there in a wash of bright light. He was wearing a nightshirt half tucked into green trousers. “Are you the nurse?”
She goggled at him. “Einar?”
“Pika?” Her next-oldest brother rushed to embrace her. “I can’t believe you’re here! I thought that isbjørn had eaten you!” He squeezed her hard and then turned to thump Rollo’s ribs, which the wolf bore with dignity.
“No, no,” she wheezed, breathless. “I’m fine! But how is Father?”
Einar pulled back, his face tightening. He looked less the young man now and more the boy she had seen last. “He’s bad. The doctor is still with him. Askel called in the king’s own physician.” His voice was awed. “And now he’s sent for a private nurse, too. I thought that’s who you were.”
“I heard.” She forced herself to laugh. “Can I—can I see him?”
“Of course! Tordis is here. And Hans Peter.