Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow - Jessica Day George [67]
“I thought not,” the east wind said. “But she is determined to go. Can you help her? You have blown farther than I ever have.”
The west wind swayed back and forth in its hollow. “Why should I take this human anywhere? I do not meddle in the affairs of trolls. Perhaps the troll queen will hear of what I have done, and take her revenge upon me.” The column of wind shuddered.
The lass looked from one gathering of wind to the other. “The troll queen?”
“Her daughter is the princess who turns humans into northern bears, to toy with them before she marries them,” the west wind said. “But the queen is far more terrible: older and uglier, and wicked to her stone bones. No entity in this world dares to cross the queen of the trolls.”
The lass raised her eyebrows. “I do.”
“That is because you are nothing more than a foolish human child,” the west wind retorted.
“And you are nothing more than a rude little breeze, blowing sand in my eyes and quivering,” the lass snapped back. She had not come this far just to be turned away by a wind. “The princess, and the queen, must be stopped.”
“Then find someone else to help you, if you want to kill yourself,” the west wind said.
“Coward,” the lass said, without heat. She shook her head in a pitying way. “You won’t even blow me to the north wind’s home. I feel certain that such a strong wind as he would know the way, even if you don’t. And I have no doubt that he would take me all the way to the palace east of the sun and west of the moon.”
A little gust came from the west wind, as though it had snorted at her ploy.
“Well, that’s all right then,” the lass went on, hands on hips. “I’ve come this far without your help. I’ve been helped by three kind old human women, with little more than the clothes on their backs and more to lose to the troll queen than you. I’ve been helped by this good east wind, your brother.
“Your brother wind was convinced that you would help me. He said that you had blown far and wide, and would surely know the way. But he was wrong.” She put out a hand and stroked the back of the east wind, as though comforting it. “What a shame.” She shook her head. “Dear east wind,” she said in a fond tone. “You have been so kind, and blown so far to help me, I couldn’t ask you to help me go any farther. But could you at least direct me toward the domain of the north wind? Rollo and I shall walk there.” At her feet, Rollo groaned.
With a hiss and a scrape, the west wind shot up into a towering shaft of swirling sand. Then it collapsed, raging out to encompass the east wind, the lass, and Rollo, along with the stony desert around them. The wind howled through the rocks, picking up more grit and sand and scraping the surface of the rock formations with it. The force knocked the lass off her feet, and she huddled next to Rollo, burying her face in his fur to protect her eyes. She smiled into his flank, where no one else could see it.
“If you wish to take your chances with the north wind I’ll not stop you,” the west wind said. “But not even I know where he resides. The North is the greatest of us all.”
“Oh.” The lass had felt certain that the west wind would help her. But if it didn’t know the way. . . .
“But the south wind knows where our brother dwells,” the west wind continued. “They are forever chasing each other over and around the world. It may even be that the south wind has blown to the trolls’ palace. But if not, then South knows how to reach North.”
“Thank you.”
“We shall see if you still thank me in a week or a month or even a day,” the west wind grumped, echoing the east wind’s sentiments.
Chapter 26
Riding the east wind had been exhilarating, but riding the west wind was taxing. Trapped in a spinning column of sand, the lass felt as though she were falling, then being lifted up, only to plummet again. She wondered if the west wind were doing it out of spite, and fought the urge to be sick.
An eternity later, the west wind dropped her. She didn’t fall far, landing on all fours on a