Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow - Jessica Day George [70]
“I’m sorry.” The wind sounded contrite. And quieter. “I had forgotten the delicacy of humans. The ice will hold you and your companion.”
“Thank you.” The lass cautiously took her hands from her ears. “I suppose you know why I’m here?”
“Yes.”
And then the north wind took shape in front of her. From the swirling particles of ice it formed into the shape of a snow-pale man in a long robe, with blue-white hair and a beard to his waist. Clasping his hands, he looked her over. “You wish to go to the palace east of the sun and west of the moon,” the north wind replied. “And you want to know if I can take you there.”
“Can you?”
“Indeed I can.”
Again the lass felt her jaw drop. A flutter of hope rose in her breast. “You truly can?”
“I have blown there once before, though it nearly did me in,” the north wind told her. “And I will blow there again, if you are determined to go.”
“I am.” She bit her lip. Despite the friendly tone, and the thoughtful lowering of the wind’s great voice, this was still the north wind she was facing. But she had to ask. “Why? Why did you blow there once before, and why are you so ready to take me?”
“Once before a girl came, and begged me to take her. I took her because she meant to cause mischief with the troll queen, and it pleased me to help in that.”
“Tova?”
He raised an icy eyebrow. “Do you know her?”
“She was in love with my brother, when he was the troll princess’s isbjørn.” The lass frowned in thought. “Why do you want to cause harm to the troll queen? Your brother winds seem to be afraid of her.”
“That creature has caused me no end of trouble,” the north wind grumped. “She dares to order me about, to try and control me! She changes the weather, making the winter last too long and spread too far to the south. I know why the creator made me, and it was not to serve her purposes!”
“The troll queen is making the weather so cold?”
“Of course. I can tell from your speech that you are from the northern lands. The cold there has not broken in decades. . . . Can your people not have noticed?”
“We noticed, but what could we do about it?”
“True, true, you are very weak.” Another sigh. “No doubt it was too much to hope that Tova could succeed in doing harm to her. Or that you could. Still, if you wish to go . . .”
“I must go! How soon can you take me?”
“We can go now, if you like. But I know that you humans need to eat, and it is a long journey.”
The lass carefully settled on the ice beside Rollo. They had apples, and bread and cheese, and a bit of dried meat. After they had sucked some snow to rinse their mouths, the lass packed her bundles and stamped her feet to settle them in her boots. “I’m ready.”
With a laugh, the north wind scooped up the girl, the wolf, and the bundle in his arms. He was growing larger by the second, his human features blurring as he expanded. “I doubt that, but there is no point in waiting longer.” And with that, they hurtled into the sky, a great boiling mass of wind and ice and fury, aimed at the troll queen and her distant palace.
If she had thought the other winds had power, it was nothing compared to their eldest brother of the North. The lass felt like some ancient goddess, one of the Valkyries, riding high over the world in a magical chariot. They soared over ocean and mountain and plain, heading steadily toward both the sun and the moon, which hung side by side this far north.
As they traveled the sun and moon dipped in the sky and then rose again, moving around them in a stately dance. In the summer months, at the top of the world, neither sank below the horizon. The sky was both dark and light, the sun a tiny pale ball and the moon a long thin crescent, lying on its back like a bowl. Then, for a time, the sun was directly below the moon, looking insignificant and weak.
And then they came closer, and closer, the north wind, the wolf, and the