Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow - Jessica Day George [77]
This gave the lass pause, but she decided it was foolish to remind the princess that it was she who decreed that the lass live in the ice palace for a year. And Tova before that, and the mosters and countless others before that. “Er, yes, that was me.”
A sudden smile stretched Princess Indæll’s lips. “Of course you may spend the night in my dear prince’s chambers,” she purred. “Come to the front doors at sunset.” And she held out one hand for the jar of jelly.
Her heart in her throat, the lass held the jar out of reach. “How do I know you will keep your end of the bargain?”
The princess’s eyes flashed red. “Trolls always keep their bargains,” she said in a tight voice.
Something in the princess’s greenish gray face and bulging eyes told the lass that this was the truth. The girl placed the gleaming jar in the hands of the troll princess. “I shall be at the front doors at sunset,” she said.
Princess Indæll didn’t say anything. The jar clutched in one hand, she used the other to pull the windows shut. Heart racing, the lass walked back to her snow cave with Rollo. There was no point in lingering under the princess’s windows now; they would only risk aggravating her.
A few minutes before sunset the lass could wait no longer. For the past hours she had been poring over the symbols in her troll dictionary, in case she saw any carvings inside that would help. But now that the sun was getting lower, she couldn’t concentrate. She hurried to the front doors and knocked. The guard-troll from the night before, Skarp-Heðin, came out of his niche.
“Traded your carding combs, did you?”
“A jar of apple jelly,” she said. “Now the princess says I’m to be let in. Please?”
“I’m not to let you in until she comes,” he said. “You’re sure that you want this? There’s still time to run.”
“Why would I want to run?” The lass was almost giddy at the prospect of seeing the prince again, and the troll’s question made no sense to her. “I’m so close!”
“Not as close as you think” came the reply. Skarp-Heðin leaned down, as though to confide another secret to her. He opened his mouth just as the golden doors opened as well. He straightened and turned to bow.
Dressed all in rich purple with silver lace and bead-work, the troll princess stood there smiling. “Hello, little human,” she said. “I shall lead you to my betrothed’s room now. Of course, he will not be there for some hours. We are having a ball to celebrate our marriage.”
“But—”
“He will come back to them some time between midnight and dawn, I assure you. Of course, at dawn you must leave.”
“Very well.” The lass thought of the spindle and carding combs in the pack on her back, and the three nights left. She would find a way to get him free. Somehow.
The lass followed the princess through long hallways of gold, richly carpeted and hung with silk. There were vases of fine Oriental work, statues of marble, and beautiful paintings. There were also little pedestals displaying butter churns and cheese graters. A complete set of cooking pots hung from the ceiling of one anteroom they passed through.
A door opened as they went by and a faun in livery stepped out. Behind him, the lass could see a large loom with a half-finished tapestry still strung on it. The faun backed against the wall and bowed deeply until they passed. Seeing him gave the lass a surge of hope, but it was not Erasmus.
“Come along, come along,” Indæll said, and clicked her long fingernails at the lass, making the girl shudder.
They stopped in front of a door made of silver and set with pearls. The princess threw it open and gestured for the lass to enter. Timid, she and Rollo stepped into the room. The door slammed shut behind them.
“You will stay in this room until dawn, and then I will fetch you,” Princess Indæll called through the door.
“I don’t like her,” Rollo said when the princess’s footsteps had faded away.
The lass just snorted, taking off her parka