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intheheartTitle: winter
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: "The Snow Queen took him, and I will get him back."
AU: Fairy Tales
Notes: JFC THIS STORY YOU GUYS. Okay, so, long and long ago Nikki prompted me to write a story based on the Snow Queen. I started writing it ages ago but last night it caught fire and suffice to say I didn't get to sleep until six AM. OW MY WRISTS. I would appreciate constructive criticism on this, since I'm going to try and sell it. NIKKI THIS IS YOUR FAULT I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY.
once there was a little girl who fell through the ice. they pulled her out and she lived, but she was different, after that.
They were brothers in all but blood, Zachary and Felipe. They lived across the street from each other, on the highest floor in two tall crowded tenements that leant together at the top. They could cross from window to window with just a step and through the summer and the winter they did just that.
Sometimes, in summer, they would put a plank across between the windows and sit blond head and black together, swinging their legs, making up stories to tell each other to while away the long, hot days. Their mothers would scream when they caught them, haul them in through the windows by the scruffs of their necks and make them swear never to do it again.
They always did, of course, because they were boys, and they never once thought they might not be immortal.
They grew up together and went on living just as they always had. Zack's parents fought with each other and then left; Felipe's parents had more children and found a larger place. They lived together then in the tops of the tall crowded tenements, in the sure and certain knowledge that the other was only a step away.
They were grown men now, but still they never thought that life could ever change, not even when the winter came, and the blizzards swirled about the town.
"My grandmother told me once they were bees," Felipe said, and Zack looked up at him, came to stand by him where he sat at the window.
"What?"
"The snow," Felipe said, still looking out. "She told me they were winter's bees, the frost their flowers, the snow their honey. I asked about the queen, and she said..." He fell silent for a moment. "She said, do not think of the queen. I asked her why. She said the queen is not for you. She would never speak of the Snow Queen again."
Zack paused, sat back on his heels, and looked at the snow swirling outside the window. For a moment he thought he saw the face of a woman, cold and sharp; the next moment it was gone in the eddies.
"And do you?" he asked. "Think of her?"
"No," Felipe said. Zack knew he was lying, but he let it pass.
Two days later, when Felipe had walked into the blizzard and disappeared, he wished he'd made him speak more about the Snow Queen. Then at least he'd have somewhere to start.
Still, clues or no, he packed up his things and made ready to go after Felipe, for they'd grown up together, and they were friends, brothers in all but blood.
It was not the only reason, but it was enough.
the girl began to freeze, soft and slow, so slow no one noticed it happening. her hair glazed over, frozen rose petals over snow-white skin; her eyes turned the pale ice-blue of winter skies. most of all she turned away from others, turned inwards; her touch sent ice spreading deep into the heart.
"The Snow Queen," Margarita Claro repeated, and closed her eyes, leaning back in her rocking chair. "Oh, child, you cannot mean to go looking for her."
Zack sat back, pressed his lips together. "I have to," he said, softly. "She's taken Felipe."
Margarita's eyes opened wide at that, and her lips parted. "He walked into the storm..." she said, softly. "I thought he... but no, he went after her."
Zack nodded, grimly. "He did," he said. "I know. He spoke of her, the day... the day before. He was looking out at the snow. I know he saw her. I know she took him. I must get him back." He took a deep breath, and settled himself at the grandmother's feet. "How do I find her?"
Margarita focused on him, her faded brown eyes sharp and searching. "You should not go," she told him, her words a soft and soothing cadence. "What is there for you in the north but snow and cold and ice? You should not go."
"What is there for me here, but snow and cold and ice?" he asked. "I will go."
"You should not go," she said again, her voice like the ticking of the clock on the wall. "Here, snow and cold and ice pass away, the spring comes and the roses bloom into summer. In the north the Snow Queen rules; the snow and cold and ice are all she knows. If he has gone to her, you cannot save him. You should not go."
"The winter goes to come again," he said. "It comes to go again. Even in the north this must be true. I will go."
"You may die," she said, measured and strong, as if she weighed every word before she let it escape. "The journey is long and hard. Even if you succeed, the Queen takes what she will as winter does, and as winter, she does not lightly give it up. Your fight will not be easy. You must be careful, and strong, and brave, and above all you must know that you may die."
"I know," he replied, as grave as the earth. "I know I may die. I know she may kill me. But Felipe is my..." He stopped, lost for words. "He is mine," he said, at last. "And I will bring him home with me, or I will not come home at all."
She looked at him, her eyes weary, then she stooped forward, lifted his chin, and pressed a kiss against his forehead. Her dry lips felt like paper worn soft. "Then I will tell you, child, and you will go to the Snow Queen, and you will bring my grandson home."
her family protected her as long as they could. she was their daughter, they said, their sister. she was a child. she never meant to hurt anyone. but there came a day when they could protect her no more.
He started north.
He followed every rumor, every shred of news. None of them panned out in the end; none of them led to Felipe, and so Zack went on heading north.
At last he heard a tale that seemed so impossible he knew it must be true. A mountain of glass, so slick and steep that none could climb it; a princess atop it, waiting for the man brave enough to climb to her rescue and be her husband. Many men had tried and failed, but the whispers on the wind told him that one had succeeded, that the princess at last was won and wed.
He thought of his friend, of Felipe's silver tongue and clever hands, and what other man could do this deed? None that he knew, surely. It must be Felipe, it must be he; perhaps the Snow Queen had not taken him after all. Perhaps he'd merely gone a-journeying, to see what he could find.
Zack knew, in his heart, that this was not true. But the Glass Mountain and the new-wed princess were not so far to the west; he took his knapsack upon his back and he set his feet to the path.
The guards laughed at him, when at last he came to the palace with its arching silver gates and the latches all of gold. He told them "I have come to see my friend, I mean no harm to anyone," and still they laughed, and turned him away, for he was very worn and weary with such travel, and they could not imagine that such a person would be the friend of anyone in such a palace.
It might have been the end of him, but a young man with curling brown hair had heard his story, and he came out from the servant's gate to stop him with a hand upon his shoulder.
"Don't go yet," he said. "I can help you. My fiancée is the princess's aide; she and I will take you in a back way, and you can see your friend." He smiled. "You will see. It will be all right."
Zack followed the young man, who was one of the princess's advisors, back into the palace through the servant's gate. This part of the palace was not so fine, but it was still warm, still rich and luxurious as nothing he had ever seen. The servants all wore furs; the young man wore a chain of office made all of silver. "This is very fine," he said. "The princess must be very rich."
"She is," the young man said, "and very beautiful. Her father built the mountain to protect her, but she was very unhappy. We are all pleased that she is happy now."
"The one who saved her," Zack began, but just then the young man's fiancée came, and he had no more time to talk. She was a very pretty little thing, with curling brown hair like the young man's, and a sweet smile.
"Come," she said, "and I will take you to the princess." She took him by the hand and led him down a corridor inlaid with mother-of-pearl, shining in the morning light like ice.
The princess was in her golden bedroom, seated on a golden bench, with her long hair like frozen honey tumbling down her back, wearing a dressing gown spun of sapphire silk. Beside her sat a woman with fire-opal hair and a dressing gown of emeralds-- they had their heads together, fire and gold, whispering and laughing and once kissing, and Zack knew a kind of despair.
The young man's fiancée left Zack at the door and went to the princess, bending over to whisper in her ear. Both women turned in surprise and looked up at him with eyes the color of the sea and the sky.
"I'm sorry," said the woman, "I do not know you."
"No," Zack said, "you would not." He lowered his head. "I'm sorry, your Highnesses. I will go."
"No!" the princess said, and rose from her chair, holding out her hand to him. "You look exhausted. You must stay, and tell us why you have come."
A silver chair was brought for him, with gold-threaded cushions, and a silver cup set with diamonds filled with warm milk. The princess and her wife sat him down and fussed over him; the young man and his fiancée brought him warm robes of fur and a hot-water bath for his sore feet, and built up the fire.
He told them his story, there, sitting in the warm golden room. When he came to the Snow Queen, the woman gasped, and hid her face in the princess's shoulder. The princess stroked her fire-opal hair and watched him with troubled eyes for the rest of the story.
"He is mine," he finished, at last. "I must get him back. Forgive me, your Highness, but... did he take someone from you, too?"
The woman raised her head and looked at him with sorrow in all her features. "My sister," she whispered. "She took my sister, and we could not get her back. Will you?"
"I will," Zack said, "or I will not come back."
we will not leave you alone, they told her. you cannot stay here so we will go with you. we will find you a place where you can live. she looked back at them with frozen blue eyes and said nothing.
For her wife's sake, and for pity of the sorrow in his eyes, the princess sent him off to the north with grand gifts. A golden sleigh and reindeer to pull it, fur boots and a warm fur coat, mittens made of the softest martinet, roast duck and warm wine from her own table. They all saw him off, the princess and her wife, the young man and his fiancée. They waved goodbye from the spun-sugar battlements of the castle, above the arching silver gates, and their cries were like seagulls wheeling in the wind-- goodbye, goodbye.
He rode the sleigh north, under the shifting lights of the winter night.
The reindeer were so well-trained one could set them on their path and never touch a rein since, and Zack was very tired; he had walked so far with such a heavy heart. At last he set the reins and lay down on the gold-woven seat, pulled his warm fur coat over his head and went to sleep in perfect comfort. He dreamed of Felipe, frozen and cold, of the Snow Queen's cruel face, and of a little girl weeping hopelessly, echoing off the ice of a cavern. The dream grew more and more real, more and more whole, until at last he awoke with a cry, and found himself with a knife instantly at his throat.
A band of robbers had stopped the sleigh. Already they had cut loose the reindeer and led them off; now they gathered around him with curious eyes. The one with the knife at his throat was a woman with hair like the sun reflecting off ice and a narrow look in cool blue eyes. "Well now," she said. "See what a pretty pigeon I've caught! What are you doing here, pretty pigeon?"
Zack looked up at her, and told the truth. "I seek the Snow Queen," he said, "for she has taken what is mine."
The robbers jeered, but the robber woman thrust up her fist and at once they were silent. "You seek the Snow Queen?" she asked, slowly, her eyes narrowing. "And what will you do when you find her? She does not give back what she has taken."
"Still," Zack said, "she has taken what is mine, and I will get him back."
The robber woman looked at him, her face still and thoughtful, then she said, "This sleigh belongs to us now, and your reindeer, and your knapsack. You may keep your furs." The robbers grumbled and she whirled on them. "My knife is sharp! Would you care to test it?" They did not, for they quieted, and she went back to Zack. "A friend of mine will take you north, if you will go."
Zack looked at her, at her tight-pressed lips and her knuckles white on the knife's hilt, and he asked, "Did she take someone from you too?"
The robber woman smiled, sharp and white-toothed. "She took my sister," she said. "Will you bring her home?"
"I will," Zack said, "or I will not come back."
they went north, the girl and her family. with every step she froze a little more, until her eyes were the color of a frozen pond and her hair the color of the sun seen through ice. her family loved her but they could not stay; one by one they stopped walking. we love you, they told her, but we cannot go further. we love you, but we cannot stay.
The robber band brought him back to their camp, pausing every now and then for a fight-- the robber woman always finished these, even if she did not start them. "It is only a little high spirits," she said, when Zack asked. "But it cannot go on too long. We must get back to camp and you must be on your way."
At last, the two robbers pulling the golden sleigh-- they took it turn and turn about, all but the robber woman and Zack-- arrived in the robber camp. A well-built log house, chinks stuffed with moss, stood beside a roaring fire; in front of its door slept a polar bear in a great mound of white, his muzzle upon his crossed paws, whistling as he slept. The robber woman left the golden sleigh and went to him, kicked him amiably in the side.
"Get up, you great lazy," she said. "There is a man you must take north, to the Snow Queen."
The polar bear lifted his head at that, and looked at Zack-- his eyes were human, rich and brown, and skeptical.
"Do not look like that," the robber woman said. "He will bring our sister back."
Zack left the sleigh and bent down to the bear, looking in his human eyes. "If you would take me north," he said, "I will bring your sister back, or I will not come back at all."
"Take him to the hermit-man," the robber woman said. "He will help."
The polar bear climbed grunting to his feet. He towered far above Zack's head, and his hot breath ruffled Zack's hair, and still Zack was not afraid. He took great handfuls of the polar bear's fur and climbed up his leg until he perched atop the polar bear's shoulders. He was very high up; he could see only the tops of the robbers' heads, and the robber woman's face as she looked up.
"Go, then," she said, "the hermit-man will help."
The polar bear nodded to her, and began to run. He ran very fast, faster than the fastest reindeer, so fast the wind blew cold through Zack's hair, and he ducked his head down to hide it in the polar bear's warm fur. He ran on through the night, under the shifting colors that exploded in the sky, ran on through the day, and another night, until at last in the morning they came to a little stone cottage with a wooden door, and he stopped.
Zack climbed down from the polar bear, stiff from the days of running, and knocked, shivering in the cold that was so much worse in this frozen north.
The hermit-man who opened the door wore so much fur he looked like a bear himself, even with his spectacles perched on his nose. He peered between the fur of his hood and his collar at Zack and the polar bear, and said, "I had not thought to see you again, old friend."
The polar bear nodded to him, and settled down in the snow; he did not seem to be cold.
"You must come in," the hermit-man said then to Zack, "it is very cold. You seek the Snow Queen."
"I do," Zack said, rather startled, and went inside the cottage. "How did you know?"
The hermit-man shrugged and shut the door. Inside the fire roared, and though it did not keep out the cold, at least the furs again kept him warm. "No one comes here unless they seek the Snow Queen," he said. "You should turn back if you want to live. None have ever returned."
Zack shook his head. "I will go," he said. "She has taken someone from me. I want him back."
The hermit-man paused, then went to the fire and stirred it up. "She has taken someone from me, too," he said, quietly. "My sister. I too want her back. Can you bring her back?"
"I will," Zack said, "or I will not come back."
The hermit-man nodded. "Then I will help you. You will need warmer furs, like I wear. Take yours off, and wear these instead." He offered a coat and boots, a hat and mittens, and Zack took them, changed his for them. "I will send you with a message to the husband and wife who live north. They are the last before the Snow Queen's domains. They will show you where you must go."
He had no paper, so he wrote the message on a stretched skin. He had no ink, so he cut his finger and used the blood. "Here," he said. "Show this to them and they will help you. Now you must go, for soon it will be night, and you must be moving then."
The hermit-man took him outside and he climbed again onto the polar bear, with the message tucked safely between his shirt and the fur coat.
"Bring my sister home," the hermit-man said.
"I will," he said, "I will not leave without her," and at that the polar bear reared up and ran forward, into the gathering dusk, and soon the hermit man was far behind them.
The husband and wife did not live very far north-- the lights playing in the sky had just begun to fade when the polar bear reached their home. They had heard him coming and they stood outside in the snow, hand in hand, wrapped in so many furs that Zack could not see a single piece of them, nor could he hear what they said. They took him by the hand and brought him inside where it was warm, and the polar bear crowded in behind them, curled up in the center of the floor, and went to sleep.
"You have come a long way," the wife said, bringing him a cup of hot milk. "You are looking for the Snow Queen."
"I am," Zack said, and gave them the message written on the stretched skin in the hermit-man's blood. "I must go north. She has taken someone from me and I must win him back."
It was so crowded in the little hut that the wife sat on her husband's lap to read the message, and when they were done they both looked up at him. "She has taken our daughter," the husband said. "The hermit-man says you can bring her back."
Zack nodded. "If I come back," he said, "I will bring your daughter, and the hermit-man's sister. I will bring the sister of the polar bear and the robber woman, and the sister of the princess's wife. I will bring my friend too. If I come back, I will bring them all."
"Then you must go now," the wife said, and got up from her husband's lap to go and wake the polar bear. "The winter will only grow colder. There is no point in waiting for summer, for it never comes."
Zack looked up at her then. "But summer always comes," he said. "It is the way of the world."
"Not here," the husband said, quietly. "The Snow Queen has stolen summer, and not any of us have got it back, no matter how we try. Bring summer back, if you can, and perhaps you will understand."
Zack did not understand, but he nodded.
The polar bear woke with much grumbling, but he squeezed outside into the snow, with Zack and the husband and the wife all tumbling after. He climbed up onto the polar bear's back again, and the wife went to the polar bear's muzzle.
"You must take him to the Snow Queen's palace," she said, "but do not go further than the ice gates, for it is too cold for you. Take him straight there and come straight back; do not stand about gossiping, it is too cold." She looked up at Zack then. "If you defeat the Snow Queen and win your friend and our daughter, we will know, and we will send him for you."
Zack nodded, and looked up at the lights in the north. "Do you know what those are?" he asked. "I have seen them every night of my journey, always in the north."
The wife smiled, and the tears she cried froze on her lashes.
"It is our daughter," the husband said quietly, and took her hand. "She shines them in the sky to let us know that she still lives. It is all we have."
Zack looked at the lights and then down at him, and said, quietly, "If it is in my power, after tonight, you will never see those lights again."
"Bring our daughter back," the wife said.
"I will," he said, "or I will not come back."
the girl went on alone.
When the first light of dawn brushed its fingers across the horizon, the polar bear brought him at last to a palace of snow that rose so far into the sky the top was lost among the clouds. Zack looked up and knew a certain kind of fear-- how could he defeat someone who could build a palace like this? For a moment he thought of turning around and running south, back home to his warm room at the top of the tall crowded tenement.
But he had sworn to the husband and the wife, the hermit-man and the princess's wife, the robber woman and the polar bear that he would bring their lost one back, and he had sworn to himself that he would bring Felipe back, and besides, he could not imagine looking across to the other window and not seeing Felipe there. So he climbed down from the polar bear and stood in front of the high gates of ice that were the only way into the palace.
"Thank you," he told the polar bear. "You should go. I will be fine."
The polar looked very gravely at him, then he turned and ran south, and Zack turned to the gates.
They were not locked. Indeed, they opened at a touch. He went inside, past statues of ice, weird twisted things that looked like nothing ever living. He went past frozen lakes and high drifts of snow, past hallways of ice and walls that breathed snow. At last he came to a great hall that stretched up the whole length of the palace. A chandelier of ice crystals that shone green hung on a long chain from the ceiling. A frozen lake filled the whole floor, cracked into a thousand pieces that were all alike.
The Snow Queen sat on a throne of ice, carved wonderfully into shapes that followed him with their eyes. She was wrapped in white fur, with a silver crown curving gracefully above her brows, and with her ice-blue eyes and her ice-sun hair and her ice-white skin she looked as if she was made of ice herself.
Felipe sat at the foot of her throne, looking up at her. He wore only the clothes he had worn in the tall crowded tenement, and he was almost blue with cold, but still he sat at her feet looking into her eyes, arranging and re-arranging the pieces on the floor.
Zack gathered his courage, and walked forward until he stood behind Felipe.
Only then did the Snow Queen move, to look at him with eyes that sent chills along his skin.
"You have taken Felipe from me," he said. "I want him back."
"He is mine," the Snow Queen said, in a voice like the grinding of glaciers. "Now that you have come here you are mine too, and you can never leave."
"He is mine," Zack said, "and I am his," and as he said it he knew it to be true. He put his hand on Felipe's shoulder, which was cold as snow but warmed, beneath his touch. "We will go from here, and you cannot stop us."
The Snow Queen lifted a hand, and with that gesture the walls turned to ice, the door lost beneath the cold. "You cannot leave," she said, "unless you find what will defeat me. None have found it before you. You shall not find it, and you will not leave."
Felipe spoke then, though he did not look away from the Snow Queen. "I know what it is," he said. "But I cannot say it. I have forgotten how."
Zack knelt beside him, and thought of the princess and her wife with her head on her shoulder, of the young man and his fiancée smiling at each other, of the robber woman and the polar bear giving him his freedom, the hermit-man writing in his own heart's ink, the husband and the wife hand in hand in the snow. "I know what it is," he said, "and I have not forgotten."
He took Felipe in his arms and kissed him, kissed the cold lips that warmed beneath his, held him tight against his body until he warmed.
The Snow Queen stood from her throne and shrieked with fury, but the ice melted from her walls. "Go then," she said, her voice now like icebergs falling into the sea. "Go and be damned, for I care nothing for you! You shall never defeat me. You shall never have what is mine."
"We shall," Felipe said, and rose to his feet. Zack stood with him, and for the first time in the Snow Queen's eyes he saw what Felipe had seen, and knew why Felipe had gone.
"We shall have her," Felipe said again, "you shall not keep her," and he reached out his hand to the Snow Queen.
She laughed, and her laugh was like an avalanche rumbling down a mountain. "Kiss me then," she said, "kiss me then and I shall kiss you to death and you shall be mine."
Zack reached forward and took the Snow Queen's hand as Felipe did-- it was so cold it burned his hand red with frostbite, but he pulled with Felipe and they pulled her down from her throne. Still she laughed, as they pulled her between them; still she laughed as they bent and kissed her, and her skin burned his mouth with cold. But when he pulled away, her cheek was pink where his mouth had been.
Felipe looked at him, his mouth branded by the cold, and said, "We shall have her," and bent his head to her again.
The laughter stopped when Zack kissed her neck, turned to a gasp when he kissed her forehead. At last, Felipe bent and kissed her mouth, and she fell through their hands, fell with a sigh and lay curled on the ice. Something shrieked, something flew past them; the chandelier fell and shattered with a crash, and the Snow Queen vanished, leaving only the girl on the ice.
she thought she would always be alone.
Felipe dropped his hand and knelt beside the girl who had fallen where the Snow Queen stood. He bent over her, smoothed her fire-opal hair away from her face, and helped her carefully to her feet.
Zack clasped his hands and looked at her as she rose unsteady to her feet. He did not quite know what had just happened, but he trusted Felipe, who he knew now was not his brother.
The girl cast off the white fur and the silver crown of the Snow Queen and stood shivering in a white silk shift that left her pale arms bare. He could see the blue veins in her wrists now, and the warm pink flush in her cheeks. He stripped the warm fur from his back and wrapped it around her; Felipe took the boots from his feet and put them on hers.
"Thank you," she said, at last, her voice soft like melting water running over stones.
"Who are you?" he asked, and took the hand that she held out to him.
She smiled at him, and it was like the sun came over her face, lighting up her deep blue eyes. "I am free," she said, simply, and held out her other hand to Felipe. He took it, and reached for Zack; they stood in a circle, looking down at the girl's soft face.
"You are the sister of the princess's wife," Zack said, understanding.
"Yes," she said, "and the robber girl, she is my sister too. The polar bear is my brother, and so is the man you met who had no paper, only the ink of his heart. The man and the woman in the small frozen house are my father and my mother. They came with me. They kept me from freezing. And you..." She pulled their hands inward, clasped them at her breast. "You have broken the ice, and I am free."
"We came to bring you home," Felipe said, simply.
"And so you have," she said, and kissed their hands. "I thank you."
"Will you tell us who you are?" Zack asked again, as they led her towards the door.
The girl smiled; again the sun crossed her face. "I am Summer," she said.
Hand-in-hand, they walked into the light.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: "The Snow Queen took him, and I will get him back."
AU: Fairy Tales
Notes: JFC THIS STORY YOU GUYS. Okay, so, long and long ago Nikki prompted me to write a story based on the Snow Queen. I started writing it ages ago but last night it caught fire and suffice to say I didn't get to sleep until six AM. OW MY WRISTS. I would appreciate constructive criticism on this, since I'm going to try and sell it. NIKKI THIS IS YOUR FAULT I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY.
once there was a little girl who fell through the ice. they pulled her out and she lived, but she was different, after that.
They were brothers in all but blood, Zachary and Felipe. They lived across the street from each other, on the highest floor in two tall crowded tenements that leant together at the top. They could cross from window to window with just a step and through the summer and the winter they did just that.
Sometimes, in summer, they would put a plank across between the windows and sit blond head and black together, swinging their legs, making up stories to tell each other to while away the long, hot days. Their mothers would scream when they caught them, haul them in through the windows by the scruffs of their necks and make them swear never to do it again.
They always did, of course, because they were boys, and they never once thought they might not be immortal.
They grew up together and went on living just as they always had. Zack's parents fought with each other and then left; Felipe's parents had more children and found a larger place. They lived together then in the tops of the tall crowded tenements, in the sure and certain knowledge that the other was only a step away.
They were grown men now, but still they never thought that life could ever change, not even when the winter came, and the blizzards swirled about the town.
"My grandmother told me once they were bees," Felipe said, and Zack looked up at him, came to stand by him where he sat at the window.
"What?"
"The snow," Felipe said, still looking out. "She told me they were winter's bees, the frost their flowers, the snow their honey. I asked about the queen, and she said..." He fell silent for a moment. "She said, do not think of the queen. I asked her why. She said the queen is not for you. She would never speak of the Snow Queen again."
Zack paused, sat back on his heels, and looked at the snow swirling outside the window. For a moment he thought he saw the face of a woman, cold and sharp; the next moment it was gone in the eddies.
"And do you?" he asked. "Think of her?"
"No," Felipe said. Zack knew he was lying, but he let it pass.
Two days later, when Felipe had walked into the blizzard and disappeared, he wished he'd made him speak more about the Snow Queen. Then at least he'd have somewhere to start.
Still, clues or no, he packed up his things and made ready to go after Felipe, for they'd grown up together, and they were friends, brothers in all but blood.
It was not the only reason, but it was enough.
the girl began to freeze, soft and slow, so slow no one noticed it happening. her hair glazed over, frozen rose petals over snow-white skin; her eyes turned the pale ice-blue of winter skies. most of all she turned away from others, turned inwards; her touch sent ice spreading deep into the heart.
"The Snow Queen," Margarita Claro repeated, and closed her eyes, leaning back in her rocking chair. "Oh, child, you cannot mean to go looking for her."
Zack sat back, pressed his lips together. "I have to," he said, softly. "She's taken Felipe."
Margarita's eyes opened wide at that, and her lips parted. "He walked into the storm..." she said, softly. "I thought he... but no, he went after her."
Zack nodded, grimly. "He did," he said. "I know. He spoke of her, the day... the day before. He was looking out at the snow. I know he saw her. I know she took him. I must get him back." He took a deep breath, and settled himself at the grandmother's feet. "How do I find her?"
Margarita focused on him, her faded brown eyes sharp and searching. "You should not go," she told him, her words a soft and soothing cadence. "What is there for you in the north but snow and cold and ice? You should not go."
"What is there for me here, but snow and cold and ice?" he asked. "I will go."
"You should not go," she said again, her voice like the ticking of the clock on the wall. "Here, snow and cold and ice pass away, the spring comes and the roses bloom into summer. In the north the Snow Queen rules; the snow and cold and ice are all she knows. If he has gone to her, you cannot save him. You should not go."
"The winter goes to come again," he said. "It comes to go again. Even in the north this must be true. I will go."
"You may die," she said, measured and strong, as if she weighed every word before she let it escape. "The journey is long and hard. Even if you succeed, the Queen takes what she will as winter does, and as winter, she does not lightly give it up. Your fight will not be easy. You must be careful, and strong, and brave, and above all you must know that you may die."
"I know," he replied, as grave as the earth. "I know I may die. I know she may kill me. But Felipe is my..." He stopped, lost for words. "He is mine," he said, at last. "And I will bring him home with me, or I will not come home at all."
She looked at him, her eyes weary, then she stooped forward, lifted his chin, and pressed a kiss against his forehead. Her dry lips felt like paper worn soft. "Then I will tell you, child, and you will go to the Snow Queen, and you will bring my grandson home."
her family protected her as long as they could. she was their daughter, they said, their sister. she was a child. she never meant to hurt anyone. but there came a day when they could protect her no more.
He started north.
He followed every rumor, every shred of news. None of them panned out in the end; none of them led to Felipe, and so Zack went on heading north.
At last he heard a tale that seemed so impossible he knew it must be true. A mountain of glass, so slick and steep that none could climb it; a princess atop it, waiting for the man brave enough to climb to her rescue and be her husband. Many men had tried and failed, but the whispers on the wind told him that one had succeeded, that the princess at last was won and wed.
He thought of his friend, of Felipe's silver tongue and clever hands, and what other man could do this deed? None that he knew, surely. It must be Felipe, it must be he; perhaps the Snow Queen had not taken him after all. Perhaps he'd merely gone a-journeying, to see what he could find.
Zack knew, in his heart, that this was not true. But the Glass Mountain and the new-wed princess were not so far to the west; he took his knapsack upon his back and he set his feet to the path.
The guards laughed at him, when at last he came to the palace with its arching silver gates and the latches all of gold. He told them "I have come to see my friend, I mean no harm to anyone," and still they laughed, and turned him away, for he was very worn and weary with such travel, and they could not imagine that such a person would be the friend of anyone in such a palace.
It might have been the end of him, but a young man with curling brown hair had heard his story, and he came out from the servant's gate to stop him with a hand upon his shoulder.
"Don't go yet," he said. "I can help you. My fiancée is the princess's aide; she and I will take you in a back way, and you can see your friend." He smiled. "You will see. It will be all right."
Zack followed the young man, who was one of the princess's advisors, back into the palace through the servant's gate. This part of the palace was not so fine, but it was still warm, still rich and luxurious as nothing he had ever seen. The servants all wore furs; the young man wore a chain of office made all of silver. "This is very fine," he said. "The princess must be very rich."
"She is," the young man said, "and very beautiful. Her father built the mountain to protect her, but she was very unhappy. We are all pleased that she is happy now."
"The one who saved her," Zack began, but just then the young man's fiancée came, and he had no more time to talk. She was a very pretty little thing, with curling brown hair like the young man's, and a sweet smile.
"Come," she said, "and I will take you to the princess." She took him by the hand and led him down a corridor inlaid with mother-of-pearl, shining in the morning light like ice.
The princess was in her golden bedroom, seated on a golden bench, with her long hair like frozen honey tumbling down her back, wearing a dressing gown spun of sapphire silk. Beside her sat a woman with fire-opal hair and a dressing gown of emeralds-- they had their heads together, fire and gold, whispering and laughing and once kissing, and Zack knew a kind of despair.
The young man's fiancée left Zack at the door and went to the princess, bending over to whisper in her ear. Both women turned in surprise and looked up at him with eyes the color of the sea and the sky.
"I'm sorry," said the woman, "I do not know you."
"No," Zack said, "you would not." He lowered his head. "I'm sorry, your Highnesses. I will go."
"No!" the princess said, and rose from her chair, holding out her hand to him. "You look exhausted. You must stay, and tell us why you have come."
A silver chair was brought for him, with gold-threaded cushions, and a silver cup set with diamonds filled with warm milk. The princess and her wife sat him down and fussed over him; the young man and his fiancée brought him warm robes of fur and a hot-water bath for his sore feet, and built up the fire.
He told them his story, there, sitting in the warm golden room. When he came to the Snow Queen, the woman gasped, and hid her face in the princess's shoulder. The princess stroked her fire-opal hair and watched him with troubled eyes for the rest of the story.
"He is mine," he finished, at last. "I must get him back. Forgive me, your Highness, but... did he take someone from you, too?"
The woman raised her head and looked at him with sorrow in all her features. "My sister," she whispered. "She took my sister, and we could not get her back. Will you?"
"I will," Zack said, "or I will not come back."
we will not leave you alone, they told her. you cannot stay here so we will go with you. we will find you a place where you can live. she looked back at them with frozen blue eyes and said nothing.
For her wife's sake, and for pity of the sorrow in his eyes, the princess sent him off to the north with grand gifts. A golden sleigh and reindeer to pull it, fur boots and a warm fur coat, mittens made of the softest martinet, roast duck and warm wine from her own table. They all saw him off, the princess and her wife, the young man and his fiancée. They waved goodbye from the spun-sugar battlements of the castle, above the arching silver gates, and their cries were like seagulls wheeling in the wind-- goodbye, goodbye.
He rode the sleigh north, under the shifting lights of the winter night.
The reindeer were so well-trained one could set them on their path and never touch a rein since, and Zack was very tired; he had walked so far with such a heavy heart. At last he set the reins and lay down on the gold-woven seat, pulled his warm fur coat over his head and went to sleep in perfect comfort. He dreamed of Felipe, frozen and cold, of the Snow Queen's cruel face, and of a little girl weeping hopelessly, echoing off the ice of a cavern. The dream grew more and more real, more and more whole, until at last he awoke with a cry, and found himself with a knife instantly at his throat.
A band of robbers had stopped the sleigh. Already they had cut loose the reindeer and led them off; now they gathered around him with curious eyes. The one with the knife at his throat was a woman with hair like the sun reflecting off ice and a narrow look in cool blue eyes. "Well now," she said. "See what a pretty pigeon I've caught! What are you doing here, pretty pigeon?"
Zack looked up at her, and told the truth. "I seek the Snow Queen," he said, "for she has taken what is mine."
The robbers jeered, but the robber woman thrust up her fist and at once they were silent. "You seek the Snow Queen?" she asked, slowly, her eyes narrowing. "And what will you do when you find her? She does not give back what she has taken."
"Still," Zack said, "she has taken what is mine, and I will get him back."
The robber woman looked at him, her face still and thoughtful, then she said, "This sleigh belongs to us now, and your reindeer, and your knapsack. You may keep your furs." The robbers grumbled and she whirled on them. "My knife is sharp! Would you care to test it?" They did not, for they quieted, and she went back to Zack. "A friend of mine will take you north, if you will go."
Zack looked at her, at her tight-pressed lips and her knuckles white on the knife's hilt, and he asked, "Did she take someone from you too?"
The robber woman smiled, sharp and white-toothed. "She took my sister," she said. "Will you bring her home?"
"I will," Zack said, "or I will not come back."
they went north, the girl and her family. with every step she froze a little more, until her eyes were the color of a frozen pond and her hair the color of the sun seen through ice. her family loved her but they could not stay; one by one they stopped walking. we love you, they told her, but we cannot go further. we love you, but we cannot stay.
The robber band brought him back to their camp, pausing every now and then for a fight-- the robber woman always finished these, even if she did not start them. "It is only a little high spirits," she said, when Zack asked. "But it cannot go on too long. We must get back to camp and you must be on your way."
At last, the two robbers pulling the golden sleigh-- they took it turn and turn about, all but the robber woman and Zack-- arrived in the robber camp. A well-built log house, chinks stuffed with moss, stood beside a roaring fire; in front of its door slept a polar bear in a great mound of white, his muzzle upon his crossed paws, whistling as he slept. The robber woman left the golden sleigh and went to him, kicked him amiably in the side.
"Get up, you great lazy," she said. "There is a man you must take north, to the Snow Queen."
The polar bear lifted his head at that, and looked at Zack-- his eyes were human, rich and brown, and skeptical.
"Do not look like that," the robber woman said. "He will bring our sister back."
Zack left the sleigh and bent down to the bear, looking in his human eyes. "If you would take me north," he said, "I will bring your sister back, or I will not come back at all."
"Take him to the hermit-man," the robber woman said. "He will help."
The polar bear climbed grunting to his feet. He towered far above Zack's head, and his hot breath ruffled Zack's hair, and still Zack was not afraid. He took great handfuls of the polar bear's fur and climbed up his leg until he perched atop the polar bear's shoulders. He was very high up; he could see only the tops of the robbers' heads, and the robber woman's face as she looked up.
"Go, then," she said, "the hermit-man will help."
The polar bear nodded to her, and began to run. He ran very fast, faster than the fastest reindeer, so fast the wind blew cold through Zack's hair, and he ducked his head down to hide it in the polar bear's warm fur. He ran on through the night, under the shifting colors that exploded in the sky, ran on through the day, and another night, until at last in the morning they came to a little stone cottage with a wooden door, and he stopped.
Zack climbed down from the polar bear, stiff from the days of running, and knocked, shivering in the cold that was so much worse in this frozen north.
The hermit-man who opened the door wore so much fur he looked like a bear himself, even with his spectacles perched on his nose. He peered between the fur of his hood and his collar at Zack and the polar bear, and said, "I had not thought to see you again, old friend."
The polar bear nodded to him, and settled down in the snow; he did not seem to be cold.
"You must come in," the hermit-man said then to Zack, "it is very cold. You seek the Snow Queen."
"I do," Zack said, rather startled, and went inside the cottage. "How did you know?"
The hermit-man shrugged and shut the door. Inside the fire roared, and though it did not keep out the cold, at least the furs again kept him warm. "No one comes here unless they seek the Snow Queen," he said. "You should turn back if you want to live. None have ever returned."
Zack shook his head. "I will go," he said. "She has taken someone from me. I want him back."
The hermit-man paused, then went to the fire and stirred it up. "She has taken someone from me, too," he said, quietly. "My sister. I too want her back. Can you bring her back?"
"I will," Zack said, "or I will not come back."
The hermit-man nodded. "Then I will help you. You will need warmer furs, like I wear. Take yours off, and wear these instead." He offered a coat and boots, a hat and mittens, and Zack took them, changed his for them. "I will send you with a message to the husband and wife who live north. They are the last before the Snow Queen's domains. They will show you where you must go."
He had no paper, so he wrote the message on a stretched skin. He had no ink, so he cut his finger and used the blood. "Here," he said. "Show this to them and they will help you. Now you must go, for soon it will be night, and you must be moving then."
The hermit-man took him outside and he climbed again onto the polar bear, with the message tucked safely between his shirt and the fur coat.
"Bring my sister home," the hermit-man said.
"I will," he said, "I will not leave without her," and at that the polar bear reared up and ran forward, into the gathering dusk, and soon the hermit man was far behind them.
The husband and wife did not live very far north-- the lights playing in the sky had just begun to fade when the polar bear reached their home. They had heard him coming and they stood outside in the snow, hand in hand, wrapped in so many furs that Zack could not see a single piece of them, nor could he hear what they said. They took him by the hand and brought him inside where it was warm, and the polar bear crowded in behind them, curled up in the center of the floor, and went to sleep.
"You have come a long way," the wife said, bringing him a cup of hot milk. "You are looking for the Snow Queen."
"I am," Zack said, and gave them the message written on the stretched skin in the hermit-man's blood. "I must go north. She has taken someone from me and I must win him back."
It was so crowded in the little hut that the wife sat on her husband's lap to read the message, and when they were done they both looked up at him. "She has taken our daughter," the husband said. "The hermit-man says you can bring her back."
Zack nodded. "If I come back," he said, "I will bring your daughter, and the hermit-man's sister. I will bring the sister of the polar bear and the robber woman, and the sister of the princess's wife. I will bring my friend too. If I come back, I will bring them all."
"Then you must go now," the wife said, and got up from her husband's lap to go and wake the polar bear. "The winter will only grow colder. There is no point in waiting for summer, for it never comes."
Zack looked up at her then. "But summer always comes," he said. "It is the way of the world."
"Not here," the husband said, quietly. "The Snow Queen has stolen summer, and not any of us have got it back, no matter how we try. Bring summer back, if you can, and perhaps you will understand."
Zack did not understand, but he nodded.
The polar bear woke with much grumbling, but he squeezed outside into the snow, with Zack and the husband and the wife all tumbling after. He climbed up onto the polar bear's back again, and the wife went to the polar bear's muzzle.
"You must take him to the Snow Queen's palace," she said, "but do not go further than the ice gates, for it is too cold for you. Take him straight there and come straight back; do not stand about gossiping, it is too cold." She looked up at Zack then. "If you defeat the Snow Queen and win your friend and our daughter, we will know, and we will send him for you."
Zack nodded, and looked up at the lights in the north. "Do you know what those are?" he asked. "I have seen them every night of my journey, always in the north."
The wife smiled, and the tears she cried froze on her lashes.
"It is our daughter," the husband said quietly, and took her hand. "She shines them in the sky to let us know that she still lives. It is all we have."
Zack looked at the lights and then down at him, and said, quietly, "If it is in my power, after tonight, you will never see those lights again."
"Bring our daughter back," the wife said.
"I will," he said, "or I will not come back."
the girl went on alone.
When the first light of dawn brushed its fingers across the horizon, the polar bear brought him at last to a palace of snow that rose so far into the sky the top was lost among the clouds. Zack looked up and knew a certain kind of fear-- how could he defeat someone who could build a palace like this? For a moment he thought of turning around and running south, back home to his warm room at the top of the tall crowded tenement.
But he had sworn to the husband and the wife, the hermit-man and the princess's wife, the robber woman and the polar bear that he would bring their lost one back, and he had sworn to himself that he would bring Felipe back, and besides, he could not imagine looking across to the other window and not seeing Felipe there. So he climbed down from the polar bear and stood in front of the high gates of ice that were the only way into the palace.
"Thank you," he told the polar bear. "You should go. I will be fine."
The polar looked very gravely at him, then he turned and ran south, and Zack turned to the gates.
They were not locked. Indeed, they opened at a touch. He went inside, past statues of ice, weird twisted things that looked like nothing ever living. He went past frozen lakes and high drifts of snow, past hallways of ice and walls that breathed snow. At last he came to a great hall that stretched up the whole length of the palace. A chandelier of ice crystals that shone green hung on a long chain from the ceiling. A frozen lake filled the whole floor, cracked into a thousand pieces that were all alike.
The Snow Queen sat on a throne of ice, carved wonderfully into shapes that followed him with their eyes. She was wrapped in white fur, with a silver crown curving gracefully above her brows, and with her ice-blue eyes and her ice-sun hair and her ice-white skin she looked as if she was made of ice herself.
Felipe sat at the foot of her throne, looking up at her. He wore only the clothes he had worn in the tall crowded tenement, and he was almost blue with cold, but still he sat at her feet looking into her eyes, arranging and re-arranging the pieces on the floor.
Zack gathered his courage, and walked forward until he stood behind Felipe.
Only then did the Snow Queen move, to look at him with eyes that sent chills along his skin.
"You have taken Felipe from me," he said. "I want him back."
"He is mine," the Snow Queen said, in a voice like the grinding of glaciers. "Now that you have come here you are mine too, and you can never leave."
"He is mine," Zack said, "and I am his," and as he said it he knew it to be true. He put his hand on Felipe's shoulder, which was cold as snow but warmed, beneath his touch. "We will go from here, and you cannot stop us."
The Snow Queen lifted a hand, and with that gesture the walls turned to ice, the door lost beneath the cold. "You cannot leave," she said, "unless you find what will defeat me. None have found it before you. You shall not find it, and you will not leave."
Felipe spoke then, though he did not look away from the Snow Queen. "I know what it is," he said. "But I cannot say it. I have forgotten how."
Zack knelt beside him, and thought of the princess and her wife with her head on her shoulder, of the young man and his fiancée smiling at each other, of the robber woman and the polar bear giving him his freedom, the hermit-man writing in his own heart's ink, the husband and the wife hand in hand in the snow. "I know what it is," he said, "and I have not forgotten."
He took Felipe in his arms and kissed him, kissed the cold lips that warmed beneath his, held him tight against his body until he warmed.
The Snow Queen stood from her throne and shrieked with fury, but the ice melted from her walls. "Go then," she said, her voice now like icebergs falling into the sea. "Go and be damned, for I care nothing for you! You shall never defeat me. You shall never have what is mine."
"We shall," Felipe said, and rose to his feet. Zack stood with him, and for the first time in the Snow Queen's eyes he saw what Felipe had seen, and knew why Felipe had gone.
"We shall have her," Felipe said again, "you shall not keep her," and he reached out his hand to the Snow Queen.
She laughed, and her laugh was like an avalanche rumbling down a mountain. "Kiss me then," she said, "kiss me then and I shall kiss you to death and you shall be mine."
Zack reached forward and took the Snow Queen's hand as Felipe did-- it was so cold it burned his hand red with frostbite, but he pulled with Felipe and they pulled her down from her throne. Still she laughed, as they pulled her between them; still she laughed as they bent and kissed her, and her skin burned his mouth with cold. But when he pulled away, her cheek was pink where his mouth had been.
Felipe looked at him, his mouth branded by the cold, and said, "We shall have her," and bent his head to her again.
The laughter stopped when Zack kissed her neck, turned to a gasp when he kissed her forehead. At last, Felipe bent and kissed her mouth, and she fell through their hands, fell with a sigh and lay curled on the ice. Something shrieked, something flew past them; the chandelier fell and shattered with a crash, and the Snow Queen vanished, leaving only the girl on the ice.
she thought she would always be alone.
Felipe dropped his hand and knelt beside the girl who had fallen where the Snow Queen stood. He bent over her, smoothed her fire-opal hair away from her face, and helped her carefully to her feet.
Zack clasped his hands and looked at her as she rose unsteady to her feet. He did not quite know what had just happened, but he trusted Felipe, who he knew now was not his brother.
The girl cast off the white fur and the silver crown of the Snow Queen and stood shivering in a white silk shift that left her pale arms bare. He could see the blue veins in her wrists now, and the warm pink flush in her cheeks. He stripped the warm fur from his back and wrapped it around her; Felipe took the boots from his feet and put them on hers.
"Thank you," she said, at last, her voice soft like melting water running over stones.
"Who are you?" he asked, and took the hand that she held out to him.
She smiled at him, and it was like the sun came over her face, lighting up her deep blue eyes. "I am free," she said, simply, and held out her other hand to Felipe. He took it, and reached for Zack; they stood in a circle, looking down at the girl's soft face.
"You are the sister of the princess's wife," Zack said, understanding.
"Yes," she said, "and the robber girl, she is my sister too. The polar bear is my brother, and so is the man you met who had no paper, only the ink of his heart. The man and the woman in the small frozen house are my father and my mother. They came with me. They kept me from freezing. And you..." She pulled their hands inward, clasped them at her breast. "You have broken the ice, and I am free."
"We came to bring you home," Felipe said, simply.
"And so you have," she said, and kissed their hands. "I thank you."
"Will you tell us who you are?" Zack asked again, as they led her towards the door.
The girl smiled; again the sun crossed her face. "I am Summer," she said.
Hand-in-hand, they walked into the light.
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