Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (23 page)

As we rode through forest and over plain,
Frey spoke to me, mostly telling me what the area we were in was
called, the name of the river I’d seen on our way out, what each
village was called and adding information, such as which gods
and/or goddesses they worshiped.

News: some villages chose specific gods or
goddesses to revere above the others, sometimes it was one but it
seemed to be on average three and their preferences were known
easily for they had that god or goddess’s colors displayed in the
town, or the town’s common places had statues, busts or their faces
were carved into buildings (this, Frey pointed out to me and this,
by the way, was cool and this, I decided, was why there was a lot
of green and light blue in Houllebec because clearly they prayed to
Hermia and Alabasta).

Although Frey told me this, he didn’t
explain why, he simply seemed to be talking to me to keep my mind
off things.

And he did, including the fact that he was
telling me information that it was likely, as princess of this
country, I should know.

It didn’t occur to me once that this was
weird.

Not once.

In fact, that thought didn’t enter my
mind.

Night fell as it usually did in that
world, that was to say in early afternoon and we were riding
through another forest when it did it. I was
way
over the ride by then and as much as I liked Tyr,
I wanted
off
that horse
and
in
a place that
was warm so that forest seemed to last forever until suddenly we
came out it and the torchlit city of Fyngaard was laid out in the
valley in front of us, surrounded by tall mountains, their snowy
tops piercing the night sky.

Where I had entered this world.

Where my parents were.

I again noted its beauty but I instantly
grew anxious and I must have tensed or pulled in a breath for
Frey’s arm around me grew tight but he said not a word.

To take my mind off the impending meeting,
as we rode through Fyngaard I looked around and saw it appeared
most of the city had attended our wedding for the night I entered
this world, it was mostly deserted.

But now, there were people out and about,
quite a number of them, walking, riding, standing around the big
fire drums, holding their hands to them and chatting. There were
also some sleighs, none as large as mine, one-seaters or
two-seaters, some with an area at the back where you could put
stuff, some without, some being pulled by two horses, most only
one. All of the people were dressed differently than they were in
Houllebec, their clothes more refined, some of the men and women
here had fur trim on their outerwear and there was none in
Houllebec and most of the women in Fyngaard wore elegant
fur-trimmed hats and slim leather or suede gloves whereas in the
village, the women wore knit caps and mittens.

There were also several long lines of two
story, connected buildings that had shops on the first floor with
people in them or outside looking in, perusing the wares. They
definitely had more of a selection then our little Houllebec
including yarn shops, a number of dressmakers, milliners,
tobacconists, wine and spirits, bookstores, stationery shops and
shops that looked like they sold leather and fur. There were even
two shops that we passed whose windows were decorated with what
looked like spun, colored glass that was fashioned in all shapes
from butterflies to hummingbirds to hawks, horses and wolves and
even sleighs and ships and one of them had a large, elaborate and
definitely cool dragon in its window.

It was all so fascinating, my head often
turned or my body twisted to keep sight of something we passed and
when we passed the glass shops, I decided I was definitely
checking
those
out, as
soon as I could.

There were a number of restaurants, pubs and
even what looked like cafés, some with sturdy, wooden furniture
outside surrounded by torches and big fire drums where people sat
drinking coffee or maybe cocoa, some of the men smoking
brown-paper-covered, thin cigars.

It was, I noted, definitely a city and what
appeared to be a cosmopolitan one at that.

Our entourage, now including all our riders,
did not pass through the city unnoticed. In fact, we caused quite a
stir. When eyes came to me, men would bow slightly or women would
bob in a graceful, short curtsy. But if eyes caught or moved to
Frey, men would lift their hand in a fist and touch their chin and
women would tuck their chin down and to the side of their neck.

This was strange but it was cool and for
both reasons, I wish I could ask Frey about it but, alas, I should
already know so I couldn’t.

We made it out of the commerce area and were
winding our way through what seemed a residential area when our
party made a turn around a house and I saw it.

The Winter Palace. It had to be for it was
huge and it was extraordinarily gorgeous.

It sprawled along the rise at the base of an
enormous mountain and the outside carried as much beautifully
carved wood as all I’d noticed inside. The many, varied height,
narrow-angled gables were all decorated with intricate dark wood
carving mingled with long, glistening icicles, most of the diamond
paned windows glowed with candlelight, at their tops the light
glowed through the carved wood adorning them and the rest of the
façade was made of massive dark wood planks.

And I could see this even in the night for
all along the front of the Palace there were big drums with roaring
fires probably every six feet and closer to the building was a row
of tall torches only maybe a foot apart and there were a vast
number of torches that were affixed on a slant on the Palace
itself, all of them bearing cages around the fire and all of them
lit.

It was freaking
magnificent.
Every inch of it and there were a lot of
inches. The place was huge.

I was frozen in awe but my awe slid away as
I saw on the wide, stone steps that swept down and widened
gracefully as they ran from top to bottom there were a bunch of
people standing and waiting.

For us.

And the two people at the very top, right in
front of the huge, lancet arched, square-paneled, wooden double
doors were my parents.

Eek!

I stared at them and deep breathed wondering
why I was so freaked out.

I didn’t know why and had no time to figure
it out. Oleg drove the sleigh off to a side and the other men fell
back but Frey rode Tyr straight to the foot of the massive flight
of step and stopped. He did not delay in dismounting nor did he
delay in reaching up, grasping my waist and pulling me down.
Further, he did not delay in engulfing my gloved hand in the
hugeness of his and guiding me up the steps.

Nervously, my eyes took in the people
standing along the steps and I noticed there were at least thirty
of them, none of them in the fine clothes my parents wore. These
included the four girls who had been there that first night, all
wearing cloaks of the same colors their dresses had been that
night, all of their eyes on me.

Frey stopped us two steps down from my
parents and directly in front of them. I tore my eyes from the
girls and looked into my parents’ blank faces (though, Mom looked
kind of peeved for some reason, then again, my Mom of this world
had so far only looked peeved) but as I took in their expressions,
I watched my father lift a fist to his chin and at the same time my
mother’s chin dipped to the side and into her neck.

Both of these gestures were for Frey.

How weird. Seriously, I wondered what that
meant and had to find some way to find out.

When my father dropped his hand and Mom’s
chin righted, Frey suddenly bowed at my side. I looked at him to
see his bow was not deep, but shallow, just a slight bend of his
waist and his head was tipped back, his eyes on my parents but his
hand still in mine squeezed then he gave it a gentle jerk.

Oh shit. I was supposed to curtsy.

Crap.

I dropped into an awkward curtsy, seeing as
I was doing it on a step which was deep but not deep enough to
execute a curtsy, something I’d never done before in my life. I
pulled it off, thankfully, without falling over or something
equally embarrassing and I bowed my head.

“Rise, my daughter and new son,” Dad
muttered, Frey straightened and his hand held mine firmly so I
could use the strength of his arm to pull myself up.

I tilted my head back to look at my parents
while my nerves jangled but before anyone could say a word, Frey
spoke.

“My Ice Bride has been travelling long and
she is chill. We must get her inside.”

Then he didn’t wait but led us up another
step, I saw both my mother and father jerk in some surprise then
when Frey kept right on going and was about to bowl through them,
they turned toward the doors. One of the people standing around
rushed to them and pushed both open and Mom and Dad strode through,
Frey and I following close and some of the people from outside
followed us in while others disappeared to places unknown.

The doors barely closed behind us when Frey
let my hand go and turned to my Dad.

“Atticus, we must talk. Now.”

Dad blinked up at him then I turned my head
to blink up at him too. His voice sounded firm, fierce and maybe a
little ticked off. I didn’t get that. He didn’t seem ticked off
while we rode.

Dad rallied and replied, “Of course,
Drakkar. My study.”

Frey turned to my mother and ordered, “The
princess does not leave the Palace unless she has my leave.”

I blinked again.

Uh… what?

Mom looked up at him and nodded.

Frey wasn’t done. “You will attend my
conversation with my king.”

Mom’s eyes flashed to me then to Frey and
she nodded again.

Frey turned to the four girls hovering
close. “See to your princess.”

Then, without looking at me, he stalked
away.

I stared at his back, stunned at his tone,
behavior and more bossy than his normal bossy commands.

Dad followed Frey.

Mom came straight to me, her fingers
curled around my arm tight and she leaned into my ear to hiss,
“
Now
what have you done?”

I didn’t get to say a word before she let me
go and hurried off in the direction Frey and Dad had
disappeared.

What on earth?

Before I could ask, the four girls
surrounded me and started herding me toward the carved stairs.

One who was close to my side and had her
hand on me, peered at me and whispered, “Sjofn?”

I looked at her, shook off that strange,
weirdly troubling scene and whispered back, “No. Finnie.”

She blinked then she smiled slightly and
pulled me up the steps as she introduced herself, “I’m Alyssa.”

The girl walking close at my other side
grabbed my hand and squeezed.

“Jocelyn,” she whispered.

“Esther,” one of the girls at our backs said
and, still mounting the stairs, I turned to smile at her.

“Bess,” the last one peeped and I smiled at
her too.

“
Gods,” Jocelyn breathed, giving my hand
another squeeze as I turned to face forward because even though
they were guiding me, I
was
climbing stairs and I didn’t want to fall flat on my face.
“We’re
so
glad you’re
back.”

We alighted the stairs and they started
leading me swiftly down the hall.

Alyssa got even closer to my other side and
whispered, “We’ve been so worried.”

“
Yes, we didn’t have time to tell
you
a
thing,
” Bess said
quietly from behind and another glance back showed she and Esther
were right on our heels.

“
We’re
so
sorry about that,” Alyssa stated, “but the switch was
supposed to happen ten minutes earlier. I don’t know what caused
the delay but whatever it was, we lost our opportunity to warn you
what was to come.”

Hmm. Seems it was not so good that Claudia
and I prattled on when I should have been transporting. If we
hadn’t, things might have gone better for me, apparently.

Crap.

We stopped at a door but just barely before
it was opened, we were through it and I was back in the room where
I’d started my adventure. It was again lit up, it now had a roaring
fire in the grate and it was still freaking gorgeous.

I barely got a chance to take it in and
definitely didn’t get a chance to open my mouth before my hat and
cloak were gone as were my gloves.

And while they did this with practiced ease
and uncanny quickness, they kept talking.

“We wanted to send a messenger but no one
knew where you’d gone.” This was Esther.

“
Everyone was abuzz that The Drakkar rode
into the night with you right after the ceremony. They’re still
talking about it. I mean, obviously, you’re beautiful and equally
obviously, he’s The Drakkar, so they think he couldn’t wait to get
his hands on you, especially after your conjugal kiss which
everyone is also still talking about.” This was Alyssa and she went
on to state, “But your mother was livid. She’d spent months
planning the celebration that was to happen after the wedding
ceremony. She didn’t get over The Drakkar hauling you away
for
weeks.
”

“She’s still not over it,” Esther
muttered.

“Yes, it was frosty in the Winter Palace,
believe me.” This was Bess, her eyeballs moved around the group as
she finished, “And still is.”

As they talked they led me to the bed and
pushed me on it and
in it
and then
they climbed in and surrounded me close and Jocelyn spoke before I
could get a word in edgewise.