Stupid, I told myself. She cannot save you. You have to save yourself. But how? If I refused to wed the prince, my mother would kill me. When she got into a rage, she hardly knew what she was doing. I could not simply pack a bag and walk away down the mountain. She would send guards after me. She would find me.
What was that? A flash of blue inside the walled garden; from this perch I could see over the wall. Someone was there. I stood up, wobbling on my ledge, my body tight with longing, though I knew it could not be Rune. Rune would not have come here without telling me. He was my dearest friend.
Ah. Only a serving man in a blue shirt. He came up the steps carrying a bucket, tipped its contents out on the garden, then went back down. Down into the storeroom where Rune had lived when he came to the castle. Down into the chamber with the letters scratched on the wall. The empty chamber.
Rune had taught me puzzles and how to solve them step by step. This one did not make much sense. Perhaps our servants’ quarters could not hold the additional maids and men, and some had been housed in the storeroom. So perhaps what I had seen was nothing more than it seemed: a fellow emptying a chamber pot.
But then, if only serving folk were using the storeroom, why were there so many guards on duty at the gate, far more than before? Why had my mother forbidden entry to the walled garden, even to her own daughter?
There was someone in that storeroom that she didn’t want me to see. The most obvious choice was my future husband, banned from my sight for thirty days before the wedding. But it couldn’t be him. The storeroom was all very well for a bear, but my mother would never have put the Prince of the Far Isles in such modest accommodation. To ensure he and I did not meet before the wedding, all she’d needed to do was house him in a distant wing of the castle and order me not to wander about. Which was what she had done, as far as I knew.
I waited and waited, but there was no more activity in the walled garden. So I went back to my own quarters and fished out the mirror. This time I sat by the open window, so I could keep one eye on the track up the mountain. I did not expect the mirror to cooperate. But no sooner was I settled than the face of the green-eyed girl showed clear as clear. And for the first time I heard her voice. I’m coming to fetch you, she said. Hold on. I’m coming to save you.
It was true! Rune was right, I could make the story come out the way I wanted! “Hurry,” I whispered. “You need to get here before midsummer, and it’s only a few days away.”
The girl in the mirror showed no sign of hearing me. She pulled her pack higher on her back and kept on walking. But she understood. I was sure she did. I watched as she climbed a rocky hillside, traversed a deep valley, then made her way across a desolate plain where the grasses grew no taller than one joint of my little finger. The north wind whipped her hair into a brave red banner. I’m coming to save you. Those words thrilled me deep inside.
She stopped for the night in a little hut by a frozen pond. The hut had icicles hanging from its eaves: winter in summer. I guessed she had reached the foot of the glass mountain, where it was always cold, and my heart raced. Night fell in the mirror, and dawn came rosy bright. The girl and an old woman stood outside the hut, and the old woman pointed the way. She gave the girl something small and golden, and the girl slipped it into her pack. Before the mirror misted over, she turned her forthright green eyes straight on me. Wait for me, she said.
“I will, I will!” I whispered. “But hurry!” It was a long, hard climb up the mountain. Unless you were a bear.
Seven days until the wedding. Mother made me put on all my finery and practise walking up and down with my head held high and a smile on my face. When I was not straight enough to satisfy her she corrected me with a long stick.
“You will be on show, Hulde. The future Queen of the Mountain. You must shine. What is the matter with you? You are all a-tremble, and your smile is a death’s-head grimace. Even a simpleton would not be convinced by it.”
“It feels odd to be marrying a man I have never met, Mother. And… I am sad that Rune cannot be here.”
“You’ll be happy soon enough, when the fellow’s bedded you.”
Not being quite sure what she meant, I said nothing.
“As for Rune, that puzzle will resolve itself with no need for your interference, Daughter. After your wedding you will never see the bear again.”
I endured the rest of my deportment lesson with my heart near-breaking. My wedding was only a few days away, and Rune was not here. He would never be here again. How could I live without him?
I waited for the green-eyed girl to come. Or for a miracle to bring Rune up the glass mountain. Or for myself to turn into a beautiful princess like the ones in the stories, and for the Prince of the Far Isles to decide he and I would ride away to live in his castle after all. There were six days left. Then five. Then only four. What would Rune advise me to do?
Don’t wait for other folk to solve your problems, I thought. Take hold of your story. Shape it the way you want. Don’t be afraid.
But I was afraid of my mother; scared almost to death. Too scared to ask questions. So scared I had accepted half-truths and tales that made no sense. What if there was no old superstition about it being bad luck for a man to see his bride in the thirty days before the wedding? What if the real reason she was keeping me away from the prince was that, once he saw me, he would no longer want to marry me? What if Rune had stayed away because… because… But no. A woman could not wed a bear.
In the mirror, something strange happened. It was as if a different story was beginning, in a different time and place. But not entirely different, because the green-eyed girl was in it, with a man so beautiful to look on that he must surely be the Prince of the Far Isles. His features were noble, his nose straight and strong. His hair was dark and glossy as a crow’s wing, his skin pale and unblemished. I saw him fast asleep, lying on a bed hung with rich red cloth. The girl was in a nightrobe. She had a candle in her hand. She leaned over the man, looking down at him with her face all soft with love. Oh, I had never seen such a tender look! Three drops of wax fell from the candle onto his shirt, and instantly he was awake, springing up so fast the girl shrank back in terror. The candle wobbled in her hand, making strange shadows dance around the chamber.
Oh, Wife, the man said, taking the candle in its holder and setting it safely on a chest. What have you done? His words sent a shiver through me.
I’m sorry, dear heart. My mother made me do it… I’m so sorry. The green-eyed girl was shivering; she put her hands over her face.
I must leave you now. You have broken your vow, and I cannot stay. A long journey lies before me, a journey from which there is no returning. He enfolded her in his arms; she wept on his shoulder. Goodbye, Beloved. I must go.
Wait! she cried, stepping back from him. Oh, Husband, please wait a little longer! Let me come with you!
I must travel alone.
???
I love you! the girl said. I would do anything to break this curse! Is there no way out?
A long silence. Oh, how they gazed at each other! My hand was hurting. I had been gripping the mirror almost to breaking point. Then the man said, There is a way. It is long. It will tax you hard.
Tell me! the girl pleaded. Whatever it is, however long it takes, I will save you. I promise.