A Solstice Journey (3 page)

Ice home
, I translated. But it wasn’t cold. It was almost too hot here, and I did want to strip down to my shirtsleeves. I felt sweat starting to trickle down my back.

He looked over what I was wearing and shook his head. “I think that you would be more comfortable in something else,” he said with a nod.

Celyn didn’t say anything else as he led me into the castle, nodding at all the people we passed. Most of them stared at me, and I didn’t know if it was because of how I was dressed or because of the way I looked. Everyone seemed pretty happy to see him. Once or twice we were stopped by someone who would talk to Celyn in quiet tones, but Celyn appeared embarrassed when this happened, so I just looked around, fascinated by my surroundings. I didn’t mind the stops, didn’t think he was rude, because he obviously had business to take care of that wasn’t me.

The castle looked like it was almost picture perfect, as if this whole place was some sort of fantasy village. The building was made out of smooth stone, the corridors looking like they had been grown out of one piece of stone, since I couldn’t see any sign of mortar. They were wide enough for at least four men to walk side by side. The place almost sparkled. I didn’t know if it was because it was so clean or that there were crystals in the rock. It was impressive as any cathedral or castle that I had seen in my vagabond childhood.

But the place wasn’t cold; there were small touches here and there that showed me that this place was someone’s home. A brightly woven rug in front of a door, small tables in the hallway with small knickknacks on them, things that showed me that people lived here. It took a couple of minutes for me to realize that I was in what could be considered the “private” part of the castle. It dawned on me when we stopped in front of a heavily carved door with a small bench beside it, and the fact that I hadn’t seen anyone trying to talk to Celyn for a couple of minutes.

“We need to take off our boots now,” he instructed.

I sat down and unlaced mine, a pair I had bought when I had been home last, because I knew they would be warm. I took them off and wiggled my toes a little. They were warm, and I was pretty sure I hadn’t been wandering in the snow long enough to worry about frostbite.

Celyn slipped out of his boots just as easily, then handed me a pair of slippers from underneath the bench.

“And what do I do with my boots?” I asked. I was nervous about someone taking them, but I also knew wandering around in the snow to find my way home wasn’t going to happen either.

“One of the pages will clean them and return them,” he said. “Come inside now and let me give you something to wear.”

“You have anything that is going to fit me?” I asked.

Behind the door was his room and it was the size of a studio apartment, with the bed hidden in an alcove, wardrobes instead of closets, and in the corner a battered wooden desk piled with parchment and… sticks, for some reason. Complete with a stand in the corner that I assumed was for the armor he was wearing.

I hesitated and then asked him what had been bothering me. “If you think that I’m an elf, and you called Boston the nation of Man, what are you?”

“We are called Dökkálfar,” Celyn replied absentmindedly, seemingly focused on going through his wardrobe and seeing what he had that would fit me.

I almost laughed. In the sagas and epic poems, that word meant “Dark Elves,” which a lot of people then translated into “dwarf,” for some reason. But these people weren’t dwarves. They did look a lot like elves, tall and willowy—but muscled too, since they wore metal armor that had to weigh a lot. And from what I’d seen so far, they were all blond, from the pale white of Celyn’s braid to a dirty blond that was almost brown. Their eyes were all blue and their skin was all pale. I stood out like a sore thumb, but I was used to it. With the noise and their language, if I closed my eyes, it could be like I was home. I felt a pang; my mother was going to be frantic if I didn’t get back to Boston before Christmas.

“You know the word,” Celyn said.

“I know the word,” I agreed and then added, “even though I look more like what people think a dwarf looks like than you do. But a lot of people think that elves are all supposed to be tall and blond, because of one fantasy author. But I grew up with tales of the Hidden Folk, which is what most sagas call elves and dwarves.”

Celyn didn’t say anything as he handed me the clothing he had gathered. “You will be more comfortable in these.”

I looked around for someplace to change and was shocked when I realized Celyn expected me to do so in front of him. I flushed, and he raised an eyebrow, amused by my embarrassment. “I am being forward with someone I have just met,” he acknowledged ruefully.

Well, it wasn’t like I hadn’t stripped down in public before, because I did go to the gym fairly often. I just hadn’t expected to do it here.

“I do usually dress alone,” I said.

“No lover?” he asked with a slow smile.

“Not at the moment,” I told him. “I’d transferred and broke it off with Ted when I left.”

I didn’t know why I’d just told Celyn that.

“A pity,” he commented, sounding sincere. He really appeared sorry that I didn’t have someone in my life. He also didn’t seem to care that I had just indirectly told him I was interested in guys. Or maybe he didn’t know Ted was a guy’s name.

I walked over and laid the clothing on the seat of a wooden chair in front of the desk. I slipped out of my overcoat and then my suit jacket, hanging them on the back of the chair. I was unfastening my shirt when Celyn came over and examined the plastic buttons on my shirt. They would be a novelty here, I was sure.

“So tiny and strange,” he said, studying them closely. Either that or he was checking out my chest, which just seemed weird.

I shrugged out of my shirt and pulled off my undershirt before I grabbed the top I had been handed. The long tunic was a pretty off-white linen—I guessed, from the weight—and tightly woven. It was heavily embroidered with abstract patterns in faded reds, blues, and greens in cross-stitch with some other stitches I didn’t recognize. I slipped it on over my pants and it fell to my knees. I unzipped and unbuttoned my pants, glad my underwear was covered as I dropped my pants and toed off my slippers to get them off more easily. The floor wasn’t as cold as I would have thought a stone floor would be. I pulled on the loose pants he had given me. They were about the same color as the tunic, but a heavier fabric and drawstring-type and big enough for me, which surprised me, since I was a lot bulkier than Celyn. An oak tree to his willow, in a manner of speaking.

I folded my shirt and pants and placed them on the chair, not knowing what else to do with them.

“Do you need help getting out of that?” I asked Celyn, gesturing at the armor he still wore.

“I don’t think that you have the skills for it,” he replied, eyes dancing merrily. “But I am glad that you are interested in getting me out of my clothing.”

I flushed again. “That wasn’t what I meant!” I protested. I just didn’t think he would be interested in running around in a metal shirt if he didn’t have to.

“A pity, then,” he said with a quick smile. “I had my hopes for a moment.”

I didn’t know what to reply but was saved by a knock on the door. Before Celyn could say anything, it swung open and a woman strode into the room.

She had the same pale hair as Celyn, piled on top of her head in a loose knot, a casually messy one, held together and up with a couple of large silver pins. She was wearing a long tunic of pale red that was pleated in some complicated manner and tied closed with several ribbons. She wore a pair of soft-looking black shoes. She could have been his wife or his sister, since she entered his room after barely pausing.

“Your timing could be better, Llinos,” Celyn said as he smirked. “The
Álfr
was trying to seduce me.”

Llinos looked at me, and I smiled weakly. She turned and rolled her eyes as she said to him fondly, “You’re a terrible tease, Celyn! The poor thing doesn’t need you teasing him on top of being lost.”

“He wasn’t lost. Were you, Gunnar?” Celyn asked.

“Well….” I started. “I didn’t think that I was lost, really, until you showed up.”

“The Solstice thins the walls between the worlds,” Celyn said thoughtfully. “That is the only explanation. Even if you were raised with the
menskr
and know their ways, when the Solstice happened, you came here.”

“I was usually at home—”

“With the
Álfr
?” Llinos asked curiously.

“With my family,” I snapped. “I’m not an elf, no matter what the two of you want to believe. I always had Christmas with my family, no matter what. It was just this year I couldn’t.”

She frowned, and I felt like an ass for talking to her like that, but I was tired and beginning to panic about what I had gotten myself into. A little late now, but I was blaming that on the cold more than anything.

“He is of the world of Man,” Celyn told her. “And I have been rude. Gunnar Dagviðurson, this is my cousin Llinos, a woman who is wise enough not to have wed me.”

She narrowed her eyes at him in clear annoyance, and I wondered what exactly he was trying to say. It was subtle, but he might have been saying he wasn’t into guys.

“Your squire is engaged in other matters,” she said briskly. “And so it will be I that will help you out of all that metal.”

Celyn laughed. “It sounds like you never had to wear armor. Gunnar, Llinos is a fierce warrior and her husband was a lucky one when he married her.”

I nodded at that, because I didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. I vaguely thought that was more of a modern custom.

Celyn then leaned over in front of her, like he was bowing. I was wondering what he was doing when she took the back of his chain mail shirt and started to roll it up slowly and neatly, until it was rolled up tight and Celyn could slip it over his head. He straightened up with a smile, straightening out his tunic slowly.

“And I doubt that
anyone
would be willing to be with one who has a tongue like yours,” she scolded. “And poor Gunnar must think we have no hospitality, as you have dragged him off to your room, without a morsel of food in sight!”

She turned to me with a smile. “As soon as Celyn is unarmored and remembers his manners, we will go to the hall to eat. I don’t doubt that you are starving, since walking between the worlds will drain you.”

“I feel fine,” I said, despite that even if this was some sort of weird dream, I really felt tired, more like I had gone for a long, steady run than anything more strenuous. “Seriously, I could be freezing to death in the Public Garden instead of being here. I’m grateful that you found me. I didn’t think that anyone was going to.”

It hit me, just then, that I could have died out there. Not because I had been careless or stupid, but because I had gotten trapped in some sort of freak snowstorm. I wondered how many other people had gotten trapped like this and if anyone had rescued them. I walked over to the bed and sat down, shivering, and I didn’t think I was going to be able to stop.

“Gunnar?” Celyn asked, walking over to the bed to sit beside me. He put his arms around me and then laid his head on my shoulder. It should have felt weird or pushy, but I just leaned into him, wanting his touch, because he saved my life, because he felt warm and supportive. “Truly, you are safe now.”

“Other people?” I asked, my voice rough and hoarse.

“None of the other patrols found anyone,” Llinos said softly. “We usually don’t, no matter what the day.”

“What were you thinking of?” Celyn asked softly. “When we found you.”

After hesitating for a moment, I said, “Home. Home and the first Christmas that we all saw snow. Most of the time, we were someplace warm for the winter. Or it was one of those years that it was cold and rainy, never snow for Christmas.”

“How old were you?” Llinos asked.

“Eighteen,” I said. “My birthday’s at the end of October. I came home from university at the break. I was always teased by my friends for being so uncool because instead of partying with them, I wanted to be with my parents at Christmas. Because I always wanted to be there for the whole holiday, as soon as exams were over. This is the first Christmas that I haven’t been home. It’s stupid. I’m thirty-three, and I’ve never been alone for Christmas before. I told my mother that I was all right with it, but I hate it, because it doesn’t feel like Christmas since I’m not home with them.”

“You are overtired,” Llinos said in a comforting tone. “Lie down.”

And I did, because she had that mothering tone that made me want to do what she told me to. I didn’t miss that it was Celyn who drew a quilt over me and smoothed down my hair, kissing me gently on the forehead before I closed my eyes and the world drifted away.

I
DON
’
T
know how much later it was when I woke up. I felt much better. Celyn was sitting beside the bed, reading a scroll.

When I shifted, he looked over at me with a smile. “It hasn’t been long,” he said. “No more than a candle width.”

“What?”

“The candles mark the hours,” he explained patiently. “And you have only been asleep for one.” He stood up and stretched. “Idris wishes to see you.”

“Who?”

I wondered if he thought I was an idiot. All I could get out were one-syllable words. I wasn’t one slow to wake up. I usually jumped out of bed in the morning with a lot of energy.

“Idris is my king,” Celyn said. “He is curious about the
Álfr
that we found in the snow and would like to speak to you.”

“I’m not an elf,” I repeated, sitting up. “I think that my parents would have told me that. They did tell me I was adopted.”

I rolled out of bed, standing up and stretching, feeling much better after my little nap. I didn’t miss the fact that Celyn was openly staring at me. Not quite ogling, but not hiding the fact he liked looking at me. But getting laid wasn’t on my agenda for now. I wanted to get home—or at least wanted to wake up, because this was something out of a dream. A hot guy wanted me in some sort of strange fantasy setting? Conan the Barbarian, I was not. I wasn’t going to get the guy, because I wasn’t good-looking enough for him.