Mistress of the Wind (3 page)

“How would you do that?”

“I have two sacks of gold right here.” Bjorn shuffled back and revealed the bulging bags beside him.

Both men’s eyes widened at the sight of them.

“I will
make
her go—”

“No!” It came out as a roar, and the woodsman cringed back. The brother stood his ground, but Bjorn saw his whole body trembled with fear.

Bjorn shook his head. “She must come willingly or not at all.”

The father looked back at the house. Hesitated.

It would not be easy, Bjorn realized. His Astrid was not one to blindly obey. She had spirit and courage, as he’d found out in the woods. It gave him a moment’s pause, and a flare of admiration.

“Father?” Someone fought the door open, and Bjorn saw a second, younger son step into the rain and raise a lantern. “Who is there?”

The father and the first son shared a quick look.

Ah, Bjorn thought, here is Astrid’s champion. The one who will stand in my way.

He bowed even lower than he had before. “Good evening, sir.”

“Give me a moment to speak with her,” the father said.

He turned and went past the gaping younger son, through the door. The older son followed him, and after a moment of staring, the younger one stepped back within. As the door closed in his face, Bjorn wondered if Astrid would be persuaded tonight.

The shrieking wind laughed at his hopes.

Chapter Four

“W
ho is there?” Astrid took in Tomas’s white face, the suppressed excitement in Father’s stance, and twisted the embroidery in her hands.

“Do you know who was watching you earlier?” Her father stepped closer to her, and for the first time since this afternoon there was no edge to his tone.

Astrid shook her head, felt her heart trying to escape from her ribcage.

“It was a bear. A giant bear, you were quite right,” Eric said, the words bursting out of him, earning him a dark look from Father. “A magical white bear.”

Freja gasped, and her mother made a choking noise, her eyes going wildly to the door. Bets said nothing, hugging her knees tighter to her body as she sat on the floor.

Astrid looked at Tomas. “A giant, magical, white bear?”

Tomas nodded, and there was something in the way his eyes slid to Father and Eric that made Astrid’s every nerve tingle with warning.

“He wants you for his own, Astrid. As a companion.” Eric opened his arms, pleadingly. “And if you will willingly go with him, he promises to take care of your every need.”

“And the two bags of gold?” Tomas asked, and it was as if the night’s cold autumn rain had seeped into his voice.

“If you become his, he wants to see to the well-being of your family, too. He will give us the gold, so we have no more worries.” Father spoke quickly, but there were patches of high color on his cheeks.

“What kind of companion?” Her mother leaned forward on her chair, her eyes on Father.

Her father looked at the ground, the flush creeping down his neck. “I do not know.” He seemed to struggle with himself for a moment. “He said he cannot marry her.”

There was an extended silence at her father’s words.

“Why not?” Tomas’s question cut through the shock. “Why can’t he marry her if he wants her in that . . . way?”

“Perhaps his enchantment forbids it.” Eric tried to shrug with nonchalance. But for once, even he was thoughtful.

“And what is the nature of his enchantment?” Astrid asked, feeling as if both bags of gold were lying in the pit of her stomach.

“Ask him.” Tomas stepped toward the door, and opened it.

“No—” Father spun, tried to grab the door, but Tomas swung it wider, and Astrid took her courage in both hands and walked toward it. Toward the eyes.

She felt Tomas at her side as she stood just within the threshold and stared up at her suitor.

“Astrid.”

He spoke her name as if it were a jewel he was holding to the light. She only came to his shoulder, he was so huge. A hulking mass of white fur, his black eyes looking out at her, not with the wild canniness of an animal, but with the cool intelligence of a man.

“Sir.” She forced herself into a curtsey, then shivered as the rain needled her, and fear shook her core. “We meet again.”

“Indeed.” He bowed to her, managing to look threatening and polite at the same time. “I don’t give up, as you can see.”

She ignored that. “My father says you wish to have me. As a companion.” Her tone leaned heavily on the word
companion
.

The bear gave a huff of surprise, but did not deny it.

“I wish to know why you want me, and why I should go with you.”

“As to why I want you,” his voice was a deep growl, “it is because you are like a ray of sunshine to me. You will grace my life and bring me happiness.” He shuffled his huge body. “As to why you should go with me . . . I will care for you, and give you everything you could desire. I will give you a new world.”

A new world?
Astrid started. Had she not wished for just such a thing, only minutes ago? Had she not looked at her mother and longed for something else?

Be careful what you wish for.

She swallowed. “Who enchanted you and why?”

Again he huffed, looked at her more closely. “I cannot tell you.”

“Then I cannot go with you.” She lifted her chin. “Good evening to you, sir.”

Then she stepped back and closed the door.

* * *

Bjorn blinked away the rain as he stood, stunned, outside the house.

Whatever he’d imagined her to be, the fierce, intelligent woman at the door had not been it. From her countenance he’d thought she’d be biddable, shy.

The wind howled with glee at his mistake.

The door swung open again, and her father stepped out to join him, wincing as the wind slammed the door shut behind him.

“Give me three days, Bear. Come again with the gold and ask for her one more time.”

Her father’s eyes slid to the two sacks.

“You think her answer will have changed?”

“We are a poor family,” her father forced his eyes up to Bjorn’s own. “The weather has grown colder with each passing year, our crops have not done well and we are going to have a hard winter.” He looked at the gold again. “Astrid is headstrong, but she loves her family, and she will sacrifice a great deal to see her mother happy.”

Even her father thought going with him would be a sacrifice.

“Do you love your daughter?” he asked the woodsman. The question shamed him the moment he spoke it.

The woodsman’s face twisted at his words. “Do you want her or not?”

“I do.”

“Then come in three days.”

Bjorn scooped the sacks up and turned to go.

“Don’t forget the gold,” the woodsman called, and Bjorn could hear the defiance in his voice.

Maybe the woodsman loved his daughter, maybe he didn’t, but he was willing to sell her to a monster for enough gold.

You deserve better, Astrid, he thought as he reached the trees.

But you’re getting me, instead.

Chapter Five

S
he was worn down smooth as a stone in a fast-moving stream by the pressure. Or rather, ground into tiny chips of rock like a boulder in the wake of a glacier. Astrid shook a few vegetables onto the table and sat down wearily.

She ignored Freja and Eric, busy with their own chores on the other end of the kitchen table. Tomas and Bets were her only safe havens, the only two who did not try to urge her to go with the bear.

Mother said nothing to her, but Astrid had only to think of the lines on her face to ask herself why she wasn’t giving anything to ease them. Even her very life.

She knew the answer.

She’d never taken well to commands.

And they wanted her to go not just with a stranger, but with a stranger who wasn’t even a
man
. With a bear who could talk, and who stood twice her height and looked at her with eyes as black and keen as an eagle’s. And who could enchant her with a word, make her freeze in place whenever he wished.

Though she was prepared to sacrifice herself for the survival of the others, she’d like to do it voluntarily. She knew it was small of her, but she hated the thought of Father and Eric thinking they had won.

“It’s not as if you have such a wonderful life here anyway,” Freja suddenly spoke out while she kneaded dough. Eric stood beside her at the table, and Astrid ignored them both and shaved the skin off a carrot.

“She’s right. Father picks on you all the time. You always get the worst jobs. What have you got to lose?” Eric leaned forward, so earnest he surely could not hear what he was saying.

Astrid put down the paring knife and folded her arms.

“Thinking about the two bulging bags of gold into the bargain, as well as getting rid of me?”

At that, Freja’s eyes jerked up from her work and she looked, for the first time, stricken.

“Yes.” Eric slammed his fist into the table and shouted in her face.

She flinched, and for a long moment they stared at each other, finally seeing who the other had become.

Astrid barely heard Mother, Father, Tomas and Bets come into the room. Summoned by Eric’s shout.

“Yes, you ungrateful cow.” Eric lifted an arm and wiped the spittle from his lips with the back of his hand. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking about. Two bulging, lovely bags of gold, and one less mouth to feed.”

“What have you against me, Eric? I have never harmed you.”

“You take up space and food, and you are fey. You talk to the wind and you talk back.”

“Eric.” Father’s soft call was like a whip crack through the tension in the room.

“No,” Astrid spoke slowly. “He’s being honest for the first time.” She rose up and took a step toward Mother. “I will talk with the bear when he comes. I may choose to go with him, I may not.”

“That is all you have to say? With the sun almost set?” Her father shook with a wild anger that came close to violence. The kind of anger that had earned every one of them bruises from him in the past.

“That is all I have to say,” she replied, refusing to move back, or look away.

“That is all we can ask of you, Astrid,” her mother said quietly. “If we should be asking you at all.”

“He is not a troll, Gerda. For the last time, he is not a troll.” Father clenched his fists, close to snapping.

“How do you know?” her mother cried, reaching out to grab Astrid, to pull her into her arms. “And what does it matter? He is enchanted. He could be a troll. He could be anything. As it is, he is a
bear
.”

“Mother.” Astrid hugged her close. Loving her more at that moment than she had for a long time. Finding respect for her after thinking she’d lost it forever.

“Do not go,” her mother whispered to her. “This will only lead to unhappiness.”

Astrid put her mouth to her mother’s ear. “I will make him swear an oath before I go with him. I will not be harmed, I promise you.”

Her mother gasped a breath between her sobs. “No one can stop a heart breaking.”

“Rather my heart than my spirit.”

Her mother stilled. Slowly drew back.

“What are you whispering?” Father asked, his eyes narrow, but for once, her mother did not keep quiet.

“Things that concern mothers and daughters, and no one else,” she said. “Astrid, go and tidy yourself. Whether you say yes or no, I would have you looking neat.”

Astrid nodded, and began climbing the stairs. While she was up in the room she shared with her sisters, she could pack her few things together.

For she knew in her heart, she was going.

* * *

Bjorn moved toward the cottage. He had not been near it all day, afraid she would sense him and fear him too much to agree to come.

But he knew to the minute when the three days were up, and he came exactly on time, dragging the bags of gold in his mouth.

The woodsman stood at the door, waiting for him, and he bowed nervously to Bjorn. It was an ominous sign.

“She has not agreed,” Bjorn said flatly, and a yawning pit of despair opened within him.

“No!” The woodsman shouted. “She would talk with you one last time, before she decides.”

It was as if an ax coming down on his neck somehow slipped from the executioner’s hand, and fell harmlessly to the ground.

“Then we shall talk,” Bjorn said. He kept his voice steady. He would not betray his desperation to this man.

The night was clear and cold. No taunting wind or icy rain as Astrid stepped over the threshold to speak with him.

As his eyes fell upon her, the night lit up as she stood in her ragged dress, her hair brighter than a lantern.

“Alone, Father,” she said, coldly, to the woodsman, and Bjorn saw the flash of temper on her father’s face as he closed the door, and left them be.