Asher pulled around the side of the castle, driving around a kind of paved moat, to a wide lot at the back. There were a number of slick black vehicles, a couple of large trucks and another van, all shiny black.
“Oh, you’ve got two creeper vans, do you? Do you do a lot of kidnappings?” It was meant to be a joke, but my voice came out shaky.
Asher smiled at me, “Yeah, all the time. Hey, I joke. Don’t look so nervous.”
“It’s nothing…just….” I glanced out the window, at the huge brick building that stretched up into the clouds, “it’s…a freakin’ castle.”
“I know it must seem weird,” Asher stretched back, leaning between the two seats to grab his knap sack. His shoulder brushed mine, “don’t worry though, everyone is really laid back…” he grinned, “at least, my dad’s side of the family is.”
“Your mom isn’t?” I hopped down from my seat, taking a deep breath of cool evening air. The sun was just setting now, sinking down into the snowy mountains in the distant in a flare of oranges and reds that looked like an oil painting.
“No way, my mom is really relaxed,” Asher hiked his knapsack higher on his shoulder, and I hurried to follow him as he strode across the parking lot, “it’s the frostie advisors, they’ve all got sticks up their butts…”
I wrinkled my nose at that particular description, “why? What’s the matter with them?”
Asher shrugged, “Dunno, really. They’re always going on about tradition and protocol and procedure and all that. What my parents should do and shouldn’t do….all that garbage.”
“Sounds fun.”
“Oh yeah, they’re a barrel of laughs,” Asher was heading for a wide wooden door in the side of the castle, where a tall, swarthy faced guard was standing. We passed under a brick arch way, and Asher waved. The guard didn’t dignify this with a wave back, only tightened his fingers around the spear he held, but there was a small curl of his lips on both sides, hinting at a smile, “Prince Asher.” He said curtly.
“Hail, Favian! Feel like letting me and the lady in? Or are you just going to stand there jutting your lip out at us?”
Favian’s mouth twitched again, he appeared to be fighting a smile, “I am most certainly not sticking my lip out.”
“You are,” Asher said, “I can see you’re trying to look all deadly serious, but it’s coming off more sulky…” here he dodged, laughing, as Favian suddenly struck out with the shaft of his spear, jabbing at the air where Asher had been seconds ago.
“Still too slow! You’re improving though!”
The guard rolled his eyes, but he pushed the door open, the hinges creaking loudly, holding it open for us to pass through. Asher gave him a playful nudge on the way by, and Favian sighed in long-suffering fashion. Once we were inside I stopped, gaping around at the room I’d found myself in. It was obviously just a entrance room, a cloak room, or whatever they called it, but it was still massive. There were iron brackets on the wall that held wooden torches, and a series of hooks on the walls held leather and fur capes of various shapes and sizes.
“Wow,” I breathed, “it’s full on medieval in here…”
“I know,” Asher grinned, “isn’t it awesome? The ice palace is the opposite, everything is glass and marble and ice statues of swans…this…this is somewhere you can get good and sloshed off of ale and stumble around without worrying about breaking the place. It’s solid.”
“Do your parents know you get sloshed off of ale?” I raised a brow at him, and his cheeks colored slightly, “maybe not,” he shrugged, grinning, “come on, this way. My parents are probably in the great hall.”
The cloak room narrowed into a long hallway, which was lit by more burning torches. As we passed them by I wondered if they were ever tempted to just stop and play with the flames, to touch them, to let the fire tickle their fingers. Asher just passed the torches by without a second look though. They were probably so used to fire they didn’t think about it anymore.
The hallway opened up, branching off a few different ways, and I realized exactly how lost I would get if I ever got separated from him. This place was like a maze. On the far side was a set of double doors with large, circular iron handles. There was another set of guards standing in front, who looked far more casual then the last one had. I could tell just how casual they were, because one had his tunic on completely crooked, with the buttons all done wrong, and the other was supporting himself in the doorway, leaning a little too far to the left, as if he might fall over at any second. When they saw Asher, both guards straightened up and tried to hide clay mugs behind their backs. The taller guard winced when liquid from the cup dribbled down his pant leg, and the hall was filled with the scent of strong ale.
Asher paused in front of them, face mischievous, “I trust you two are diligently guarding the banquet hall?”
“Yes!” The guard with the ale down his pants gave us both a crooked-toothed grin, “Yup! We are! I mean….it’s guarded. Er…”
“Do you mind opening the door for the lady?” Asher said, “Where are your manners, men?”
They both looked horrified, scrambling to drag open the heavy doors. Asher hid his wide grin behind the sleeve of his jacket as they did so. Finally the doors were open, revealing the hall beyond, and I could feel the smile slide off my face.
The banquet hall was the biggest room I’d ever seen. It was filled with long wooden tables, and every table was packed with people. Soldiers in fur capes and chainmail, women in long shining dresses. Two different races were present, that was obvious enough. One race, tall and slender, with skin so pale it was almost blue, and silvery white hair. The other race matched them for height, but it was width they trumped them in, they were twice as muscular, with dark skin and coarse black hair. Different thought they were, they all sat together, dark and light mingling with one another, laughing and talking. The hall was filled with the sound of mugs slamming on table tops, raucous laughter and even an occasional outburst of song. The rafters, hundreds of feet above, rang with the noise.
We’d arrived in the middle of supper time.
“There, my parents,” Asher pointed at the long table that sat next to an enormous fire place. The table faced the opposite way, so that the occupants could survey the hall. There were a number of people sitting there, but it was obvious who Asher was pointing at. The king and queen were quite the spectacle.
She was radiant. Dressed in a simple white gown. A delicate crown of jewels nestled in her white curls, glittering in the firelight whenever she moved, and her graceful throat was decorated with a choker of tiny diamonds set in silver. She was pale as a white swan, but when she turned to say something to the king you could see the peach tinge in her cheeks, the flush that brought color to her face. She was breathtaking in motion, talking with her hands, saying something to her husband.
And the king. Wow.I couldn’t help it, I turned to look at Asher. The resemblance was there alright. Though Asher’s hair wasn’t nearly as dark as his father’s, and his eyes were startling blue and not brown, you could tell the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree at all.
Asher met my gaze. Smiling, he reached out and brushed my arm with his fingers, “it’s okay, you’ll love them. Come on, I’ll introduce you.”
I didn’t think the situation could possibly get more intimidating, but as soon as Asher and I stepped past the doorway and entered the great hall, most of the Jotun at the tables turned to look at us, wide eyed. Asher didn’t seem to mind all the attention, he strode down the hallway between tables, grinning around at them as they stared at us. I made sure to keep up with him, nearly stepping on his heels in my haste. It felt like I was at a wedding or something, like I was walking down the middle of the aisle being stared at by everyone. Were they wondering who I was, or did they know I was the girl who burnt the school down? They must know something about me, or that Asher went to get me. What were they thinking? Were they looking at my baggy t-shirt and dirty blue jeans, my greasy hair? Suddenly I wished I could sink into the dark stones of the floor, vanish away into nothing.
Traveling the length of the room seemed to take hours, it felt like my footsteps echoed loudly in the sudden silence, over the murmur of the crowd and the crackle and pop of the fire in the giant hearth. The Queen’s eyes were fixed on me – crystal blue and intense. Now I knew where Asher got it from. I felt her stare like a physical weight, dread making my steps slower. What if she hated me? What if they looked at me with scorn?
Finally we reached the long table, and Asher bowed to his mother and father with a mock flourish, “I have returned!”
Both his parents smiled at this, and I felt the knot in my chest begin to unravel a little bit. Maybe they wouldn’t be so bad, maybe they wouldn’t be all uptight and…and royal, or whatever.
The king shifted, pushing dark curls out of his eyes, raising one brow at Asher. He was older, obviously, but I still couldn’t help but notice how handsome he was, (in an old enough to be my father kind of way….kinda like George Clooney). “Asher,” he said in a lecturing tone, “Your mother and I taught you better than that! Introduce the lady first.”
“But of course!” Asher gestured to me with another dramatic flourish, “you’ll be happy to know that my first mission was a success! This is Jessica, Jess for short.”
The King and Queen both smiled at me, and the Queen actually rose from her chair, leaning forward to offer me her hand, and I reached out instinctively. My heart leapt into my throat. Was I supposed to kiss her hand? Her skin was like ice.
My dilemma was solved quickly, because the Queen clasped my hand in both of hers and said warmly, “Welcome, Jess. You can call me Megan, and this is my husband, Loki.”
My heart was pounding in my ears, “Er-nice to meet you, your majesty.”
The Queen laughed, “Oh no, nobody calls me that, or him either,” she elbowed her husband, who dodged to one side, both of them laughing, “he’s entirely undignified.”
Loki glanced past Asher and I, probably noticing that the hall had fallen silent, “Hm, let’s go into the war room for further introductions. That way we don’t have a hundred nosey onlookers.” He shot the crowd a pointed look, and the sound of cutlery scraping on plates and chatter started up suddenly behind me.
Loki rose, offering his wife a hand, and the King and Queen turned, beckoning us to follow. The Queen glanced over her shoulder,“you too, Charlotte.”
A woman at the end of the table rose, setting her napkin down carefully. While the queen was fine-boned and tall, this woman was tiny in every way. Far shorter than most of the jotun, and her hair was slightly darker. Still, the way she held herself, the way she moved, I could tell there was more to her. She radiated power.
So, this was the dark and terrible witch the rebels had gone on about. She’s tiny…
To my surprise Charlotte glanced over her shoulder at us, winking before she turned to follow the King and Queen. Maybe she wouldn’t be so bad. She certainly didn’t seem scary. I couldn’t exactly see her eating babies or anything….
We followed the three of them to a door beside the fireplace, slipping through into a much quieter room. It was a relief to escape from all the staring. The room we entered was large, the walls covered in cherry wood bookcases filled with ancient looking volumes. In the corner was another stone fireplace, and in front of that, in a sagging green armchair, sat an enormous man. Everything about him, from his ruddy red cheeks, course black beard and black eyes, to his massive forearms folded over his chest – was terrifying. Not only that, but he looked totally pissed off. It might have had something to do with the people standing behind him, a pair of tall, white haired frost jotun in flowing silver robes. They were both talking, gesturing with their hands, delicate features cross.
“You mustn’t allow him to get away with this! He can’t simply throw away procedure and go gallivanting…”
“Asher!” The man shot up out of his armchair with a roar, a smile breaking over his broad face, “my grandson is home, and you brought the lass , safe and whole I see!” He strode across the room and seized Asher in an enthusiastic bear hug, who said in muffled protest, “you’re strangling me!”
“Aye, you’ve done well!” his black eyes locked on mine, and he roared, “and you must be Jessica. The girl that tried to burn her school down!”
My mouth must have dropped open a few inches, because the man threw back his head and laughed uproariously, “Don’t you worry, lass. I burnt down a few buildings in my day!” he released Asher and stuck out one huge, ham sized hand, which I took, a little fearful he would crush my fingers. He shook my hand enthusiastically, beaming at me and then Asher, then back to me again, “I’m Surtr, this here boy’s granddaddy! “
“Pleased to meet you,” mostly I was just pleased he hadn’t crushed my hand when he finally released it.
“Thank god you’ve come,” Surtr chuckled, glancing over at Megan, “If I had to hear those whiny advisors of yours any longer I’d have chucked myself into the fireplace, I swear I would have.”
The silver-robbed jotun hadn’t moved from beside the armchairs. They looked insulted, but before either of them could say anything Megan spoke up, her red mouth twitching to avoid a smile, “Now, Surtr. You know it’s tradition to have royal advisors. And Ondrea and Harkin have had some very good advice over the past few years. Try to be polite.”
“Well why are they bitchin’ to me?” grumbled Surtr, “all I wanted to do was retire to the war room with a big mug of ale, and I have to hear them goin’ on about politics and all that stuff. That’s up to you two now,” he looked smug, taking a long draught from the wooden mug in his hand, rubbing the back of his hand over his beard “retirement suites me.”
“That it does, dad.” Loki rolled his eyes, and received a punch in the arm for it, “Ow, alright. Just sit yourself down and relax, we’ll do all the fancy thinking for you.”
“My thanks,” Surtr grunted, and sauntered back over to slouch in his arm chair, beaming around at us again.
Loki turned to me, “Jess, won’t you have a seat? It has to have been a long day for you. We just want to ask you a few questions and then Asher will show you to your room.”
I nodded, swallowing my nervousness long enough to say, “sure, alright.” I took a seat in one of the green armchairs, relieved to find that Asher sat himself down in the one next to me. Charlotte remained standing, leaning her back against the stone wall by the fireplace. Loki took the armchair across from me, and the Queen surprised me by perching herself on the side of his chair, tucking her long dress up neatly beneath her and laying her head on his shoulder. They were not what I’d expected.