There was a trembling in the air, as something in the Snow Witch's power weakened and broke. Veikko made a small sound, and dropped to his knees, staring at the Witch. The Witch and the spirit rushed to each other and fell into each others' arms.
Kaari, who had been crying silently, bent to embrace Veikko protectively. Her tears fell on his face.
There was another sensation of trembling, then of cracking. The light suddenly came back into his eyes, and he recognized her.
“Kaari?” he said incredulously. She uttered a wordless cry of relief and love and joy. With a sound like thunder, the snow-servants burst apart, the Barrier evaporated and the Palace cracked in half and began to cave in on itself, as the wall around the palace shook. The man who had been the Icehart, and the woman who had been the Snow Witch, paid no heed, blissfully lost in each other's arms.
Ilmari uttered an oath and ran into the gate, with Lemminkal close behind. They seized Kaari and Veikko and fled with them just as the earth shook, cracked, ice-fog erupted from the cracks obscuring the pair still clasped in an unbreakable embrace and the wall began to tumble down.
Epilogue
“So…this is all that is left of them?”
Aleksia shrugged. “I have no idea,” she replied to Ilmari. “But those trees weren't there before.”
There was no sign, now, that anything had ever been here. Palace, walls, servants, even the original stone tower, were all gone. All that was left was an expanse of ice and snow that would probably be a fine meadow in the Spring, with two trees in the midst of it. One was an ash, one a linden, and they were twined so closely about each other that there was no telling where one ended and the next began. They were leafless now, but Aleksia sensed a vitality in them that meant that when Spring came, they would make a glorious show.
Behind them, the village once called “Misery” was now looking a great deal less dour. People spoke to each other in the streets, houses were being repaired, children played. Lemminkal and Annukka had performed six marriages already, and there was talk of building a church and finding a priest.
No one wanted to talk about the way things had been. Aleksia did not blame them. She actually hoped that the Spell of Restoration had cleansed some of that from their minds, and replaced it with dimmed memories. No one deserved to have the memory of that kind of inhumanity on his shoulders.
Kaari and Veikko had already been sent home with Urho pulling their sledge. They would be living in Annukka's house for now….
And now the four who were left were waiting for the Godmother's sleigh that Rosemary had sent, and surveying the changed landscape.
“Spring will be beautiful here,” murmured Annukka, at Aleksia's left. “And if ever there was a place in need of a Wise One…there are vacant homes in plenty here, sad to say, and if I were to remain, Veikko and Kaari would not need to build a place of their own.” She smiled a little crookedly. “Kaari will make a good Wise One, I think.”
“I am too old to be a warrior anymore, Autumn Flower,” Lemminkal murmured. “But it occurs to me that it might be in me to be a good leader of such a place. Of course, if you would have me — ”
Annukka's enthusiastic embrace would have confirmed her thoughts on that subject to the most skeptical of men — which, of course, Lemminkal was not.
“It is time for me to go back to my place.” Aleksia sighed. “I will be glad to sleep in a bed…and have someone cook for me…and, yes, even to steer the lives of feckless children who are not careful of what they wish for.” But she felt a pang as she said it. She was going to miss having adventures. And she was going to miss the company of others. Ilmari, especially….
He cleared his throat. “As to that,” he said cautiously. “Would you be averse to a neighbor? There is much I can learn from you. And perhaps I can give you a little help with those feckless children.”
She smiled, broadly, feeling warm inside. “A neighbor would be very welcome,” she replied. “And a little help would be useful.”
He coughed, and looked down at his feet a moment, then up into her eyes, as he flushed. “And more than that?” he asked hopefully.
She smiled, as unaccustomed warmth filled her heart. “One never knows,” she said.
“We'll….. see.”
Footnote
THE SNOW QUEEN
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1773-1
Copyright © 2008 by Mercedes Lackey
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Worldwide Library, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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