A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(86)
She stayed behind the tulips until she felt the fear fade from her eyes and her brave face returned.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
AN ICY TRADE
The soldiers shivered in the freezing winds. The elements had grown too harsh for their horses so they were left behind and the soldiers were forced to trek through the thick snow on foot. For hours and hours they climbed higher and higher into the steep mountains of the north without a disclosed destination or an anticipated time of arrival.
“How much farther?” General Marquis demanded.
“Once we see the lights, we’ll know we’ve arrived,” the Masked Man called to the men behind him.
A unit that started out as twenty Grande Armée soldiers had been reduced to less than a dozen. The soldiers were dropping like flies as the Masked Man led them through the cold. Every few hundred yards a soldier would faint from the elements and disappear into the snow. They were ordered to keep moving and the fallen were left behind.
General Marquis and Colonel Baton wore thick coats over their uniforms as they traveled, and although the withering soldiers behind them were given very little to shield themselves from the cold with, they were scolded for slowing the expedition down. The Masked Man had only been given a raggedy old blanket to stay warm but he still moved more agilely than the rest of them. He had braved these mountains many times before.
“You lot certainly don’t handle the cold very well.” The Masked Man chuckled.
“I am starting to lose my patience,” the general threatened.
“Don’t fret, General, we’re almost there,” the Masked Man assured him.
Soon the northern lights he had described came into view. They illuminated the dark sky in bright shades of green and circled above the glaciers ahead. By the time they reached the glaciers, the unit had been reduced to six men including the general and Colonel Baton. The Masked Man led the remaining men through an opening between two glaciers and into an enormous icy maze. They zigzagged between the glaciers and eventually stepped into a wide crater.
“Gentlemen, welcome to the Snow Queen’s lair,” the Masked Man announced.
The soldiers gazed around at the crater in bewilderment. Several pillars of ice surrounded the crater, a frozen lake acted as its floor, and a frozen waterfall spilled inside from the mountains above and flowed around a giant icy throne. The Snow Queen sat on the throne with her faithful polar bears, one sitting on either side of her. She wore a large white fur coat and a snowflake crown. A cloth was wrapped over her empty eye sockets. The Snow Queen and the polar bears were eerily quiet, as if they had been waiting for the soldiers to arrive.
“The Masked Man has returned again,” the Snow Queen said in her raspy crackling voice. “We’ve been expecting you.”
“Hello, Your Majesty,” the Masked Man said, and gave a shallow bow. “It’s been a very long time but you look as frigid as ever.”
“Compliments will get you nowhere,” the Snow Queen said. “If it’s a trade you’ve come to make, you know what I want in return.”
“No, I understand,” the Masked Man said. “The last time I was here, you made it perfectly clear what you wanted in exchange for the item of interest, and with great pleasure I have returned with the means of finally making that trade.”
The general suddenly grew very tense. “You never said anything about a trade,” he sneered.
The Masked Man gestured for him to remain calm. “Your Majesty, this is General Marquis of the Grande Armée,” he introduced.
“I know who he is,” the Snow Queen snapped. “I prophesied the general and his Armée entering this world long before you were born.”
Something about this was very unsettling to the general and he motioned for his soldiers to stand alert, but the Masked Man assured him this was good news. “Splendid,” he said. “Then you know that in exchange for the dragon egg, he can provide you with what you’ve always wanted.”
“Capable he may be, but faithful to keeping his end of a bargain I’ve yet to see,” the Snow Queen said. “The future is filled with many certainties and many uncertainties for the general. Long ago I foresaw him and his Armée sweeping across the land and conquering everything in their path, but I do not see him rising against the fairies. If he wishes to claim this world, he’ll need my trust in the deal we’re about to make.”
“And what exactly is the deal?” the general asked, stepping closer to her.
The Snow Queen smiled and her jagged teeth were exposed. “Many years ago I was the ruler of the Northern Kingdom until my throne was stolen from me. If the general wants my dragon egg so he can conquer this world as intended, he must promise to give me back the Northern Kingdom when he succeeds.”
This was news to the general and it infuriated him. “Excuse me for a moment, Your Coldness,” he said to the Snow Queen. He grabbed the Masked Man by the lapel and threw him against a pillar to the side of the crater.
“You never mentioned anything about a trade!” he whispered.
“General, you have to trust me,” the Masked Man whispered back. “This is the only way you can win this war. Make this trade with the Snow Queen and it won’t matter what she is promised in return—once you have a dragon in your power, you’ll be unstoppable! You can obliterate her and anything in your way.”