“What will?”
“The Enchanted Forest. It’s…covered in mist.”
Her eyes widened. But strangely she didn’t look surprised.
“They say it’s magical,” I added. “Like, it totally looks as if you could walk through it, but you can’t. And if you try, it bounces you back. No one can get in. And…well, I’m guessing no one can get out, either.”
She plucked a twig from a branch, folding it in her hand. Her face had gone pale. “So you think people are still in there? Alive?” she asked.
Suddenly I realized why she was so interested. Lord Peterssen said her parents had been killed in the battle. But what if they hadn’t been? What if they were trapped in the mist? Like I hoped Lieutenant Mattias was.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I think there’s a chance. Not that it matters. Unless the mist lifts someday, we’ll never know what’s within it. All we can do is hope that—”
“I want to see.”
I blinked at her, not understanding what she meant.
“The mist,” she clarified at my bemused expression. “Do you know where it is? Can you take me there?” Her blue eyes flashed with inner fire.
I shook my head. “It’s not that easy. For one thing, it’s really far away. Like over a day’s journey. And Lord Peterssen and the soldiers would never let us go. We’re only kids. It’s far too dangerous.”
The expression on her face was so fierce that a shiver ran through me that had nothing to do with the biting cold. “I must see it,” she declared. “We can leave tonight.”
I stared at her, incredulous. Who was this girl? On the one hand she seemed completely crazy, but I also couldn’t help admiring her courage. I would have never even thought to suggest something so bold.
And, unfortunately, I couldn’t join her.
“I’m sorry. I can’t. Not that I don’t want to,” I added quickly, after catching a flash of frustration on her face. “It’s just that they watch me all the time; they even guard my bedroom while I sleep. I can barely go to Blodget’s Bakery for cookies without a full-on army in tow.”
She nodded slowly, then dropped fluidly out of the tree. I stared down at her through the branches, feeling my heart ache unexpectedly as I caught her slumped shoulders and bowed head.
I’d disappointed her, this girl who had already lost everything. But something about being the one to cause her any further pain made me feel a weight that was almost too much to bear.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, slipping down from the tree myself. “Maybe once things lighten up a little, I can make something happen. We could form a convoy. Journey out there together.”
“Sure,” she said absently as we turned to walk back inside the castle. But I could tell she had already dismissed me in her mind. Which hurt more than I wanted to admit. And suddenly all I wanted to do was find some way to help her with her quest.
But at the moment, that seemed even more impossible than getting the mist itself to part.
I SNUCK OUT OF ARENDELLE LATE THAT night, over the bridge and into the hills, armed only with a satchel filled with bread and cheese, the horse I’d “borrowed” from the stables just outside the orphanage while everyone was sleeping, and an old map I’d found in the Arendelle library, which I’d used to plot out my trek. I was nervous, a little excited, but mostly freezing cold as we climbed the hills and the temperature continued to drop.
I didn’t love the idea of journeying alone. I knew it was dangerous. The elders had always lectured us about going off by ourselves. They were great believers in strength in numbers. If only Agnarr had agreed to go with me. I could tell he wanted to, even though he couldn’t. Which was ridiculous, right? A prince should be able to do whatever he wanted. And yet he seemed as trapped in the castle as my family was in the mist.
The mist…Would I have been trapped in it, too, had I not run back to the Arendellian camp for my mother’s shawl?
Had I not stopped to save Agnarr…?
I didn’t know whether to consider myself lucky or not. Which side of the mist did I want to be on? Trapped in the Enchanted Forest, but with my family? Or free in this strange new world where I had to hide who I was?
I shook my head. What I wanted didn’t change a thing. The fact was I was on the outside, and I needed to see the mist for myself. Maybe if I went to it, I could call for Gale and the other spirits. Maybe they could give me some answers about what had happened. And how long this apparent curse would last.
As my horse crossed a long barren plain, snow began to fall from the sky. Big, fat flakes that landed in clumps on my hair and clothes. The Arendellian clothes I had on were a poor defense against extreme cold weather, and I longed for the old reindeer hides I’d used back home to keep warm.
But still I pressed on. I was Northuldra, after all. I knew how to live among the elements. This was nothing I hadn’t faced before. Though…never alone before.
A wolf howled in the distance and I inhaled sharply.
It was almost dawn when I finally reached the map’s end—a large empty clearing just outside the forest, devoid of trees. I knew the spot well—my mother used to take me here when I was little to see the four stone monoliths rising high into the sky. I remembered her explaining the symbols carved into the stones. The four spirits: earth, fire, water, and wind—each with the powers to help the Northuldra with their daily lives, so long as we respected them and their mother, the mighty river Ahtohallan.
But that day the stones were gone. They’d completely disappeared behind smoky grayish-blue clouds that were as thick as soup and completely opaque, swirling around in a perfect storm and rising high into the sky.
This was it. The mist.
I slid off my horse, my heart pounding as I approached it. By the time I reached it, my whole body was shaking with trepidation. I reached out, brushing the clouds with my fingertips. The mist pushed me away, as if it couldn’t bear my touch. And when I attempted to step through, I bounced right back.
I stared at the mist, my mind racing with horror. So it was real. But how? Had the spirits somehow conjured up the mist to keep people out of their forest? Or to keep people in? Was it to protect the Northuldra? The Arendellians? The forest itself?
Or was it to punish them? Us. Everyone.
More importantly, how long would it last? Was this a temporary thing? Or would it go on forever?
I scrambled to my feet, determination rising inside me. Maybe all it would take was a little more force. I backed up, then ran forward, hard as I could toward the mist.
BAM!
I hit the cold ground hard as the mist shook me off and threw me backward like a rag doll. Determined, I leapt back to my feet, charging at it again, this time holding out my arms, ready to shove it away with both hands.
But the mist repelled my advance once again. I flew through the air, then dropped unceremoniously, landing hard on my recently healed ankle. It crumpled beneath me and I cried out as daggers of pain shot up my leg.
I collapsed, clutching my leg in agony. Tears welled in my eyes and I angrily wiped them away. I tried to stand, but my ankle barked in pain and I realized I couldn’t put any weight on it again. It was swelling, too, already double its normal size with skin that had taken on a purplish hue. I curled my hand into a fist and slammed it against the ground in frustration.