“Thank you.” Oskar smiled pleasantly as he made plans to haul his book collection up the mountain.
It would be twelve years before Oskar returned to Ostfold with the princess he had given up so much to serve. But he would never regret his decision for a day. Indeed, the fate of Verglas was forever altered the day the Attendant entered the service of the Snow Queen.
The End
CHAPTER 9
THE KING’S STORY
Steinar is another character whose early life, though unexamined in the book, has a profound effect on how he views and interacts with Rakel. This story takes a look at his journey towards meeting and accepting her.
Steinar wasseven when he learned he had a sister. A sister who had magic.
He learned only because a servant let it slip when he strenuously argued against having to leave for the annual trip he and his mother took in summer.
“It’s the best time for fishing,” he complained.
“It is good for you to visit your cousins,” his nurse said.
“I hate visiting them! The girls spend all their time giggling at soldiers, and the boys say I’m too little to play with them.” Steinar plopped down on the ground and folded his arms across his chest.
His nurse smiled and shook her head. “Youmustgo, little prince.”
Steinar squinted up at her and wondered if a temper tantrum would convince her to let him stay.
“I know it is a sacrifice, but it is for your own good. You’ll understand when you are older.” His nurse smiled at him, then slipped out to join a maid packing his trunk in the room next door. The door clicked shut behind her, but the latch was old and insecure, so it cracked open a moment later.
“Still putting up a fight is he?” the maid asked fondly. (He liked her. She sometimes slipped him an extra treat from the cook.) “That’s our little prince!”
Steinar scrunched up his face and glared at his bed as his nurse and the maid talked. It wasnot fair. Papa didn’t have to go—why did he?
His nurse sighed. “One day soon, I expect, his parents will have to tell him the truth.”
“They will delay it as long as they can,” the maid said. “For he is far too curious for his own good. Why, if he learned he had a sister…”
Steinar blinked and turned towards the door. “I have a sister?”
His parents werefurious with his nurse and the maid and would have dismissed them both if Steinar hadn’t cried and begged to let them stay.
It was with even greater reluctance that his loving mother and father explained he had a sibling.
“How old is she? What’s her name? She must be close to my age, isn’t she?” Steinar chattered. He didn’t remember ever seeing another child around the palace, so he must have been very little when she was born. He almost wriggled with glee—he had always wanted a sibling! Someone to play and adventure with—someone who would relieve the boredom of beingproperandroyal!
His mother sat next to him on a settee and stroked his hair. “She’s not really your sister, my love. She…she has magic.”
“She’s a monster,” his father said. “She’s dangerous and terrible.”
“Did she do something?” Steinar asked.
His father hesitated. “No.”
Steinar cocked his head. “Then how do you know she’s terrible?”
His father looked away.
His mother took his hands. “You have a kind and compassionate heart, my love. One day, it will make you a great king. But you must understand, Steinar: those with magic are different from us. They are not like the kind civilians who greet you in the street, or the cook who makes your favorite food for your birthday. They’rebadpeople. Magic is a curse, and anyone who has it is an abomination.”
Steinar didn’t know what an abomination was, but he did know magic was to be feared. His nurse read him stories every night about valiant heroes who defeated evil people with magic and saved the princess.
