chatelaine of cair paravel

[charning]

In the wood, near but not too near the Lantern, drives a sledge, drawn by a reindeer under the whip of a Dwarf, and carrying a woman, of sorts. She is taller, and paler, and somehow - grander, more terrible, colder even than the deep winter through which she rides. The furs are decorative; she wears nothing over her ears, which, were she human, would spell frostbite given how long she has been on this ride.

The harness-bells jingle tinnily.

Comments

[pythbox]

"Guess she does!" he agrees. "Think that means she'll give me more jellybeans?"

[alicornucopia]

"Possibly. Or she may dispense them only as a reward when you have done things she particularly approves."

[pythbox]

Winter giggles.

[charning]

It turns out that jellybeans are dispensed partly according to random whim, but mostly as rewards - never as a whole jar all at once, but handsful and occasionally only one or two at a time, if his teachers (ogres, wolves, dwarves, all manner of vicious beasts teaching him to kill, occasionally on live captives) praise his quickness with a knife, or if he says something that amuses her over dinner, or if she finds his smile particularly charming.

Jadis treats him much like a useful, working pet - her sheepdog, or perhaps her hunting falcon. When she is present with him at her side he does not have such a thing as personal space; she arranges him for her comfort as readily as she arranges her own limbs, and sometimes hand-feeds him the jellybeans.

[pythbox]

He eats up the jellybeans and drinks in the lessons and kills on command and laughs at strange moments and purrs like a kitten when she touches him.

And he develops a habit of wandering into the treasure room and touching the magical barrier.

[charning]

That is quite all right. He will never get through it; his recreation is his business. The other minions will tease him about it - and will also tease him if he solicits nightmares from the specter or anything of that nature - but they are conscious of his favored status and mostly note it quietly for later rather than making a scene about it.

He has been in her service for a year, and managed to kill a number of creatures for her who have been informed on by the Secret Police but proved too inconvenient to haul to the castle for stoning, when she says:

"Winter, I should like to retain you for a good bit longer, and Sons of Adam are so ephemeral, so I should like it if you would go to a place which I will describe for you, and go into it, and take an apple and eat it, and then I can keep you as long as I please."

And she calls for a map, and indicates the path to a certain garden.

[pythbox]

"Okay," he says cheerfully. "Wow, that's a long way off. When do I start?"

[charning]

"Today," she says. "And it is quite a long way, so bring whatever companion you like, except for the core of my Guard, who I will need here, and ensure that you pack well for it. I would give you a few jelly beans to content you on your way, but you would only eat them all at once, so instead I will give you a large number when you come back, and that will have to do."

[pythbox]

Winter laughs. "It's a deal, your majesty."

[charning]

"There may be some writing around the garden," she adds, almost as an afterthought. "Don't trouble yourself about it. I have eaten one of the apples myself."

[pythbox]

"Okay," he says, grinning up at her. (The difference in height between them has shrunk in the past year; he comes all the way up to her shoulder now, a little more when his hair is running particularly wild.)

[charning]

She smooths said hair and plants a chilly kiss on his forehead. "Go, prepare for your journey, and you will be back all the sooner, and be my eternal Winter."

[pythbox]

"Bye, your majesty," he says, and he scampers off to pack.

He doesn't bring a companion; he does bring food that will last, and flasks for water, and a sword and a knife and a good coat. And the map. From all of the hunting he has done for his Queen, he knows little tricks like how to take shelter in the snow and which trees to trust with his business; he won't have any trouble crossing the country of Narnia.

After that, it may get interesting.

[alicornucopia]

It does not get very interesting. Winter may be a human, but he has been in Narnia long enough to pick up the speech and habits and dress of Narnians, and could be mistaken for a young midgety giant or a certain type of incubus. No creatures he meets outside of Narnia's borders know who or what the White Witch keeps at her right hand; they see the blades he carries and the way he walks and presume that his business, if he doesn't trouble them with it, is his own.

There are a great many mountains in his way, with hazardous slopes and even bitterer cold at the high altitudes.

But once they have been crossed, there is a garden.

[pythbox]

He pushes back his hood and looks at the garden with a feeling of immense satisfaction.

[alicornucopia]

There are some words, just as the Queen said.

Come in by the gold gates or not at all
take of my fruit for others or forbear
for those who steal or those who climb my wall
shall find their heart's desire and find despair

[pythbox]

Shrugging, he tries the gate.

[alicornucopia]

It opens.

[pythbox]

He smiles at it and enters the garden.

[alicornucopia]

And there is an apple tree.

[pythbox]

He's kind of hungry.

He takes three.

[alicornucopia]

The first one does nothing in particular, except be oddly dark-fleshed and juicy for an apple, that he can detect.

At the second, he feels cold, when he first bites it - and colder as he goes on - and at the end of the apple he is so much so that "cold" has ceased to have meaning; he can no more feel cold than a snowflake can.

At the third apple, he may notice the color of his hands changing, as though he is a snowflake, or a human-shaped tracery of frost on the landscape.

[jackfrostbite]

That first bite of the second apple almost stops him, but he keeps going so he can find out what happens.

And what happens is -

He laughs with delight, drags a handful of long curly hair in front of his face; the morning light ripples through it, glinting blue and white and green from the ice-black strands. He stretches out his arms and watches them shine with all the colours of frost.

"I'm Winter," he says gleefully, spinning around with his arms flung out, whirling and whirling until he sits dizzily at the base of the tree. He hugs it. It is a good tree and he loves it very much. He's not hungry anymore, not even a little bit, except for the familiar squirming ache when he thinks about jelly beans.

He doesn't get hungry again the whole way back to the castle.

He eats anyway, once or twice, and the rest of the time he doesn't; it doesn't seem to hurt him either way. He does get thirsty, but eating ice and snow solves that. He's stronger and faster, though not as strong as his queen; he tires more slowly, but he still needs to sleep.

He can curl up in a snowbank and it won't melt. Snow makes a nice blanket, when it's light and fluffy. He does that a lot.

A month and a half after he left, he arrives at the castle gate with snow in his hair and a bright beaming smile.

[charning]

Jadis is quite fascinated.

"My dear Eternal Winter," she purrs. "Whatever has happened to you? Tell me everything."

[jackfrostbite]

"I ate some apples," he shrugs. "And now I'm all - frosty."