Fortress of Ice Read Online Free PDF Page B

If the weather clears by tomorrow, we could do it, but it doesn’t sound like it out there, does it?”
    â€œNo.”
    A deep sigh. “Besides, it’s a great fuss, getting the horses up from pasture, then only having to send them down again. But we shall go after. There’ll still be snow all about. And by then the merchants will wear down the snow. And then—” He had brought out the book and shown Otter this special prize of his, and now he had a keen notion what would be a great treat. “Then, after Festival, we shall go to the lodge. It’s not that far. The brook may be frozen, but you can see it all the same. We can spend a night or two there.”
    â€œIf your father will let us,” Otter said.
    â€œI’ll tell you what’s not in the book,” Aewyn said, rolling back onto his stomach and his elbows, looking straight into Otter’s pale gray eyes. He dropped his voice to a whisper. “The lodge has its own ghost.”
    â€œA haunt?” Otter asked, duly impressed.
    â€œIt’s supposed to be a grave from before the lodge was built, and nobody knew it was there, nor ever has found it. But late at night pans fall in the scullery, and footsteps go up and down the stairs.”
    Otter’s eyes were wide as could be. “Is it a man or a woman?”
    â€œHer. It’s a lady. Well, a woman. She could be a farmer or a herder. Nobody knows. But cakes go missing out of the kitchen, and everyone says it’s the ghost.”
    Now Otter looked doubtful and grinned. “I can think of another way cakes disappear.”
    Aewyn laughed, too. “We’ll stay up late and see if cakes disappear,” he said. “We just have to endure Festival to get there.”
    â€œDay after tomorrow,” Otter said.
    â€œThree days earlier than yours, in Amefel, isn’t it? And no dancing.” He understood that Otter was Bryalt, like his mother. “I like your holidays much better. But I daren’t say that, being the Prince. I have to be good. Have you tried your clothes?”
    â€œClothes?” Otter asked, confused, so he hoped he had not spoiled their father’s surprise.
    â€œPapa sent some. For the whole Festival. Mother said so. I thought they’d have come this morning. They were supposed to.”
    â€œI haven’t seen them.”
    â€œOh, well, they’ll be there. Probably the servants are brushing them. They had better be there.”
    â€œWhere am I supposed to wear them?”
    â€œTo services every day.”
    Otter wore a look of slight dismay. Perhaps he shouldn’t have said that.
    â€œPapa says you should sit with us in sanctuary,” Aewyn said.
    â€œWhat does the queen think about that?”
    â€œMother wants you there, too.”
    Otter didn’t say anything to that, only looked unhappy.
    â€œPapa says it will be a good thing if you come. People will know you’re my brother. You’ll be welcome. You will. You’re to walk in with us and sit with us, and the people will see who you are.”
    A small silence. “I don’t know why.”
    â€œBecause you are my brother.”
    â€œI’m not, quite. It’s pretending.”
    â€œIt’s not,” Aewyn said fiercely. “You are my brother. You will be, in public, so everyone knows who you are, and that my father and my mother agree. I heard them talking about it, and my mother says it’s a good idea.”
    â€œIf His Majesty says so,” Otter said faintly. “I’ve never been to Quinalt services. What am I to do?”
    â€œOh, all you have to do is sit when we sit and stand when we stand and stay next to me and do just as I do. The choir sings and the Holy Father gives a sermon every day. We listen, and we get up and go home. The first day is Fast Day. That’s the worst. You have to dress in the dark every day. But we go without eating from dawn to dark on Fast Day, and