Page 3 of Ice Bound

"Where are you headed, then?"

"Anywhere." She could see him looking around, taking in the details of her home,all contained in a single large room. There were two other chairs nearby, and they had accumulated a little dust. The bed was large enough for two, but one side sagged.

"You've lost people close to you," he said.

Anna's eyes flew to meet his. How had he—

"When was the last time you had a guest?"

"I—" She watched the tea ripple as she struggled to keep her hands from shaking. "A few years."

"When I was younger," he began, easing back into the chair, causing the wood to groan appreciatively at the use, "and new to my wandering, I was foolhardy. I took a route that I was warned against, in a season when the weather was unpredictable. For a fortnight, everything was blanketed in fog so thick that I couldn't see my hand if my arm was extended. But I was stubborn. I pressed on. As days passed, the fog began to dissipate."

She couldn't help but watch him as he spoke. The sound of his voice was soothing, his strange accent making all the words sound new. She tried to picture him as a younger man, though he couldn't be half through his third decade.

"I woke up as the sun crested the horizon, and golden rays streamed through the leaves around me, all lit up in reds and oranges. For the first time in weeks, I could see my surroundings. I was utterly lost. I wandered that wilderness for nearly two years, never seeing another soul, having no one to talk to. Almost died on several occasions. By the time I found people again, I was half-mad, with twigs in my hair and a family of mice nesting in my backpack."

Anna smiled at the mention of the mice, nearly laughing. She could not picture the man before her in so disheveled a state.

"It took me three months and around a thousand baths to recover from the ordeal. Every now and then, I find a bit of bark in my hair that I missed."

The smile faded. "Were you really lost for two years?"

"Yes," he replied, with slight hesitation. Had he exaggerated? "I learned much from it."

"I couldn't imagine being lost for so long in those conditions," she said, taking another sip.

Silence stretched between them, but it was comfortable.

"They were taken from me. My husband and baby." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"It was a winter like this, was it not?"

Anna rose abruptly, turning to the door. "I...I think if you are warmed enough, you had best get to the barn. While there is a lull in the storm."

Why had she told him? Why had she spoken of their deaths out loud? Already her chest burned, lungs unable to take in enough air. When she thought of them, she couldn’t ignore the pain.

Neledrim rose slowly, making her picture a pine tree whose branches have finally bent enough to shrug off the snow they've gathered.

"You will...be all right?" he asked, his voice uncertain.

She forced a smile. "Of course."

His mesmerizing gaze lingered on her, his head tilted to one side, as though he didn't believe her. She had taken care of herself for years. His arrival hadn't changed that.

"Rest well, Anna," he said finally, making his way to the door.

She didn't want him to go, though he would be just a short distance away. His voice was so soothing, so musical, that she could listen to him talk forever.

"Wait," she said, just as his hand settled on the bar. Turning from him, she hurried to a chest at the foot of the bed and gathered an armful of blankets. He accepted them without comment. "You'll be warm in there, I promise. If you need anything else..."

"I'm not worried," he said. "Ifyouneed anything, I will do all I can."

He opened the door, letting in a blast of icy air, and gave her a final look. His eyes seemed paler, somehow, but it was probably the absence of firelight. She watched him walk towards the barn, which looked like a dark, snowy mountain in the gloom. She had to bite her lip to keep from asking him back inside.

Quickly, she closed the door and slammed the bar back into place. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to the wood. She could feel that tightness in her chest increasing, threatening a bout of sobbing.

Five years. Five years of being alone, isolated from the world. Five years since she had looked into Lily’s beautiful eyes.

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