I thought our return journey with a prisoner in tow would be painfully slow, but the extra snowshoes for Oliver more than made up for it. Plus, I hadn’t factored in just how different it was going mostly downhill.

We kept Sterling attached to two of us at all times by a handy length of rope we found in his pack. Oliver took his pack, as well, so that even if he somehow managed to make a run for it, he would find himself stranded on the mountain without supplies.

Several times he attempted to speak to me, reminding me that he had made no move to obstruct me back in the Ice Palace.

“Far from it,” he said. “I even answered all your questions.”

I merely narrowed my eyes and turned away. So that’s why he had been so forthcoming. He had hoped to hedge his bets, to curry my favor in case I did manage to best the Snow Queen. She had never deserved his service, but his lack of loyalty still disgusted me.

Now that I had rested, my power had returned to full strength, and I took every opportunity to demonstrate that to him—another deterrent against any attempt at escape.

Giselle, who had taken her brother’s and my betrothal without a blink, watched me at target practice during one of our breaks. She had chosen a distant tree as the target, and I was casually lobbing fire balls at different parts of it as she called them out.

“Base.” Throw.

“Top branch.” Throw.

“Trunk, halfway down.” Throw.

She grinned at me. “I think you’re getting better. And no wonder Oliver wants to marry you. No one will ever dare attack us again. Not when we’re going to have a queen who can produce fire balls from thin air.”

“Giselle!” A moment later a snowball hit her shoulder, thrown by her irate brother.

“That’s not why I’m marrying her! If you go saying things like that around her family, they might decide to withhold their permission!”

“Why?” asked Giselle, all innocence. “It sounds like perfectly sound reasoning for an alliance to me.”

He laughed reluctantly before muttering. “Far too sound. They might decide they want her to make an alliance with a more powerful kingdom than Eldon.”

“Relax,” I said, smiling at him. “My parents wouldn’t dare say no to me.”

Giselle laughed, the sound echoing through the small valley where we had stopped. “Now that sounds all too believable.”

I didn’t bother to wad the snow into a ball before dumping a handful down the back of her neck. She shrieked and pulled away.

“Now, don’t you start, Giselle,” warned Oliver. “I want us to make Valley View sooner rather than later.”

“Start? Me? But she—” Giselle spluttered the words, still trying to scrape snow out of her hood.

“Yeah, Giselle.” I stood and shouldered my pack. “No more wasting time. We need to get moving.”

I grinned at her narrowed eyes and slid away before she could get any ideas about retaliation. “I’ll break the trail for a while.”

Oliver let me lead for a few minutes before he came to take my place, probably already sick of the slow pace I was setting. I stayed close behind him, near enough to talk as we shoed along.

“You know my family would never really refuse their consent, right?” I asked. “They would never try to push me into a different alliance.”

He glanced over at me, and I saw enough of a shadow in his eyes to realize that some of his concern at least was real. I reminded myself that things were different here in these kingdoms.

“You don’t need to worry,” I repeated. “I know that these lands turned their back on the ancient laws, and on the High King and his godmothers a long time ago. That’s how the darkness was able to grow so strong. But things are changing. Marin and Palinar have already been freed. And now Eldon. The godmothers themselves gifted me with the tools I needed to help you.”

I paused, considering. “They must have seen something in you, even under all that ice.”

He shot me a confused look. “In me?”

I nodded. “The High King decrees that a kingdom must be ruled by love. That’s why his godmothers work so hard to find true love for princes and princesses.” I threw him a significant look. “And that’s why I know my family would never stand in the way of our betrothal. They respect the laws of the High King and would never obstruct a betrothal based on true love. But romantic love is not the only love, you know.”

I gazed down the mountainside. “A ruler must also love his kingdom and his people. And you were ready to sacrifice yourself for yours. What could be truer than that?” I shook my head. “And you have shown nothing but understanding and forbearance with those who have wronged you and yours—first with Lord Treestone’s abduction and now Valley View’s treason. I know you’re not going there now to look for vengeance. The godmothers must have known you would follow the ancient laws if given the chance. They must have seen that you would rule with love. And so they sent me.”

He looked back at me, a warmth in his eyes that made my insides surge in response. “And how could I not serve someone who so clearly has my interests at heart? I could never doubt the godmothers when they sent me you.”

I smiled and would have responded if a shout from Giselle hadn’t interrupted. When I turned to look, she was pointing at a boulder that I realized looked all-too-familiar.

It felt almost surreal returning to Valley View, but we had all agreed we needed to stop by the village. And their hot baths and real beds were only a small part of that decision. If the Snow Queen’s power was really broken, Valley View would be the first indication. And if it was…Well, the inhabitants needed to be warned that their long-standing protection might not be so intact anymore.

The hubbub our arrival caused far exceeded my expectations. It was hard to believe it was even the same place, although the buildings all looked the same. Clearly something, at least, had changed.

Each of the elders wanted to shake our hands, assuring us that they saw things much more clearly now, and had no wish to act against the true rulers of Eldon.

The regular villagers were rather more exuberant and less controlled. They fell on Sterling, carrying him off to be locked up for the night.

“We have a handy storage shed,” one of them said with a rueful smile. “And we just finished fixing the door and lock.”

I winced, but the man only laughed. Apparently life with a mirror speck in your eyes was far from pleasant, and their loyalty to the Snow Queen had evaporated along with the enchantment itself. And it seemed to have transferred onto us, who they saw as their rescuers.

When we finally extracted ourselves and retreated to Sterling’s house, Oliver and Giselle both looked almost giddy with excitement.

“It looks like all of the Snow Queen’s enchantments melted with her palace,” said Oliver, at the same moment as Giselle said, “I wasn’t sure if the mirror shards would outlast the queen herself, but…”

“The mirror was destroyed as well,” I said. “I saw the frame and remaining shards fall into the lake.”

“Then that means…” Giselle didn’t finish the sentence since Oliver swept her into an exuberant hug.

I looked at Sterling’s bed—now available for one of us to use, two if Giselle and I were willing to squeeze together—and sighed. There would be no convincing them to stay an extra night in Valley View now. At least they were both still enthusiastic to revisit the baths, and this time the chattering girls who half-filled it when we arrived were full of compliments and enthusiastic questions.

The next morning, we once again faced the elders in the center of the village, but this time at their request, and with most of the village in attendance. They apologized for their earlier reception of us, explaining how thunder-struck they had been when they woke up several mornings previously to all wonder why they had turned us away.

“It’s like a dream,” said the elder who had previously condemned Oliver. “I can remember it, but not understand what could have led me to think such terrible thoughts.”

We had explained briefly on our arrival, but we gave them the full story now. I could see from the concerned looks they threw each other, that the significance of the Snow Queen’s destruction wasn’t lost on them.

“I realize that you would be justified in bringing an army back up the mountain to punish us for our treason,” said their spokesman once Oliver finished speaking. “But I plead your mercy. We have long traded supplies with the Snow Queen in exchange for protection from the weather, but she was always merely a distant figure, remote in her mountain palace, causing no harm to anyone that we knew of. We thought her content in her realm of ice, another one like us who preferred the isolated places of the world.”

He frowned. “And once she infected us, we were helpless to fight against the poison she had begun to spread. When Sterling arrived and gave his orders as to how we were to answer your request, as well as the stranger one about locking our storage shed and forbidding anyone from entering, we didn’t even think to question it.”

Oliver nodded. “I well remember what it is like to be caught under her spell. I wish for no vengeance upon you or yours.” He hesitated. “But I am afraid this haven will no longer be safe for you. Know that you will be welcome in the capital or elsewhere in the kingdom.”

The spokesman sighed. “The same thought has occurred to us. But already since our eyes have been opened, we’ve noticed a new warmth in the air. Spring is returning, as it should at this time of year. And soon it will be summer. We have time to think on our options and evacuate our people before winter returns again.”

Oliver nodded. “I wish I could offer to stay and help with your deliberations, but we must hurry back to the capital.”

The elders all nodded, and many of the villagers came forward with gifts of food or wood for us to take with us. Apparently the freeing of their minds was worth the loss of their village. And I couldn’t blame them. What good was such a place if you couldn’t see the beauty in it?

* * *

The rest of the return journey went even faster. The Valley View elder had spoken truly. Spring had come in one big rush. It hadn’t snowed once since we left the Snow Queen’s lake, and the further we descended, the shallower the snow on the ground became until eventually we had to stop and remove the snowshoes.

I had almost forgotten what it felt like to move freely, striding forward and leaping over rocks in only my boots.

“You look happy,” said Oliver, watching me as I watched a mother bird scold her hatchlings. I had wandered away from the others while they rested, captivated by my surroundings.

I smiled, gesturing around me. “How could I not be? There’s so much green! I even saw some flowers back there.”

He laughed. “You know this is what spring and summer here are normally like, right? It’s not supposed to snow all year long.”

I grinned up at him. “I suppose I must have known it, but it’s different to see it.” I lowered my voice, my next words just for him. “I have no doubts I could be happy in such a place. It’s beautiful. Even the mountains.” I gestured back up the way we had come where the distant slopes rose far above us, still crowned in white.

Oliver swung me up and spun me around while Giselle—who had followed him, leaving Sterling tied to a tree—watched on and rolled her eyes.

When he put me down, I clung to him, wanting to soak the moment in. I had been thinking of many things as we walked, and not all of them had been pleasant.

In the frozen throne room, back on the mountain, it had been easy to focus on my anger and on the evil the Snow Queen had wrought. But I couldn’t forget her story, and I couldn’t help a small twinge of sympathy. After all, were we so very dissimilar? I, too, had been arrogant and foolish and had attempted to take a magical object that didn’t belong to me. And it had nearly destroyed a person I loved. If things had turned out differently, could I have ended up like the Snow Queen?

After much thought, I had rejected the idea. We might be the same in some ways, but we were different in others. None of us were perfect, all of us made mistakes. It was how we responded to those mistakes that mattered the most, surely. Whether we took responsibility and did our best to make restitution. Whether we recognized our faults and sought to correct them.

I had learned my lesson—or I hoped so, anyway—and tried to turn away from the selfishness and pride that had driven me. Whereas she had only compounded her wrongs, destroying herself and others in the process. I could not regret what I had done to her. It had been done in defense—of both me and the people I loved.

But neither would I forget. Darkness lingered all too close, and far too often in our own hearts. I never wanted to forget my capacity for making bad decisions. Because one day I would be a true queen, and I would have a responsibility to my people. I didn’t want to let them down again.

While I had been thinking, Oliver had been gazing down at me, his hold slowly tightening. When I squeezed him back, he smiled and strengthened his own embrace.

“Have I told you today how much I like having you around?”

I grinned back at him. “I can’t remember. I guess you’ll just have to say it again.”

“Um, really?” Giselle said. “You know I’m still here, right? Honestly, this is all a bit much.”

I laughed guiltily. I had forgotten her presence. Disentangling myself from Oliver, I saluted his sister and adopted a formal tone. “Noted. I will attempt to keep all conversations of a serious nature and expressions of physical affection for private from now on.”

Giselle rolled her eyes. “I’ll believe that when I see it. Traveling with the two of you gets worse by the day. We can’t reach the palace soon enough.”

“Well, the sooner we get back to walking, the sooner we’ll get there,” I said cheerfully, knowing she was probably right, but somehow unable to regret it.