Read Online The Snow Queen by Eileen Kernaghan - Free Book Online Page B

mother, watching thin and forlorn beside her window, weeping for a daughter who wrote no more letters, and would never return. And sometimes she dreamed of Kai, whose dark eyes stared at her from an ice mountain’s blue-white depths, pleading desperately for release.
    There was cold comfort to be had from Ritva. When Gerda woke in the dark, shivering and crying out, the robber-girl would mutter a curse and prod her with a sharp elbow, or rap her irritably on the side of the head. But sometimes it was Ritva herself who woke, whimpering and trembling like a frightened animal, in the black depths of the night.

C HAPTER F OURTEEN
    T he antlered man stepped out of the dark huddle of the pines. The lower half of his body was hidden in a swirl of ground-mist; his chest and shoulders were covered with a soft white pelt. Under the wide sweep of his horns, his face was wise and gentle. In her dream, Ritva spoke to him in the secret language of the animals. He smiled, and held out his hand to her. Just as their fingers touched, she woke.
    And found that it was Gerda, snuggled beside her in their rabbit-skin nest, whose small damp hand gripped hers.
    â€œYou were talking in your sleep,” Gerda said. She propped herself up on one elbow and stared down at Ritva. Her expression was half-curious, half-worried. “Was it in Finnish? I could not understand a word you said.”
    â€œStupid one,” said Ritva, yawning. “How should I know what language I speak in my sleep?”
    â€œIt must have been Finnish,” said Gerda, with infuriating certainty.
    â€œIt was not ,” said Ritva. “I was talking to my guardian animal.”
    Gerda’s eyes widened. “Oh,” she said, caught off guard. “What sort of animal?”
    â€œA white elk.”
    â€œI didn’t know you had a guardian animal.”
    â€œThere’s a lot you don’t know,” said Ritva, unpleasantly.
    â€œDo I have a guardian animal?”
    â€œEverybody does. Even you. I think yours is a little white rabbit with pink eyes.”
    â€œYou’re making fun of me,” said Gerda, offended.
    â€œOf course I am. I like to make fun of you.”
    â€œI know,” said Gerda, her eyes reproachful. “You tease everybody — me, your mother, Ba. You’re a mean, cruel girl, and one day God will punish you.”
    Ritva gave a howl of laughter. “God! Which god?”
    â€œWhy, what do you mean? There is only one.”
    â€œOnly one! Well, that can’t be much use to anybody. My mother’s people have dozens of gods. There are very little gods, and bigger gods, and great gods like Aijo, the father of shamans; and Baei’ve the Sun-God, and the God of Thunder, and the Old Man of the Winds.”
    â€œAnd where do you find all these gods?” Gerda’s voice was scornful.
    â€œWhere? They are everywhere. They live in the forest, the river, the hearth fire, in the rocks and bushes — everything has a god in it.”
    I suppose she can’t help it if she was raised a heathen , Gerda thought. Still, she wondered what their good Pastor Larssen would think of all this. Little gods who lived in rocks and trees, indeed! And how Kai would laugh! “Shall we go to church and pray to the benches and the altar-cloths?” she could imagine him saying. “Shall we sing a hymn to the door knocker?”
    â€œIf you had been brought up among Christian folk,” said Gerda, “you would know there is only one God, and he lives in Heaven.”
    Ritva sat up in bed. She seized one of Gerda’s plaits and yanked it so viciously that Gerda gave a shriek of pain. “Don’t speak to me of the Christian god,” Ritva hissed. “I know about him. He is the god of the southerners, who rounded up my mother’s ancestors, and murdered their shamans and burned their drums. If you mention him to my mother, she will pull out her skinning knife and slit your