The Raven and the Reindeer

by T. Kingfisher

“So you took up healing instead?”

year but I was enchanted for part of it and then I was a reindeer but not any more and by the way, I can talk to ravens now. But I brought Kay back.’”

why did none of you tell me that I could fall in love with a girl, anyway?

She would trust Janna to the ends of the earth. And that was good, because that was where they were standing.

She blinked up, into bright light, and the interested faces of a half-dozen bone-white otters.

“It’s a human!” “It smells like a dead reindeer.”

“Words are like fish and you catch them and you get to keep them forever.” “And some of Herself’s toys teach us their words. Before they freeze.”

“She only keeps one unfrozen one at a time.” “She is strictly monogamous that way.”

“Glint.” “Glitter.” “Ur.” “Frost-eyes.”

“Misting.” “Fish-eater.”

Kay who loved snow because it was clean. And she would appear, filthy and stained and stinking of dead reindeer, and he would think…what?

In front of the ice, with his back to them, stood Kay.

“I don’t need rescuing,” said Kay. He waved to the crystals hanging behind him. “I’m working.”

“His heart’s frozen,” she said.

“A puzzle,” said Kay. “The puzzle. The final one. If I can fit it all together, it will show me eternity.”

“Then I’ll freeze. If I can solve this and see the shape of eternity, it’s worth it.”

“Hit him over the head. We’ll just have to risk it.” Janna nodded.

She was very tall and very pale and very beautiful. She wore a robe of white, trimmed in ermine fur, and the fur glittered under a glaze of frost.

Gerta knew what she was seeing reflected in the Snow Queen’s eyes. The worst of herself,

“What did you do?” cried Kay, standing over the Queen. “You broke her!

“This is why you don’t mate with your nestmates,” said Mousebones pragmatically. “It’s always ‘Oh, yes, and remember the time you ate that cricket that I was supposed to get?’ for the rest of your life.” He paused, and then added, “Well, that and the inbreeding.”

The hide. The gift. The herd. In the speech of reindeer, she found that she could think again.

There is nothing in the world so patient as a plant awaiting spring.

under the snow was earth and threading the earth were the roots of the wall of thorns.

It was only the deepest roots that were wakeful, and only they who felt the screaming of the kind woman, and the blood that melted away the snow and sank into the earth.

And then it settled down, the green buried deep, to dream and wait for spring.

Snow Queen. While she is here, there will never be spring.

In the heart of the thorn hedge, something woke.

She could not escape. She was locked into the hedge as if she were a bird herself and the stems had grown up to trap her.

The hedge reached the room where the Snow Queen stood. Gerta saw herself, from the outside, lying stiffly in Janna’s arms. Kay crouched down with his arms over his head. Mousebones was cawing.

The Snow Queen vanished under a hundred layers of leaves. And then the fortress began to fall apart in earnest, as the Queen pulled the cold toward her, trying desperately to gather enough power to freeze the hedge that bound her.

I was afraid if I dropped you straight into the hottest pool, the shock would kill you, so we built a fire until you warmed up a bit, and then into the pool. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“He says that the magic fell off you,” said Ur. “It was clinging to you like snow to a leaf, but you melted it all off.”

“I’m cold. And my hands hurt.” He sounded very young. “I’m sorry,” said Gerta. He was silent for a little while, and then said “I think I’d like to go home.” “Okay.”

“I’m Shan. Your friend will be all right. The heart thaws more slowly than the rest. It takes time.”

“We’ll take him home,” she said. “His parents can take care of him.”

“We know that sled!” “We can fly if you hitch us to it!” “Assuming the magic isn’t gone.”

In the end, Shan and Janna had to harness up the otters, who kept squirming and slithering over top of each

other. The sled came up off the snow three or four times, until Shan cleared his throat and looked beseechingly at the otters and when that didn’t work, Janna cursed them out soundly.

Gerta let out a long sigh. She had done it. It was over.

And we’ll come up with a story about how someone kidnapped Kay and you helped me get him back, which is mostly true, although no one will believe us about the Snow Queen, except my grandmother.

“And after that,” said Gerta, “after that, I want to go to the coast with you.” “The coast?” said Janna, sounding surprised. “You told me about it once,” said Gerta. “Where the ravens

slid down the roofs in winter.” “I like this idea,” said Mousebones. “Will there be sausages?” “We will work something out,” said Gerta firmly. “Because I’ve never seen the sea.”

“Then we will have to fix that,” said Janna, holding out her arms, and Gerta settled into them. “Awk!” said the raven, as they embraced and left no place...