Page 69 of To Ride the Wind

When she woke, the emotions were waiting for her, prowling and circling while she slept, ready to pounce when she opened her eyes. But she fisted her hands, letting her nails dig into her palms, and wrestled them under control.

If it had only been for herself, maybe she would have succumbed to them. But she had made her husband a promise, and this time she wasn’t going to let him down. It didn’t matter how high the mountain or how impossible the task. She would find him and rescue him before he fell to the mountain queen’s schemes.

He had trusted her with his hand, his heart, and his enchantment. She would not allow that trust to be entirely in vain.

Her first instinct was to stand up and start walking uphill, heading into the mountains. But her determination hadn’t robbed her of all sense. She would find nothing but a quick death if she braved the mountains alone and without provisions.

East of the sun and west of the moon.

The words taunted her. She needed proper directions if she was to find the mountain kingdom.

She sprang to her feet. The mountain kingdom! She knew someone from the mountain kingdom. She knew its princess!

She hadn’t pressed Gwen for answers about her home before. But somehow Gwen had traveled from the mountain kingdom to the Rangmeran valleys. She must know the way. And Charlotte would beg and plead without a trace of pride if it was necessary to pry an answer from Gwen. Surely her friend would help once she knew Charlotte’s husband had been stolen by Gwen’s own mother.

With an actual, achievable goal, Charlotte couldn’t start quickly enough. But the trees passed much more slowly than they had when she rode a white bear. Her will was strong, but she was still bound by her short legs. It would take her more than a day to reach her home valley. She just hoped Gwen was still there when she arrived and hadn’t already left on her search for Easton.

Eventually, as the hours passed, Charlotte had to give in to her hunger and spend some time foraging. As little as she wanted to waste any daylight hours, she would be slower in the long run if she lost her strength due to lack of sustenance.

If the moon had been full, she would have tried to keep going even when night fell, but it was too dark to make any progress realistic. As with the food, Charlotte knew a twisted ankle would only slow her down.

She slept fitfully, however, her arms always reaching for Henry, only for her to start awake when they found empty air. And each time she woke, her cheeks were wet with tears.

As soon as the sun rose, she continued her journey. The forests around her had finally grown familiar—the very furthest reaches of what she had explored while she lived with her parents.

Back on familiar ground, she could take a more purposeful route—aiming not for her old home, but for that of Master Harold. Gwen was the one she sought, and Charlotte had no desire to see her parents—not while she was still lost in the height of her anger and grief. They had become inextricably entwined with her betrayal of Henry—the greatest mistake of her life—and the searing loss that had followed.

But long before she could reach Harold’s home, she heard movement in the forest nearby. Her first instinct was to hide. But she was still too far out for it to be any of her family—they never came so far.

What if it was Gwen herself? Charlotte could think of no reason for her to be moving eastward toward the mountains, but she still raced forward, hope lending her speed.

And, sure enough, when she sprinted into view of the sound’s source, it was the mountain princess herself.

“Gwen!” Charlotte gasped. “Oh, Gwen! You have to help me!”

“Charlotte!” Gwen paled, racing forward to take her friend’s hands. “What is it? What is it? Is he after you?” She looked wildly behind Charlotte as if searching for a white bear in full chase.

Charlotte ripped her hands free, anger surging easily to the surface.

“Of course he’s not after me! Henry would never hurt me.” Her anger collapsed and her body collapsed with it, leaving her sitting on the grass. “He’s gone, Gwen. He’s gone, and I have to get him back.”

Gwen knelt beside Charlotte, her face somehow growing even paler. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

In halting words, devoid of all emotion, Charlotte told her the whole story. At some point, Gwen fell back, as if Charlotte had struck her. But she remained silent until she had finished.

“Henry—your Henry—is the lowlander prince my mother and the court wanted me to marry? That was the reason he was a white bear?” The thought had clearly never occurred to her.

All of Charlotte’s animation returned, making her surge forward and grasp Gwen with both hands.

“You’ll help me, won’t you? You know how to get east of the sun and west of the moon?”

“I…East of the…” Gwen clearly had no idea what Charlotte was talking about.

“The mountain kingdom!” she exclaimed impatiently. “Your mother. That’s where the stories claim it’s located. You can help me get there, right?”

“Oh.” Once again Gwen’s hand went to her pocket. “I didn’t know the stories described us that way. I don’t know what it means. But I think…I think I might be able to get back there.”

Charlotte fell back, relieved, her good sense finally starting to reassert itself.

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