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Firelight caught on the bristles of the cloak, bringing out the deep velvet color, almost more purple than red. White-and-grey speckled fur lined the hood and seams, grazing my ankles when I flung it over my shoulders. I exhaled. “This is glorious.”
“There are mittens in the pocket.”
I reached inside. On the five islands, where the sun beat against us as if attempting to scorch us from the land, mittens were not needed. I doubted they were even made there. But I identified the two wool mittens in my pocket. “Where are we going?”
He stepped onto his chariot and beckoned me. “I’ll show you.”
He still didn’t take my hand. Not as I stepped up next to him, not as the chariot took off, and not as we flew through the sky. He kept a respectable distance, which in the small chariot meant he was pressed against the opposite side.
I can’t love you.
“Here.”
I looked down. We were in his kingdom, on the very island where his palace lay carved into the mountainside. But instead of settling in his courtyard, the chariot took us to the top of the mountain. I drew in a breath as the chariot settled.
It didn’t settle on rock. It sat on snow.
“You didn’t.”
“You said you’ve never seen snow,” he said. “I brought you to some.”
He waited for me to step down first. I held my skirt in hand while staring at the snow beneath us, so pure and soft. A blanket to cover the mountaintops and stare over the realm. “It’s magnificent.”
The snow gave a small crunch as my foot broke through the surface, then surrounded my toes with bitter cold. I laughed. Another step, then I dropped to my knees and buried my hands.
Bash laughed behind me, then stepped off the chariot to join in the fun. I ripped off the mittens to let my fingers slice through the snow and feel it for myself.
“It’s so odd,” I said, squeezing some between my hands. “It’s both soft and hard at the same time. Wet and dry.”
Bash knelt beside me. “I suppose it is. I wish I could see it through new eyes and experience it for the first time. I’m afraid it’s lost its wonder for me.”
I rolled it over my palm, then let the snow fall to the ground. It left little patterns where it hit. Water soaked through the cloak and into my knees, but I didn’t care. Starlight cast a glow over the snow, giving it a pale, blue color. Everywhere else, it was always night—dark and endless. But atop this mountain, the snow reflected the stars, and it brightened the entire realm. It didn’t need lamps or firelight to shine. It did that all on its own.
“My kingdom is one of rock,” Bash said. “But this patch of snow proves there is some beauty here.” He turned his head west, where the other islands in his domain lay, holding his chin high.
I dusted off my hands. “Do the lords consent to your rulership yet?”
He shook his head. “No. But we are getting there. My alliance with you has helped.”
Despite the cold, a warmth knitted inside.
“It’s a beautiful realm,” I said. “You are fortunate to rule over it.”
“As are you.”
“That’s not the same. It’s not mine. Not really.” I recalled Gaia’s words from when I first met her. “It’s a beautiful world I can never belong to.”
“Not to me,” he said softly. He stood, revealing wet patches on his own knees.
I stood next to him and tightened my cloak as I gazed at the realm from this view. The mountain cleaved into the island beneath us with iron lamps at periodic intervals to illuminate Bash’s grand palace. The other islands shone from afar, each town built around mountains of its own and homes with glass walls cut into the rock, like caverns of caves.
Above were the infinite stars in an endless sky, bright enough to see the realm by. I shook my head. “What could be more beautiful than this?”
He surveyed it all. “My world is one of obvious beauty. It’s big and easy to see. But yours?” He sighed. “I want the quiet beauty of waves touching a shore. I want the broken beauty of sunbeams seeping through a forest. I want the still beauty of an orange sunrise. We don’t have that here.”
I could have stayed in that moment forever, listening to him speak of gentle beauty, thinking it was the perfect phrase to describe him.
“Then come back with me to my realm,” I said. “The land is like that there. You can walk down as many sandy beaches as you want.”
