The king was silent, but made a meaningful hand gesture in the direction of one of his subjects who
rode beside the sleigh. "The king only tolerates his chosen servants to be near him. All the villagers
can be found behind the snow mountains," he explained to her.
Lyana was stunned. Her own father attached great importance to being close to his people. But King
Ulric seemed to abhors any company or closeness.
Only now did she realize that this must be why
the men from the forest had attacked their own king. They must have never seen him before. But even so, King Ulric didn't show anything of his royal origin. He wore neither a crown nor a robe that was worthy of a king. His long fur coat was impressive, to be sure, but nothing that an ordinary nobleman would not wear, as she suspected.
There were still so many questions buzzing around in her head, but she kept them to herself for the
time being.
They were now on an impressive ice bridge that led directly to the castle. Lyana looked slightly
frightened and felt a bit dizzy. Her hand tightened on the sled. "The bridge is just as stable as a
stone bridge."
Lyana looked to the side in astonishment, but King Ulric stared straight ahead. Still, she noticed
how her grip loosened. Did he say that to reassure her? Her father always said that no one was
fundamentally evil. Maybe he was right about that, even if it felt a bit crazy to think of him like that
since in this case it was her kidnapper.
By now they had reached the castle and the huge gate was opened for them. In front of them was a
large square with only a few servants. Lyana suspected that there weren't many more people in the castle either. Although the ice made everything look very noble and beautiful, Lyana lacked the
warmth of a home. The happy laughter of the stable boys, or the nervous giggles of maids in love.
Now she also missed the sight of the flowers scattered on the floor.
The sleigh stopped and King Ulric got out. Since Lyana didn't know what to do, she just followed
him. But the ice hit her unexpectedly. She immediately lost her balance and was already closing her eyes in fear of the painful impact. What she hadn't expected was the big hand that grabbed her arm
and pulled her straight into the Ice King's arms. A faint smell of cedar wood and something else hit
her. The touch was completely different from the hugs she'd given her cousin. With him it was like a
hug with a good friend, but King Ulric ... that was a man's hug.
"You should learn to walk better," he growled at her and pulled her out of her trance.
"Let go of me," she shouted angrily and tried to push him away with her hand on his chest. But then
she noticed something that made her pause. The king noticed it too and roughly pushed her away,
straight into the arms of one of his subjects.
Although Lyana had twisted her foot from the bump, she noticed little of the pain, that's how confused she was by what she thought she had just discovered.
However, she hardly had time to worry about it, as the ice king ordered its subjects to take her away. At this order, she was brought into the castle and had to walk down a long corridor that led to a staircase down. In the meantime she already knew where she was being taken to. To the dungeon.
It was getting darker and darker and the corridors were only lit by glowing blue flames. Lyana was
not spared her admiration even in such a place. It was like she'd ended up in a completely different
world.
"This is your cell," explained the man who was probably also the guard here.
Without complaining, the princess went into the cell assigned to her and heard the lock close behind
her. So that was it now. She would stay here until she finally found out what the king really wanted
to do with her.
The cell was not very big, there was a simple couch in it and a small window that gave at least a little light. She ran back and forth a bit, because she didn't know what to do with herself, and she was slowly getting cold. Now she noticed the pain in her ankle and sat down on the simple wooden bed. But without the movement it only got colder. She had left the warm fur blanket in the sleigh and immediately regretted it.
Carefully she went to the bars and looked for the guard. "Hello? Excuse me, but could I speak to
you for a moment?" She called into the void.
A little moment later and she heard footsteps coming towards her. "What do you want?" The guard
grumbled at her and looked slightly skeptical.
"I ... I'm so cold. Could I possibly get a blanket?"
The guard shook his head. "King Ulric gave me no orders in this regard."
"But definitely only because he didn't think about it himself. After all, he's used to the cold," Lyana
tried to convince the man, but the expression in his eyes remained skeptical. So she tried differently.
"Do you want me to freeze to death here? Your king wanted me alive. If he had wanted to see me
dead, he would have done it himself back in the forest."
That seemed to work. The guard turned away to come back shortly with the king himself.
"My sweet little sun princess, what do I have to hear? So you're freezing to death here?" There was
a slightly hateful and at the same time gleeful tone in his voice.