Winter Door by Isobelle Carmody Page B

daughter!”
    “Her name is Nomadiel. She was a babe when her mother perished.”
    “Oh, how sad,” Rage said, her thoughts flicking painfully to her own mother. “But surely she would be a queen if she is a girl?”
    “The fairy folk have only kings, although these may be male or female.”
    Rage shook her head again. “And Elle?”
    The witch woman smiled briefly. “The Lady Elle is an elusive soul whose heart leads her most often to the wildest parts of Valley. If she did not visit Guardian Gilbert regularly and attend council meetings, I think we should have seen little of her.”
    “Elle goes to council meetings ?” It was hard to imagine the impetuous Elle doing anything so tame and rational.
    “She attends them in order to take part in the discussions and to vote upon matters concerning all of Valley,” Rue said. “She was appointed to the council because, as an outworlder, she sees things differently than those of us born in Valley.”
    “Then I suppose she is wandering in the wilderness now,” Rage said wistfully.
    “That was where the Lady Elle preferred to be, but since this fell winter began, she bides in Fork. In truth, I think that she is the reason that Fork is able to resist the winter. But even the sunny courage of the Lady Elle will not hold off the drear winter from Fork forever.” The witch woman looked directly at Rage. “But tell me more of this winter in your world. Are you sure that it is not merely an unusually harsh winter?”
    “I…I don’t know,” Rage admitted. “I suppose it must be, because how could the winter here go there, since the wizard got rid of the bramble gate?”
    “Gates are not the only ways between worlds. There will be many weak places in the matter between Valley and your world. These weak places could act as gateways in the right circumstances.”
    “You make the winter sound as if it is alive.”
    “I fancy it so,” Rue admitted. “But if you are correct in thinking that it has found a way through to your world, then it is not only our two worlds that are in danger.”
    “I don’t understand what you mean. The wizard made Valley out of a bit of my world. He didn’t say he had made any other worlds.”
    “Surely you do not think the wizard the only one capable of such world building? Or that this is the only way parallel worlds come into being? There are many worlds and a multitude of bridges between them. But we must learn if the winter in your world is connected to the winter here. I will go to the castle to see if the wizard left any notes about the possibility that the winter here could flow into other worlds. I will learn what I can before your return—”
    “My return?” Rage interrupted her. “But I don’t know if I can come back.” She thought suddenly of the three seats. “Unless I came here because of something you did to make it happen. Is that how you knew I would be here?”
    “I used soul magic to ask what I could do to save Valley, and I saw you arriving at the frozen heart lake. So I came here to wait for you.”
    “Ask what her visions cost her!” Puck commanded in an accusing voice, pointing at Rue’s white hair.
    “Peace, Puck,” said the witch woman with a somber look. Puck hung his head.
    “What does he mean?” Rage demanded.
    The witch Mother ignored the question. “The visions showed me that the answer to ending this winter can be found in the link between you and the wizard.”
    “Am I to follow the wizard through this winter door, then?” Rage asked. “I don’t see how I could, even if I wanted to, since I am only here while I dream.”
    “Before you think to refuse what has not yet been asked of you, consider the possibility that you yourself have just raised. If the winter in your world is linked to the winter killing Valley, then in time your own world will become the wasteland that Valley has become,” Rue said inexorably. “For now, I suggest only that the next time you come to Valley, you dream