Aenir by Garth Nix, Steve Rawlings Read Free Book Online

Milla about this. She just knew it.
    It had to be a result of her shadow being absorbed by the Storm Shepherd.
    "I have it!" said the Face. "This is riddle the second."
    "A traveler begins a journey. For the first week, he is carried south. For the second week, he carries others. In the third week, he flies up into the sky. In the fourth week, he falls back down. Who is the traveler?"
    "That's it?" asked Odris incredulously. "That's the best you can do?"
    "Quiet," ordered Milla again. She was annoyed that the Storm Shepherd seemed to know the answer already. Surely she could do better than a cloud-woman.
    "This is a very hard riddle for a Chosen," chuckled the Face. "You'll never get this. We shall talk and talk and talk -"
    "The traveler is an iceberg to begin with," interrupted Milla. "Then it is free-flowing water. Then it is water-cloud, as from a kettle or where the hot metal boils under the Ice. Then it is rain, or snow."
    "That's not it!" groaned Odris.
    "Yes it is," said the Face angrily. "You are no Chosen! No Chosen knows anything of icebergs.
    What are you?"
    "I am an Icecarl," said Milla. "I am Milla of the
    Far Raiders. Daughter of Ylse, daughter of Emor, daughter of Rohen, daughter of Clyo, in the line of Danir since the Ruin of the Ship."
    "Danir?" said the Face, its mouth and forehead twisted in rage. "Danir? You are of Danir's get!"
    The whole Face reared up out of the water. Long teeth grew where none had been before, and a great tongue came lashing out to grip Milla.
    But before it could grab hold, the Face suddenly froze. Ice crystals formed in a great ring around it and started to spread inward in thousands of tiny branching lines.
    The Face screamed and groaned, and settled back into the lake bed. The ice retreated, and was soon gone.
    Milla stood, still trapped, her heart hammering. She had been helpless, certain that she would be eaten - or perhaps drowned - by the Face. Then the ice had come. But from where?
    "The riddle game binds you as much as Milla and must be played out to the end," said Odris to the Face. "But tell me. Who was Danir that you hate her so?"
    "I will ask my third riddle," said the Face sullenly, ignoring Odris's question.
    "Danir is the ancestor of my line," Milla answered.
    "I, too, am curious why she should have an enemy from another world, from a time so long ago."
    "This is riddle the third," muttered the Face, ignoring them.
    "There was a being proud and free, who through no fault of its own was caught up in a war between the rulers of two worlds. The war had gone on for many, many years, and there was much hate between the two sides. Finally the war ended in a great working of magic. An arcane barrier was raised on one world, to keep light - and the enemy - without. On the other world, a spell caused most of the inhabitants to forget their powers and much of their past. Bereft of both memory and magic, these once proud beings were easily bound, each to its own allotted cell. Only a descendant of the original binder could free them, either by moving their binding from the place to their person, or simply loosing their chains.
    I am such a prisoner, and I was bound here by Danir, who you claim as your far ancestress. Will you free me?"
    "That's not a riddle," said Odris indignantly. "That's a question. Or a statement. Or something."
    Milla frowned. It wasn't a riddle, but the Face seemed to sincerely believe that Milla could free it.
    "I don't understand," she said. "Danir is the far ancestor of my clan, but she was an Icecarl. Icecarls have never come to this world, to Aenir. We live on the Ice, in the Dark World."
    "I don't care what your people call you now," said the Face. "And I can't remember what you called yourselves then. All I know is that soon after the creation of the Veil and the Forgetting, I was bound here by a sorceress called Danir."
    Milla shook her head. This was a matter for Crones to ponder over, not for a warrior. She longed for the clean Ice and an enemy