Hearts Under Ice

by CS Patra

“Okay, Jei. If these gems are so important, why does someone want me to get them? I don’t want to destroy your world!” she insisted. “I swear, I’ve just been given this mission, and I don’t know why. I’m not even sure how I got here.”

  “I think you are here because someone feels that you can help,” Jei said. “I trust you. You are not the kind to bring harm into this world. What you need to figure out is the reason why someone is seeking you, and why he or she mentioned the gems. Clearly, we may not know everything about them.”

  “I don’t know,” she murmured. “I don’t want to take away something so important from you. I think I might be in over my head here. They probably wanted someone else, not me.”

  “If you’re the one who got the message, then they clearly want you. To get to the gems, you must find the Frost Queen’s castle.”

  “Oh, that’s great! Where is it?”

  “Ah, it’s not that easy to find. You will have to travel for three days and three nights to get there. Even after that, you will come across many castles that will look like hers. It is a trick that she uses to fool thieves and those who might try to harm her. The real castle will be the only one that stands out.”

  “Stands out how?”

  “It will have a slight difference from the others. Unfortunately, no one has been able to figure out what the difference is. Some have said it’s the only castle with light in it. Others have said the difference lies in the structure of the castle. I have never been able to see the Frost Queen in person. I just know that she exists. She is the one who delivers the news about her plans for our villages and cities. No one else does that for her. She makes the laws in the world, and we obey them. If we didn’t, the punishment would be harsh.”

  “You mean, she’d sentence you to death or something?”

  “Not quite. If one person messed up here, then the whole world would suffer,” he said. “We’d go through Hell together because she’d feel that we all needed to be taught a lesson. That’s why I suggest you stay on her good side. Her bad side is not one to be toyed with. In general, she is a decent leader. She can just be a little temperamental if things do not go her way.”

  “Duly noted. Now, let me get this straight—I have to travel for three days and three nights to find a castle that is different from other castles. However, no one knows which castle is the actual castle?” Olivia sighed. “Even worse, no one can explain to me why I need to get the Hearts Under Ice. If they are important to you, I can’t steal them. You are going to need them. It’s like you said—they are the lungs in the body. You need them to breathe.”

  “That’s what you will have to find out. I can help you along the way,” Jei said. “I can lead you in the right direction.”

  “Well, that’s a start,” Olivia said, brightening. “If I can get pointed in the right direction, I think I can crack this mystery.”

  “The castles are all the way up north.” He pointed straight ahead, into the woods. “The path is very simple. Be careful, though. You’ll be going through many towns and cities as well as the woods. Not everyone will be willing to help you. There are thieves in these streets, so you should be very careful when you’re walking around. Guard your possessions. Make sure that you sleep in the inns at nighttime, because it will be dangerous to keep walking. The weather gets bad on many occasions, so do not try to brave a storm. Get shelter as soon as it starts up. Always have some coins on you.”

  “Um, coins? That might be a problem.” She said, holding out her hands. Her coat didn’t have any money in the pockets, either. “I have no idea where I can get coins.”

  “You can relax. Coins are not that hard to come across. In fact, I can loan you about a hundred of them.” He handed her a brown cloth bag. It was slightly heavy, but she could carry it fine in one hand, and it would fit into the coat pocket. “Make note that most places will ask for more than a hundred coins. You will have to earn the rest in any way you can.”

  “Earn it? As in, work?” she asked. “I don’t have time to work here!”

  “You can get them in many ways. All you need to do is keep going straight. Some people will try to lead you astray, but don’t pay any attention to them. They may try to manipulate you, so stay alert. Once you come to the castles, you will—”

  He was cut off by the ice deer suddenly walking in front of him. Olivia never heard what he said next because a snowstorm had started up around them. Coughing, she stood up and looked around. The snow was coming down fast, and Jei had disappeared. “Wait, Jei! I didn’t hear you! What am I supposed to do? You have to help me! Jei! Jei!”

  By now, the storm was picking up, and she could no longer make out anything in the scene. The animals had all run away, but she had nowhere to go. She couldn’t figure out where north was. Her mind kept going back to Jei. Was he alive still? What was he going to say before the storm began?

  Once you come to the castles, you will—

  She would what exactly? She knew that each one would look similar, but one would stand out over the others. No one knew how, but at least she had an idea. She had a bag of coins to get by with. She also knew why these gems were important.

  “Jei!” she yelled one more time, hoping that he would reply. “Jei, I need your help! What did you want from me?”

  She kept calling his name and looking around. All she wanted was a sign that he was alive. She wished for him to call out to her, or even to tell her to go away. She just wanted something from him.

  With the blowing winds and snow falling around her, it was unlikely she would hear anything. He was already gone.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Olivia! O, wake up!”

  Olivia felt herself being shaken as she opened her eyes and looked around. It was her mother who grabbed her by the shoulders. Her head was spinning, partially because of the new world, but mostly because of the shaking. “Mama, stop! I’m awake!”

  “Why were you asleep? Are you sick?” Her mother felt her forehead. “You do feel a little warm to me. Let me get the thermometer.”

  “Mom, I’m not sick! I just took a nap, that’s all. I’m a little tired, but I’m all right, I promise.” Olivia groaned as she sat up. It was now three in the afternoon, which meant that she had been asleep for an hour. She might have been in the frost world for a long time, but only an hour had passed here. Her mind was swirling with the clues that Jei had given her. She had to spend three days to try to get to this Frost Queen’s castle. Not only that, she needed to figure out which was the right castle, and where the gems were located. Jei had given her some information that could help, but he couldn’t tell her everything. Somehow, that snowstorm had kept her from getting the rest of the message. All the same, she now had new information that she could tell Donnie.

  Wait a minute. I was dreaming! It felt so real, but I’m here. I’m in my bed.

  Olivia’s mother was now trying to rearrange the room. Like Olivia, she had taken the day off but this was on purpose. She had done this because she had some people coming over to check the house. They had some plumbing issues that needed to be fixed. “Mom, please! I can take care of all that! I’m not a kid anymore!”

  “Well, you haven’t taken care of it all morning,” her mother pointed out. “All you did was paint your nails and go see Ms. Howard. I still don’t know what the whole point of that was.”

  Yeah, I don’t understand it, either, Olivia thought to herself. Out loud, she said, “Ms. Howard just wanted some help moving things around in her house. That’s why she called me and my boss over.”

  “So he told you to miss work for that?”

  “Um, yeah!” she nodded. It was a terrible excuse, but it was the best she could come up with. “He knows her very well, and he couldn’t do the job alone. I was a little angry at him, but he did promise to pay me for this. Ms. Howard will also give me some money.”

  “Well, all right. What are you going to do now?”

  “I have someone I need to talk to,” she said. “There
’s a lot I need to discuss with him. Do you mind if I am a little late for dinner?”

  “How late are you going to be?”

  Olivia took a deep breath and tried to come up with a good timeline. “I’d say an hour. I promise I’ll call if I’m later than that.”

  “All right, then. Make sure you call so I know when I need to heat the casserole.” With that, her mother left the room, and Olivia found herself grateful for the silence. There was no way she could explain this situation to her parents. They would never let her see either Donnie or Ms. Howard again. While she was still confused about the latter, she didn’t want to have to stop seeing Donnie. He was the only one who could help her here. He would know what she was talking about, and he could probably figure out some of this stuff faster. As of now, he was the only person she trusted.

  “Whoa.” She muttered, looking around her room. The bag of coins that Jei had given her weren’t there, but that dream was insanely real. She had been in that world, and she knew what she had to do. The problem would be trying to get Donnie see the same dream. Just because she could go into this dream-world easily didn’t mean everyone else could. Even if he could successfully go there, what made her think that they’d end up in the same place? There had to be a way where they could go there together and figure out this puzzle.

  She looked over at her desk where her phone was. No one had left any messages, but she decided to give him a call anyway. If she wanted a prayer in solving this mystery, she was going to need all the help she could get. Dialing the number, she lay back in her bed and listened to rings. After about four of them, someone picked up.

  “Hello?”

  “Donnie?” she asked, wondering why his voice sounded so different. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

  “No, I was just busy working on something. That’s what all the noise behind me is,” he explained. “I was thinking about calling you once I was done.”

  “Oh. Well, I need to talk to you. It’s about our Frostland and what Ms. Howard was talking about,” she said. “I saw a lot more of the place when I took a nap just now. Not only that, I was able to talk to someone.”

  “Wait, you spoke to someone in your dream?” he sounded amazed. “What did the person say? Did they give you any messages to deliver?”

  “Hold on, Donnie. That’s a lot of questions, and I’m still reeling over the whole thing. I was hoping we could meet up tonight and I can tell you about it.” This time, Olivia felt more confident in asking him out. “It’s not really a date or anything! I just—”

  “No, I get it.” There was a little hesitation in his voice, but he went on. “If you want, I can give you directions to my house, and you can tell me all about your dream. Afterwards, we can go out to eat or something.”

  “That sounds great!” she exclaimed. At that moment, she remembered that her mother wanted her back by dinnertime. “Oh, but I can’t go out tonight. It’s casserole night. My mother wants me home in time for it. She still treats me like a baby sometimes. I tell her that I’m grown up but you know how mothers_” She stopped herself. No, he didn’t know how mothers were like. She didn’t need to rub it in.

  “You can’t get out of it?” he sounded disappointed. “Just tell her that I wanted you for something work related. She’d understand that, right?”

  “I’m sorry, Donnie. Even if I was free, I don’t think I could stay. I have a lot on my mind, thanks to that dream. I need to organize my thoughts,” she mumbled. “I do want to tell you about it, though. Can I meet you in about an hour?”

  “Sure. That’ll give me enough time to get ready,” he said. “Judging from your voice, this is going to be something big.”

  You have no idea. “Great, I’ll see you in an hour. Just text me your home address. I’m going to write down everything I remember from that dream.”

  “Good. Maybe I can pinpoint exactly where you were. “I’ll see you soon.”

  As she hung up, she felt a little guilty about turning him down. Casserole night was one of the dumbest excuses she could use. No one would have minded if she decided to go to dinner with Donnie. Yet somehow, she had chosen to reject his advance, and she didn’t know why. The dream was messing with her mind, but that could not be the only reason. Rolling over, she reached for a pen and pad on her nightstand. It was a present that her mother and father had gotten her when they went on a second honeymoon to Hawaii two years ago. It was a nice little pad, lined with birds and flowers, and the pen they picked had pink ink in it. Donnie would probably find this choice strange, but she loved the pen. Carefully, she wrote down everything she could recall.

  -Frostland is ruled by a Frost Queen. Said to be a decent leader, but is very temperamental. I think she controls the weather and it depends on her mood.

  -Met an old man named Jei who told me that the Hearts Under Ice are actually gems inside the Frost Queen’s castle. However, taking them will be difficult, because they are the world’s lifeblood.

  -Apparently, we will need coins to get through this world. We can earn them in many ways, though Jei never explained how.

  -The castle is up north, directly ahead, but there are many versions of it. The real one is the only one that looks different. Finding the difference will be hard. No one knows what it is.

  -We need to be careful. This is a world filled with ice and snow creatures, but people, as well. Some are good, and some aren’t.

  That seemed to cover all of the basics. She put the pen away and ripped off the top page of the pad. Folding it up, she put it in her purse and waited for the time to pass. Even though she was supposed to figure out what the frosty world was, her mind went to Donnie. In the past few days, she felt like they had become friends. She hadn’t taken the job to get close to anyone, but Donnie was something special. From the moment that she had seen him, she knew he would be different from most men she had met in the past. Judging from the way he behaved, she was right. He was a special man, and any woman would be lucky to have him.

  Why am I thinking about him like that? She asked herself. Donnie was handsome, of course. Whether he knew it or not, he was one good-looking guy. She could never get over those green eyes and the thick eyelashes. Every time she pictured him, those were the first things that came to mind. She was also growing love the freckles across his nose. The things that she loved most, though, were his brain and personality. Somehow, they made everything else shine. He was so alone, but he never seemed sad. The worst she had seen him get was disappointed. He might have struggled, but he never stopped working. That was a beautiful thing, and she wished she could be as sure as he was. He knew what he wanted out of life. He knew what kind of person he was. He knew what he was capable of. He knew himself, and she was still trying to figure out who she was and what she wanted to do.

  What is wrong with me? I keep thinking that we’re a lot closer than we actually are. I barely know him! Get these thoughts out of your head, O! He’s not your boyfriend or husband or anything! Stop thinking about his eyes and freckles and butt! You have more important things to deal with right now!

  Still, as much as she didn’t want to think about these things, she couldn’t help herself. He was making her blush, and she liked it. She’d had those fantasies before when she wanted to make out with her boss in his office or in some cheap hotel. In the past, she was curious about how something like that would feel. Now that she finally had a boss that she liked, she found those thoughts to be cheap. Donnie seemed to be above those things. With him, she imagined he would like candlelit dinners and long walks on the beach. He was not the type to get down and dirty. He would take it slow, make her enjoy it. That was what she wanted in the end—a relationship, where they would both enjoy their time together.

  “This is not a relationship, O.” She reminded herself, staring at the clock. The minutes were going by so slowly. Her heart was beating fast, but she needed to see him. Whether or not he had answers wasn’t the issue anymore.

  She needed that hour to pass by f
aster. She had to see him. The rest of the world could fall apart, and it would be fine. All she needed was him.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Donnie had been working all day after their meeting, and he still felt like he had accomplished nothing. He had been looking and poking away at things, but nothing seemed to work. Oddly enough, Olivia ended up getting more done by sleeping. He wished that he could just fall asleep and see what she saw. She had that ability to infiltrate strange worlds without doing much. He didn’t know if she was just special in that way, or what. He felt a twinge of jealousy anytime she mentioned being able to go back to the same worlds. This was what he had been working towards for years, yet she did it so easily. Mindlessly. Above all, he felt disappointment. He really wanted to hang out with her tonight, but she had turned him down.

  “I’m clearly doing something wrong. The equations might be right, but something is off.” He sighed, looking at the picture of his parents. “Sorry, guys. I know I’ve been talking about this for a long time. I’m using my mouth more than my mind. I should try to focus on the more important things in life.”

  His mind shifted to another thought. I wonder if Olivia got any further than I did.

  A part of him wanted to know about her. In some ways, Olivia was in his life. He had to see her when he went to work. She was the only one who listened to his ramblings. She was the first person that didn’t look at him as though he was crazy. As much as he hated to admit it, he liked confiding in her. It felt nice that he finally had someone asking him questions and listening to him. She might have thought he was crazy, but she was willing to entertain him. That had to count for something. He only wished she would want to talk about other things. They were such a mismatched pair on the outside, but that’s why he was so intrigued. This was the first time anyone at work had caught his eye. Normally, he spoke to the employees and made sure they were doing their work. Olivia was a completely different case. This was the first time he felt infatuated with someone.