It took a week of deep thought but Gerda strode up to the castle gate with a strategy in hand that, if it worked, would flabbergast the guards just enough to get her inside. If it didn't work, she had Kramer and Burke in hand.
Well, not in hand, really. More in a bush, somewhere. Probably waiting until she really needed them. That was what quests were all about, she had been telling herself for the past few days, self-development, and the angels were just making sure she got some in before entering the castle. She had been something of a jerk to them and one wasn't to know how angels reacted to jerks. The suspicious provisions had continued, so she knew they were there, at least.
The ice giants patrolling the area outside the castle moved more like sluggish, deep sea fish than third cousins to goblins. They followed her at such distance that they might lose her, if not for her footprints in the snow and human scent. She wasn't a threat. They let her walk right up and rap authoritatively at the ice-covered doors, never noticing the sword hidden on the inside of her pant leg. Maybe they just thought she had been injured in the war.
To her surprise, the door cracked open, sending a shower of stalactites plummeting towards her. A sour-faced sprite stuck his head out when these missiles failed to impale her.
"No soliciting."
"I have an appointment," Gerda said with that same tone of cold confidence. The sprite looked her up and down with narrowed eyes. The creature had no pupils, just the opaque glaze of a dead fish, a thing not fully formed.
"Nature of the appointment?"
"I'm from the village. This castle is on village land and seeing as the Queen has been shirking in her magisterial duties and come mid-April, which is where we are now, there's still no filing—"
"TAXES?" it hissed in disbelief.
"Well, she's certainly not providing any services to us, so we only thought it was—"
Now was a good time to be a Bigby-type. The sprite was looking her up and down suspiciously, waiting against its better judgment to see the hordes of militants spring from the snow and take them down. No such thing happened.
She was on the verge of calling for Kramer and Burke when someone spoke from inside.
"The lady wishes her in."
"Of course." The sprite stepped cleanly aside and let her in. Still, it jerked his head towards the giants, who lumbered towards the gate, hemming her in. She fought claustrophobia for a moment and stepped inside, keeping her back as straight as possible.
"Thank you."
The sprite shut the door and stepped away without replying. It passed into another corridor without inviting her to follow. The hall was empty with no trace of whoever had spoken. It was dark and secluded –lit only from the panels of sky-facing windows above, the initial gate led to a small bubbled antechamber with no furniture, and then a long arched hallway with dozens of doors, stretching on so long it tripped up perspective. There were, thank heaven, no mirrors.
"Hello?" she called, wandering a little further down the corridor's length. "Lumi? Madam Snow Queen?"
There was no end to the rooms ahead of her, all arched doorways each with a deathtrap of hanging icicles. Even if she reached the end, this was ignoring the regular staircases, every four-block of doors or so, that led up to some phantom other level. Lumi could be anywhere, the weapon could be anywhere, and she didn't even have a map.
"There's a girl now?" someone said, further down the hall and coming nearer. She quickened her pace, though she had seen no one yet.
"Yes, yes there is. Can you help me?"
"That all depends." The voice was directly in front of her now and seemed to be waiting for something. After a pause: "Well, what I can do is limited. What do you need?"
"You're… invisible?"
"I'm a lot of things, mostly an adventurer. At the moment, I'm –"
"You're Jack!"
"Got it in one."
"But you're… dead."
"Everyone gets hung up on that. Can I help you, visibility aside?"
"I need to destroy the weapon she's building. And, if you're dead, you'll hardly be able to defend me if I run into trouble, so I'd like to find it fast."
"…"
"You still there?"
"You hurt my pride, milady," he said, smarmily polite. "I do not know where she keeps such a weapon, she's made it a point not to tell me anything about it."
She started moving further down the hall. She wished now that she had a torch in her pack. It being dark had never occurred to her, this dark and being in an unfamiliar place made the Mundy in her think wistfully of a flashlight.
"I do know that she's been expecting you and that—"
"Jack," a voice from one of the stairways called. "Send her up."
Gerda looked around, wondering if the hero had left. His sentence cut off so sharply.
"Jack? You still there?" she asked. Wind pressed at her side, odd and weak, trying to urge her towards a doorway. "Is that you? What are you—"
"Fire and brimstone, women and questions- get inside, would you?" the ghost whispered, trying vainly to shove her against a solid wall. "She's had you tracked for the past several days and she will kill you when she finds you."
"Why didn't you say so sooner?! And it's a solid wall!" she said, feeling at the ice wall desperately. "There's nothing here!"
"There's a door, let me—damn!" The wind had tried to pluck the sword out of its sheath and failed. "Get it out and pry the door open. Hurry."
She did and followed his instructions to angle the weapon against her shoulder, balance her body weight against the weight of the sword, and jam it into the wall at a precise degree before running it around the perimeter of the 'door' only he could see. This took a full minute all told, her hands quickly becoming sweat-slick with the effort. The only thing she could compare it to was painting in miniature with a giant crayon and she had to just hope it worked.
It didn't. By now Jack was getting agitated about her stupidity, then apologizing for calling her stupid, then calling her actions stupid again. All around them, nothing happened; no one came to fetch her, and she had the funny idea there was no Snow Queen here at all. They were just two helpless people trapped in a hallway and one of them was already dead.
"Idiot!" Jack snapped abruptly.
"I am trying!" she hissed and the wind batted at her.
"No, no, no, me! Picture what you want on the other side of the door and go through."
"I… want… ?"
"A room, a thing, just do it and push!"
She shoved at the door and told herself to expect a room. A room with the weapon in it. "Concentrate!" Thanks, Jack, needed that, the room with the weapon, room with the weapon, room—
She fell forward onto her hands. The sound of the sword falling to the floor was lost in the hideous clamor of breaking glass.