Free West of the Moon by Katherine Langrish Page A

“the King of the Dovrefell’s son will marry the Gaffer’s daughter!”
    Peer tried to work this out. “Instead?”
    â€œNo!” the Nis said impatiently. “As well!”
    â€œAh. So it will be a double wedding?”
    The Nis nodded in ecstasy. “Even bigger wedding! Even bigger feast!”
    Peer rubbed his eyes. He understood that the Gaffer of Troll Fell had pulled off an important alliance for his son and daughter, but he didn’t see why he should care. Still, one thing puzzled him. “Why would it bother the Grimssons, Nis? Why did they look so cross?”
    The Nis had gone skipping off over the stalls. It answered from the other side of the barn. “Now they has to find a girl as well as a boy.”
    â€œWhat!” Peer sat up.
    â€œA girl to serve the Prince as well as a boy for the Princess,” explained the Nis. “Or the King of the Dovre will be offended.”
    â€œYou mean you knew all the time that Baldur wants to sell me to the trolls?” Peer gasped. “And you didn’t tell me?”
    The Nis stopped scampering about. “Doesn’t you want to serve the trolls?” it asked, amazed.
    â€œNo!”
    â€œWhy not?”
    Peer struggled to reply. “I’m a human,” he said at last. “I can’t work for trolls.”
    â€œI’m a Nis,” said the Nis huffily, “and I works for humans.”
    â€œSorry,” said Peer, a little ashamed. “But you can’t like working for Uncle Baldur and Uncle Grim.”
    â€œNo, because of cold groute with no butter,” the Nis agreed. “But for them that gives me hot, sweet groute with a big lump of butter, or a bowl of cream – for them, Peer Ulfsson, I works willingly.” It sighed.
    â€œIt’d take more than a bowl of hot porridge to get me working for the trolls,” muttered Peer. “Under the mountain? In the dark?” He shuddered.
    â€œUnder the hill is rich and splendid!” the Nis insisted.
    â€œI’m sorry, Nis, it doesn’t appeal to me.” Peer was overcome by an enormous yawn. “So you’re saying the trolls want a girl as well as a boy, or the deal’s off? Good news for me. Lucky I don’t have a sister.” He lay back in the straw. Moonlight was blending into dawn. “I’m so tired.” He yawned again. “I wonder what my uncles will do now…?”
    â€œThey has to find a girl, of course,” the Nis replied – but Peer was already asleep.
    The black cockerel woke him with a falsetto shriek of “cock-a-doodle-doo!” right beside his ear. Peer sat up with a gasp. The cockerel gave him a malicious glance and stalked away, tail feathers quivering.
    â€œI’ll tell the Nis to pull them out,” Peer threatened, pushing the barn door open. As the morning sunlight streamed in, he remembered everything he had learned.
    If the trolls want a girl as well as a boy, I’m safe , he thought. Uncle Baldur and Uncle Grim don’t have a niece, or any female relations. Did they even know any girls ?
    His eyes suddenly widened in horror.
    Hilde was a girl!
    They couldn’t. They wouldn’t.
    Could they?
    No! thought Peer. But – all the same – I’ve got to warn her!

Chapter 8
A Day Out
    B UT P EER DID not see Hilde again for a long time. Weeks passed. White windflowers sprang up in the birchwoods on the flanks of Troll Fell; the ploughed field above the mill sprouted with green barley, and still Hilde did not come riding down to the village, and Peer was kept far too busy to go walking up the valley to find her. He woke each morning sore and tired, and fell asleep at the end of each long day half dead with exhaustion.
    One fine afternoon Hilde decided to take her little brother and sister down to the sea.
    It was washday. Gudrun and Hilde had carried nearly every piece of clothing in the house to a place where a waterfall tumbled