The Icebound Land- Character Reaction

7

"I'll read next, I guess," Will offered. He scanned the first page and immediately regretted it, smacking his forehead against the book this time.

"Will Treaty, if you do that one more time..." He hastily began reading before Alyss could finish.

EVANLYN WATCHED WITH GROWING IRRITATION AS WILL completed another lap of the beach, then dropped to the ground and performed a rapid ten push-ups. She couldn't understand why he persisted with this ridiculous exercise program. The older Rangers raised an eyebrow. If it were simply a matter of keeping fit, she might have accepted it—after all, there was little enough to do on Skorghijl and it was one way of keeping busy. "Oh, Erak found plenty for us to do," Will said sarcastically, and the Oberjarl chuckled. But she sensed it was tied to a deeper reason. In spite of their conversation some days earlier, she was sure he still had plans to escape.

"Of course not."

"Shut up, Will." Will smirked.

"Stubborn, pigheaded idiot," she muttered. "Hey!" Will protested. It was just like a boy, she thought. He couldn't seem to accept that she, a girl, could take charge of things and arrange their return to Araluen. Will raised an eyebrow, and Cassandra flushed in embarrassment. She frowned. It wasn't the way Will had behaved in Celtica. When they were planning the destruction of Morgarath's massive bridge, he seemed to welcome her input and ideas. She wondered why he had changed.

Horace couldn't help but laugh. "What?" he asked, when the two turned to glare at him. "You both think the other one has suddenly changed, because neither of you know how to communicate!"

"Oh? And you're so much better at that," Will grumbled. Horace only laughed again.

As she watched, Will moved down the beach to the water's edge, where Svengal was rowing the wolfship's skiff back to shore. The Skandian second in command was a keen fisherman. He took the skiff out most mornings, weather permitting, and the fresh cod and sea bass that he caught in Skorghijl Harbor's deep, cold waters made a welcome change to their diet of salted meat and fish and stringy vegetables. The ones who had been on Skorghijl nodded fervent agreement.

She watched with a small pang of jealousy as Will spoke to the Skandian. She didn't have Will's easy manner with people, she knew. He had an open, friendly attitude that made it easy for him to strike up a conversation with anyone he met. People seemed instinctively to like him. She, on the other hand, often felt awkward and ill at ease with strangers and they seemed to sense it. It didn't occur to her that this might be a result of her upbringing as a princess. Cassandra flushed again. And because she was in a mood to resent Will this morning—Will raised both eyebrows—the sight of him helping Svengal haul the little skiff up past the high-tide mark simply increased her annoyance.

"Well, nice to know it's easy for me to annoy people." But he smiled as he said it; of course, Halt had to add on.

"I don't blame her." Will rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

She kicked angrily at a rock on the beach, swore when it turned out to be bigger and more solidly anchored than she had expected and limped off to the lean-to, where she would be spared the sight of Will and his new friend.

"Friend is a relative term," Will said, grinning at Svengal. The Skandian cackled.

"Any luck?" Will asked, posing the question that every fisherman in history has been asked. Svengal jerked his head at the pile of fish in the bottom of the boat.

"Got one beauty there," he said. There was a large cod among eight or nine smaller but still respectable fish. Will nodded, impressed. Svengal beamed.